Deprivation Data Tool for Informed Social Value Decisions

 

Social Value Data Tank Project is a collaborative project delivering an open source, deprivation data platform for better informed social improvement in local areas. This platform is delivered through several hackathons and dataset planning through cross-sector engagement. The project aims to change how social value is planned through easy to use data on deprivation areas and correlations of socio-economic, health, education, employment, environmental, wellbeing conditions.

How the project came together:

A cross-sector group of like-minded organisations (Babcock, Ministry of Defence, whatimpact.com, Plymouth County Council and Microsoft) came together in Oct 2022 with a shared passion for making better social value investments & more targeted activities through data driven decisions. In Dec 2022 the first hack was hosted at Microsoft where also Defence Supplier Forum members BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman were invited. The development work of the project has continued the whole 2023, and the 2nd hack with extended number of partners (also from Leonardo, MBDA and QinetiQ) was held in January 2024.

Find out more about the project’s first hackathon in this recap video:

KEY GOALS:

> To establish a credible, accessible, and user-friendly data directory accessible to all sectors (public, private, and third sector organisations), utilising diverse open-source datasets for planning social value criteria and deliverables in local areas.

> Demonstrate the power of cross-sector collaboration in solving societal issues.

> To pioneer innovative approaches for integrating disparate data to tackle future challenges effectively and efficiently.

WHY IS THIS NEEDED?

Social value remains a concept that is not yet fully grasped. Many organisations, both public and private, are not effectively coordinating their efforts or utilising resources efficiently. Despite their good intentions, they often struggle to deliver meaningful benefits back to the communities they aim to support.

There are thousands of relevant open-source socio-economic datasets available, but locating, interrogating, and analysing them consumes valuable time. Our platform aims to streamline this process by bringing up-to-date information to your fingertips. It provides access to relevant, accurate data presented in a visually appealing and user-friendly format. This empowers users to better understand local issues and develop more effective actions to make a positive impact on the ground.

PROGRESS TO DATE: 

The group has delivered a ‘proof of concept’ stage of the development through two hackathons, and weekly steering group work. We have chosen to design the product to support GOV Social Value Model Themes and MACs. We have used hundreds of open source datasets and engaged with tens of data science and web development professionals.

THE PILOT WON A DATA FOR SOCIAL GOOD AWARD: 

The Institute of Analytics (IOA) awarded the project Data For Social Good award in February 2023 announcing the pilot was the best example they had seen of how “data can be used to solve the humanitarian and environmental problems facing society today”. The project has been widely acknowledged in media. See more HERE.

NEXT STEP:  

As the next step, whatimpact has been chosen to take this product to market and to build a minimum viable platform product that is accessible for various organisations in all sectors. The ethos of a low-cost, easy to use, high quality data product will remain.

Interested to join? Or to hear more?

Contact: tiia@whatimpact.com

Read more about the project in the press: