1. Using Covalent to manage Data Quality in Strategic Partnerships Iain Thomson Lee Willitts November 2009

2. The Issue How do we assess the ‘Data Quality’ of all Partnership Performance Indicators? Need to:  Assess the quality of our data for each NI and key Local PIs  Identify how quality can be improved  Take action

3. The Issue 2009 Position  Data Quality for key Council-owned NIs assessed  Some services areas have good working practices in place; others are a corporate risk  Data Quality across partner agencies not assessed, hence a risk in itself

4. The Solution  Creation of a tool to allow PI Owners to self- assess the Data Quality of their PIs versus identified standards  Verification by Council’s Performance and Internal audit teams versus evidence cited  Top performers highlighted; support offered to poor performers  Use of COVALENT to monitor entire process!

5. The Solution Data Quality self-assessment template  MS Excel-based  Number of questions required to be answered on a Yes/No basis relating to ‘Control’, ‘Collecting and Storing’, ‘Extracting Data’, ‘Reporting’ and ‘Proof- Audit’  Evidence MUST be cited (and details of where it is available given) for all ‘Yes’ answers  Template made available for PI Owners to download from Covalent

6. The Solution Requirement on all PI Owners  Download template from Covalent  Complete by fixed date and upload onto the system within a pre-set standardised action  Tick off milestones once each part of the assessment is complete

7. The Solution – How it looks

8. Document download Milestone completion

9. Pre-conditions required  All NIs are owned and assigned on the system  Training packages fully explain what is required of all relevant staff  Standardised action is created on the system for all NIs to be updated with relevant information

10. The role of Corporate Teams  Monitor progress within Covalent  Formally assess each assessment by verifying answers  Create a ‘Data Quality’ score for each NI/local PI and add as a comment within the action  Award ‘Data Quality stamp’ to best performers and support worst performers to improve

11. Intended Result  Data Quality of key indicators formally checked and verified for the first time  Trust within statutory and local data from ‘best performers’ to be higher, improving speed and quality of decision-making  Focused action for worst performers  Raised profile for Data Quality in all organisations affiliated with the Strategic Partnership