We need to move from a social service system where data is the means of punitive control to one where data empowers teams to innovate and improve services.
The context for use of data in the social sector
The structure of the social sector has changed over the years. In the early days, the funding for social services came from wealthy individuals and churches that established schools and hospitals. Then came an era of governments providing most of these services, but over time they found that funding independent charitable organisations was a more efficient way to deliver these services.
Fast forward to 2024, and the majority of funding complex social services in Western democracies comes from tax revenue via government department procurement processes. The funds often go to independent organisations, not-for-profits, charities and social enterprises that contract with the government department to provide services. Government has a public obligation to judiciously spend taxpayers money, to avoid fraud and to manage risk. As a result, processes developed to control spending and procurement of services, with independent review boards, tender processes, service contracts and contract management controls. Lots of effort goes to avoid both actual bias and the appearance of bias.
Data as control
As is often the case with systems, there are unintended consequences. The technocratic elements of procurement and contract management mean the funder (government) requires the service provider to collect certain kinds of data. While the objective of achieving the outcomes is important, that data is often collected in the context of managing the contract and ensuring the service provider delivers to the letter of the contract. In other words, the data collected is often used as a tool of control by the funder of the service provider.
Organisations might be measured on different contractual requirements with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) used, such as -
Counting participants in a program
Counting inputs, costs, and number of items delivered
Reconciliation of spending against contracted budgets
I remember reviewing a program that was required to spend a lot of time measuring exactly how many school books and educational resources were distributed to communities in developing countries, but there was no measure in the contract about any educational outcomes or long term benefits. There was no measure about what the school books were, how useful they were for learning, or whether they were even used at all. Often the wrong things are measured, which is not only a lost opportunity to focus on what works, but a waste of everyone’s time.
While reducing fraud and ensuring service providers deliver to the contract is important, the focus on contract management (rather than collaboration on achieving outcomes) has narrowed and limited the scope and innovation in the social sector. The social sector has naturally come to see data through the lens of control - keeping the provider to their contract, making sure money is ‘well spent’, avoiding fraud, etc. No wonder people on the frontline of social services often have a negative view of data - they have to collect it, it gets used to check up on them, and they don’t get to use it for anything useful!
Data as Empowerment
The commercial world (big business) has long understood the power of data. Those big signs on factory floors that count the number of days since the last accident are a good example. The overall outcome of reducing accidents becomes everybody’s business, and keeping that number low is a motivating, empowering goal that is shared at the collective level.
Modern marketers and salespeople are obsessed with the numbers - tracking customer enquiries, site traffic, sales growth and down to the individual clicks on apps and websites: all these numbers are tracked and used to zero in on problems, learn, improve and motivate the team toward the goal. And those numbers work - they help refine messaging, marketing and sales activities until they get results.
What can you do
At a broader system level, there needs to be a conversation between social service organisations and their government funders about how to contract and what metrics matter. Contracts should focus more on the outcomes to achieve (e.g. via social impact bonds or other outcomes contracts), and less on counting and controlling all the elements that go into achieving those outcomes - this can free social organisations to be more flexible and creative in the ways they work to achieve outcomes.
At a social organisation level you may still need to collect this ‘control’ data and send it to the government departments - you may have no choice on that. However, you can start to take more control of your data to use it for empowerment as well. Here are some tips we’ve found useful for social service clients we’ve worked with:
Make a strategic choice to become a more data-driven and data-empowered organisation - that means it’s on the strategic plan, you have one Executive take the role of the Data Lead, you form a data governance committee and you blend that with your quality and innovation teams.
Take control of what data matters to you - bring your senior practitioners together (and some outside expertise if needed) to build your own program logic and MEL framework (Monitoring Evaluation and Learning). This is you deciding what metrics matter across the journey, what is useful and how you will use it. Don’t be limited by official data requirements - use those as well, but decide for yourself what matters.
Build from the ground up, from the client up through the system, not top down (funder to service provider to client/beneficiary).
Track outcome-focused metrics that are motivational for staff - people work in the social sector to have an impact - put your impact numbers in lights, on the factory floor and jointly own them so they are everyone’s business.
Invest in practical data literacy, systems and analysis - build up the confidence of staff to work with, understand and use data in practical ways. Don’t let data stay in the academic realm - make it practical and useful for people day-to-day. That means metrics, dashboards and tools that help people make the real decisions that matter at the frontline interface between staff and clients / beneficiaries.
Collaborate on data - participate and build your own data collaborations with other peers in your sector or industry. (That’s a whole other topic I’ll cover in future).
Decision-makers in the government and social sectors need to deliberately move from a ‘data as control’ paradigm to a one where data empowers frontline staff to focus on outcomes and improve every day.
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