Emma Emery: Where do data users fit into all the data innovations?
05 June 2015

We’re hearing about lots of investment in technological innovations to improve data availability and processing in government, but processes and principles to engage with the end users of that data are not moving ahead at the same pace.

Understanding what data/statistics people and organisations really need and want is key to ensuring money being invested in new software and skills will deliver valuable end products, and it’s quite difficult to gain a true sense of this using traditional engagement approaches, which tend to focus on asking for feedback about the specifics of existing statistical releases.

The common practice of data/statistics producers liaising with key users and running user consultations aimed at expert users about individual releases does not entice others into the discussion about statistics, or encourage a wider debate about the information that is needed in order to deliver improvements in society, and how the government statistical & data services can help with that.

Communication between producers, stakeholders and the range of end product users has become even more important of late with the continued pressure on resources in government; producers knowing the data/statistics/evidence that is of most value to the greatest number of people and organisations is essential in informing appropriate prioritising of resourcing, and in government data and statistics services being valued.

It doesn’t necessarily mean implementing anything that clever; my view is that it is more about a change in usual practice and culture, so that there is much more open, online communication about the production of statistics and data, and the experiences of those who use or take an interest in them. Both users and producers of statistics have a role in driving this forward. It is not a new concept; the need for ongoing dialogue between producers and uses of statistics was stated in the UK Statistics Authority’s monitoring review ‘Strengthening User Engagement’ in 2010. The report further stated “It is not sufficient to ‘consult’, in the sense of making plans available on a website for public comment.”.

Since then, StatsUserNet has been created, and sites such as Twitter and Linked In have become hugely popular as ways of communicating and networking with others. It has been encouraging to see more and more statistical producer teams sharing their statistics using Twitter and thinking more creatively about how to disseminate statistics. However, it is still quite rare to find examples of ongoing communication from producer teams to the outside world about their work, or about considerations of statistical developments and user feedback. Some user groups have started to share more information using community sites but many discussions between user groups take place over email lists. It seems to me that both producer teams and established user groups with predominantly expert users have a role to play in encouraging much wider discussion and debate about statistics, evidence and data.

It is important to note, though, that there are some good examples of new approaches to bringing users and producers together much more in the production process, which have been initiated by both user groups and producer teams e.g. user reference panels, workshops on how data is used, users on advisory groups and users involved in the peer review of statistical releases. Activities such as these would complement greater open communication about statistics and, combined, result in users being much more integrated into the statistical production process. Similarly, it would be ideal to see this sort of practice taking place in the development of new data systems and consideration of alternative data sources, so that end users are involved right from the start, and the extent to which assumptions are made about end user needs is minimised.

I have said that I think user groups have a role to play in enabling wider involvement in data and statistical developments in government, so I would like to leave you with a couple of questions to consider:

1. How can you help drive forward much wider online sharing and discussion about statistical and data developments?

2. How could you involve government statistics & data producers further in your user group exchanges and initiate more engagement activities?

Emma Emery
User Engagement Manager, Royal Statistical Society / UK Statistics Authority

e.emery@rss.org.uk www.statsusernet.org.uk @StatsUserNet

Emma coordinates the work of the Statistics User Forum & manages StatsUserNet, both hosted by the Royal Statistical Society. She is on secondment from the UK Statistics Authority, where she previously worked on monitoring and assessment of official statistics.

Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the MRS Census and Geodemographic Group unless otherwise specifically stated.