Liverpool City Council

How we solved the problem

Liverpool began by reviewing the work being done by a number of their peer Core City authorities across the country at the time. Following further investigation into the work being done at Birmingham City Council they approached Sentinel Partners. After a short evaluation and review period, Sentinel were commissioned to provide their Integrated Data Platform software, which was quickly configured to fit with all the data feeds available at that time.  

Their new Data Integration Platform was commissioned at the end of August 2018 and implemented by mid-November 2018. The initial iteration of the platform collected and integrated data from 35 core data feeds into a fully matched and profiled, unified dataset of residents and families across the city. 

Immediately on implementation, the new Data Integration Platform was able to identify how many families lived in the city, how many of those families where in need of immediate support - by providing a new target cohort that was 193% larger than was previously known, and how many should be the focus of early help - providing a new target cohort that was 130% larger than was previously known. 

The benefits of using our data platform

This initial iteration of the Data Integration Platform was the enabler for real data driven transformation. Immediately,  the Supporting Families and Early Help teams could target their efforts more effectively based on a single, most trusted, version of the truth.

The system was quickly (within 3 months) extended into include a Gangs module to identify gang members and those connected to gang members who were more vulnerable to recruitment. 

The first wave of integration with Health care data started in June 2019 to enhance the capabilities of their Supporting Family services and a new module was also added in Sept 2019 to search and analyse SEND children to better support children in need. 

As the COVID pandemic first hit the UK, Liverpool wanted to be one of the first authorities to put a fully inclusive tactical response in place. Sentinel worked closely with the Liverpool team to integrate 13 new NHS data feeds providing a fully profiled Single View of vulnerable individuals to Public Health England, who should be shielding and be supported with home services. This new tactical response was commissioned, configured, and implemented within two weeks, and was live by early April 2020. 

Following the Tactical Response, our Data Integration Platform was used to support the UKs first mass test-and-trace programme which took place across the Liverpool region in November 2020. The platform was able to provide an immediate family contact list for anyone testing positive. 

As the vaccine rollout began, the Data Integration Platform was used again to help understand levels of vaccine take-up across the city and was able to target mobile vaccination clinics to the most needed areas.  

As a result of their incredibly successful data integration journey, they are often cited as an exemplar authority by government departments such as the DfE and the Dept for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC, formally MHCLG) for their advanced uses for Data in providing more targeted and affective services.  

See the related government blog at: 
https://supportingfamilies.blog.gov.uk/2021/04/28/tackling-the-covid-19-impact-with-data-in-liverpool/

Liverpool City Council are often called upon to run or support Government online seminars and workshop sessions to help share best practice with other authorities across the country. They have also taken part in national conferences to share their experiences with the wider UK Public Sector, such as the National Data-4-Good conference presented by UK Authority: 

https://www.ukauthority.com/media/8505/liverpool-cc-sentinel-partners-how-to-master-your-data_the-liverpool-evolution.pdf

Both the city and the council of Liverpool are recognised for its innovative, creative, and forward-thinking culture, and we are proud to be their Data Integration partner.