Agenda item

(Indicative timing 2:35 – 3:05pm)

The Panel had requested a further update on the data analytics and PowerBI work that was discussed at its meeting on 17 January 2022.

The Cabinet Member with Responsibility (CMR) for Corporate Services and Communication introduced the report and thanked the Panel for its part in driving PowerBI forward. The CMR felt there was huge advantages for the Council in the greater use of data to improve productivity, efficiency and deliver better and quicker services for residents.

The Head of Business Intelligence summarised the key points from the report relating to PowerBI and the following points were noted:

• The Council had established a PowerBI Deployment Project sponsored by Public Health and led by the Head of Business Intelligence to develop a consistent and sustainable approach to the adoption of PowerBI across the Council and ensure responsible data management.
• Some reports had already gone live and were in the public domain.
• The creation of corporate workspaces was underway, one of which had been specifically created for the Panel and was a good way of sharing reports to designated groups.
• Since the writing of the Report, further work had been undertaken resulting in movement along the maturity curve towards the deployment of PowerBI Premium. This would enable report developers, with appropriate permissions, to share PowerBI reports with anyone in the Council.
• Training would be provided for superusers to assist with developing expertise.

During the discussion about Worcestershire Insights/Instant Atlas, the following points were highlighted:

• Public Health had procured Instant Atlas to create an observatory of publicly available data called Worcestershire Insights to supplement the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment. This would provide useful, descriptive statistics for staff, commissioners, partner agencies, members of the public and voluntary and community sector and was purchased at a very low cost and represented good value for money.
• The information that would be put into the public domain such as scrutiny reports, performance reports etc. was still under development but due to go live over the next few months, following the redesign of the Council’s website.
• The Panel could be provided with a further update an update in due course.

The Chairman of the Panel stated this was a complex report and confirmed that the Panel would be using PowerBI at its March Panel meeting for performance monitoring of key performance indicators.  This data available to Councillors would enable them to find information in one place in real time, to identify trends, to compare data with previous years and to improve efficiency, productivity and save residents money.

Panel Members were invited to ask questions and the following points were noted:

·         In response to a concern that, if residents were able to access information via PowerBI, councillors could be asked complex questions on subjects they may not be familiar with, the Panel was advised that, as more information was made available publicly, the priority would be to ensure that councillors were aware of what information was available and were provided with training as the project moved towards rollout.

·         Datasets would be available around the Council’s priorities, and Members would have the opportunity to request any data be included that would normally be available through Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.

·         In response to a question about the possibility of income generation and how this would be measured, the Strategic Director of Commercial and Change explained that, sometimes the Council carried out work for other partners which may generate income but this was incidental.

·         A question was asked about whether PowerBI would reduce the number of FOIs requests received, as these could be very time consuming. The CMR responded that with easily available public data, people could be signposted to the information before it became an FOI.

In conclusion, the Chairman welcomed the report and confirmed that the Panel would be going live with PowerBI for its public meeting in March and requested a further update in July, once PowerBI had gone live to ensure it was a successful process.