Data might sound boring, but understanding it and using it better can open up opportunities for the sector, writes Vicki Prout.  

“Data data data! I cannot make bricks without clay!” These words were first uttered in 1892 by Sherlock Holmes in The Adventure of the Copper Beeches.

When Googling ‘data quotes’ this wasn’t exactly what I expected to find,  but it does a fine job of illustrating how vital data can be, and that recognition of this is nothing new.

What could be considered more of a modern phenomenon, however, is how popular data - particularly ‘open data’ - is becoming, as illustrated by the success of websites such as the Guardian Datablog and, one of my favourite internet time-wasters, Information is Beautiful. Interestingly, what we have also seen over the last few years is the government driving forward the open data agenda, for example through the publication of the Open Data White Paper.

So why all this enthusiasm for numbers? When I joined NPC last autumn I thought data was boring. Data management. Data entry. Data protection. Yawn! But I have quickly come to learn that if you know what to do with it (I don’t, but am fortunate to be surrounded by clever people who do), you can turn it into a really useful tool - a powerful one even - which can be used to do good.

To give you an example: last year, NPC published Unlocking offending data, a report into the difficulties charities working with offenders face in accessing reoffending data and their dependence on relationships with local police forces, prison or probation trusts to do so. Without reliable access to this information organisations are unable to understand whether or not their service has actually reduced reoffending.

This leads to two main problems: firstly, it makes it harder to know which interventions are effective, and which are not; and secondly, it makes demonstrating impact a tall ask, and creates a reliance on qualitative measures to demonstrate effectiveness.

It seems that the Ministry of Justice was in the mood to listen, and our report - which suggested an anonymous personal data access system as a solution to the problem - was well received. So well received, in fact, that last month the Ministry launched the Justice Data Lab, offering organisations working with offenders access to central reoffending data so that they can better understand the tangible impact that their work has. This service is free for the first year, and we hope charities will make good use of, particularly with the advent of the Justice Secretary’s Rehabilitation Revolution and plans for payment-by-result contracts in the criminal justice sector.

Housing, employment and hospital admissions

But this is just one example of how a sector can make use of data. We believe that there is huge potential to access government data sets around housing, employment and hospital admissions, to name just a few. Access to this information could offer benefits to charities and the way that they work, to their beneficiaries in ensuring that they get the best support possible, and to commissioners and funders in helping them get value for money. Finally, it would add significantly to the debate about the effectiveness of different interventions by providing robust and comparable data on the impact of different charities on the people they work with.

As NPC continues to work in this field, I’m looking forward to finding out what data opportunities my statistically-abled colleagues come up with. They are also helping to get the word out about data within the voluntary sector and our head of measurement and evaluation is speaking at an event to mark to launch of the Civil Society Data Network, a coalition of organisations within the civil society sector, including the Cabinet Office. I’m told the event is already fully booked - clearly there is growing appetite within the sector to find out more.

So it’s very much a case of ‘watch this space’ - data has already started to have an impact on charities and we hope to see the results of the Justice Data Lab soon. And as a reformed data-phobe, I am very interested to see what other uses the sector can find for the wealth of data we now know is out there.

Vicki Prout is senior press officer at New Philanthropy Capital