Public sector data transformation remains a hot topic. But public sector data-based projects could be doomed to fail unless they take action to improve their underlying data governance and data literacy, according to one expert.
Caroline Carruthers, CEO of data consultancy Carruthers and Jackson, believes that despite talking the talk, public sector institutions lack the foundations necessary to carry out these transformation projects effectively.
“Public services make countless decisions each day – from how to allocate budgets, to which policy to prioritise,” said Carruthers. “These decisions could largely be improved by properly using the data at their disposal but, despite the public sector holding a huge amount of data, it is yet to properly realise its full value.”
A big reason for this is a lack of appreciation across public sector organisations for the power of data, said Carruthers, who was one of the first women to take on the role of chief data officer in the UK public sector for Network Rail and has worked across multiple industries.
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Research from Carruthers and Jackson’s Data Maturity Index shows that 64 percent of data leaders in both the public and private sector believe almost none of their employees are data literate. Meanwhile, 40 percent of data leaders admit their organisations have little or no data governance framework, significantly limiting the value they’re getting from their data.
“The public sector must begin to focus on how employees are working with data, and improve understanding around data regulation and governance, in order to achieve a long awaited data transformation,” said Carruthers.
“Once the public sector begins to properly utilise data, it will create societal benefits spanning everything from less pollution, to improved tracking of disease outbreaks to lower costs and transforming citizen experiences.”
Data literacy is just one of the many topics to be covered at our conference Think Data for Government in Westminster on December 12th. You can register to attend here.
