London Councils and DWP data sharing seminar

London Councils and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) held a data sharing seminar on Monday 25 January 2010 with the aim of better targeting of services to unemployed people and potentially reduce duplication among local employment and skills services in London.

The event opened with Mark Fisher, Director for Jobseekers and Skills, at the DWP. He stressed that partnership working between DWP, Jobcentre Plus and London boroughs is important to ensure that the spine of national provision is delivered in a way that is effective for different parts of London and different customers. DWP's aim is to agree with local authorities what data should and can be shared to improve services and to do that easily.

Martin Baillie outlined how LB Islington has developed data on households in Islington from a number of sources within the Council that is allowing them to target services more effectively and to check whether their services are being taken up by families in need. It was clear from this example that boroughs may have good sources of data already that, if handled with care, could be very useful in targeting provision. There are resource implications in developing and maintaining this data, but the benefits are also significant.

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