LOTI & ONS Data Science Skills Development Programme

Last week we opened applications for our cross-borough Data Science Skills Development Programme, which we’ve developed in collaboration with the Office of National Statistics (ONS) Data Science Campus and the Greater London Authority (GLA). The focus of the programme will be on data matching and will be available across multiple public sector organisations. Local government officers will work in collaboration with their peers in other member organisations in learning clusters and be assigned a Mentor from ONS to support their learning for the duration of the programme.

Our aim is to develop the capability and skills of officers and provide practical demonstrations of the value of data science within the London local government.

The programme will focus on skills, techniques and approaches to data matching over a 12-week period:

• Beginner-Intermediate (8 weeks);
• Advanced (4 weeks); or
• Full Programme (12 weeks)

There are only 15 places available! Successful applicants will be notified from Monday 14 June. Afterwhich, all successful applicants will then be granted exclusive access to the ONS Learning Hub to supplement their learning prior to starting the course. Any pre-requisite training needed will be available on the Hub.

To find out more about this programme, please contact Onyeka Onyekwelu (Strategic Engagement Manager, LOTI) or Jay Saggar (Programme Manager for Data, Cyber Security and Smart Cities, LOTI).

Putting a Data Ethics approach to the test

As part of the LOTI data collaboration project to map digital exclusion in London, members of the project group presented their project to Brent’s Data Ethics Board for scrutiny. The project group consists of colleagues from Barnet, Brent, Kensington and Chelsea, Southwark and Westminster.

Following a presentation from the team, which can be accessed here, the Board asked questions about working in collaboration with other public sector partners – namely, healthcare partners, the need for clarity on governance and decision making, the process for declaring conflicts of interest, the accuracy of the qualitative data collected, and how LOTI will monitor the use of the map and ensure its sustainability.

Based on the responses to those questions, Brent’s Ethics Board will share written feedback with the project group later this week.

LOTI in Year 3

As we approach our second anniversary, we’ve been busy meeting with all our member boroughs to get their ideas and feedback on where we should focus our efforts in Year 3. With almost two years of experience trying different things under our collective belts, we now have a much better sense of where LOTI can make a positive difference. We want to use everything we’ve learned to help frame our Year 3 strategy.

In that document, we’ll aim to do three things:

1. Set out our understanding of what we’re here to do, and what barriers stand in our way. Our driving goal is to make public service collaboration succeed in order to improve outcomes for Londoners. Yet we know working together poses many challenges.
2. Identify what we’ll work on. LOTI is a collective of organisations with a certain set of skills, resources and influence. We want to use those strengths to work together on impactful, meaningful things. However, we can’t do everything, so we must be clear on what things we believe to be the most important.
3. Clearly articulate the ‘why’ of our work. Without a clear narrative, we can’t inspire people to act, influence those audiences whose support and engagement is vital for our success, or fulfil our commitment to being transparent about our work.

More details will be coming soon. In the meantime, you can see our headline themes and areas of focus in the slide below.

Coming up this week

1. LOTI will be hosting a Show & Tell alongside colleagues from the Greater London Authority (GLA) and London Councils to share details about our project to develop a dynamic dashboard showing the location and patterns of usage for electric vehicle (EV) charge points in London. Please click here to register to attend.
2. Resuming our Data Managers’ network meet-ups for Data Analysts and Scientists in London public sector. Please click here to register to attend.
3. Holding the latest LOTI All-Member meeting for Chief Information and Digital Officers in member boroughs and organisations.

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