Introduction

Recognising that data collaboration is a vital enabler of driving better decision making and service delivery across London, this project set out to help boroughs quickly and easily share data with each other in a way that is legal, ethical and secure.

Data collaboration is hard for a number of reasons, including differences in organisations’ technology, data standards and culture. An additional set of reasons is linked to the fact that each borough has a different approach and set of tools for completing the Information Governance (IG) process. Completing the IG process alone for a pan-London data project has been known to take between 6 months to a year.

LOTI has therefore:

• Designed an outcomes-based methodology for data projects, helping organisations identify exactly which datasets they need to enable better decisions and actions.
• Advocated the use of the London DataStore as the default platform for secure data sharing.
• Agreed that the Information Governance Group for London (IGfL) will be the primary conduit for vetting and endorsing pan-London data projects.
• Standardised boroughs’ approach to Information Governance.
• Advocated the use of the Information Sharing Gateway as the primary means for creating information sharing agreements.
• Co-created Dapian, a digital Data Privacy Impact Assessment Tool, with councils around the UK.
• Created standard wording to go into every technology contract and tender to ensure councils can access all system data.

LOTI is now campaigning for boroughs to implement six specific measures to improve data sharing, as outlined in this article.