Date: 16 July 2025
Hosted by: Coram-i
Audience: Assistant Directors in Children’s Social Care, Information Management Leads, and multi-agency partners
Why This Event Mattered
In a time of increasing complexity and demand, Assistant Directors for Children’s Services are being asked to lead with agility, foresight, and collaboration. The Coram-i event brought together senior leaders across social care, health, education, and policing to explore a critical enabler of transformation: data interoperability.
The event focused on how better data sharing can support more effective safeguarding, improve outcomes for children with SEND, and reduce inefficiencies across systems. It also provided a platform for cross-sector dialogue on the practical and ethical challenges of integrated data use.
Key Themes and Insights
1. Strategic Planning Through Data: Professor Vivian Hill’s Perspective
Professor Vivian Hill (UCL Institute of Education) highlighted how data-driven planning can help local authorities respond to rising demand and complexity in SEND provision. Her key messages included:
- Early intervention is being undermined by fragmented data and reactive commissioning.
- Intersectionality matters: children from low-income backgrounds are disproportionately under-supported, despite higher levels of need.
- Strategic data sharing across LAs could enable more equitable and cost-effective provision, especially in specialist placements and outreach services.
A powerful case study illustrated the human and financial cost of unmet and cumulative needs—underscoring the urgency of better data coordination.
Examples highlighted from local authorities included:
- Vulnerability register, utilising school data and exploring integration with health data.
- Recent work on intersectionality, which revealed that social care interventions for children from minority ethnic backgrounds often occur 4–5 years later than for white British children.
“The child’s voice is eloquent in their behaviour—we are just not listening,” said Carol Homden, CEO of Coram, calling for greater agility and responsiveness in how we use data to allocate support.
2. The ICS Perspective: Health and Social Care Data Integration
Claire Delaney-Pope (South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust) explored the benefits and barriers of sharing children’s health and social care data within Integrated Care Systems (ICS). Key takeaways included:
- Benefits: improved care coordination, personalised interventions, early identification of risk, and support for research and public health.
- Challenges: data privacy, consent, system interoperability, and cultural differences in risk appetite.
- Solutions: robust governance frameworks, investment in interoperable IT, and transparent stakeholder engagement.
Claire emphasised that legal frameworks already support safeguarding-related data sharing, but implementation must be proportionate, ethical, and clearly communicated to families.
3. Building the Infrastructure: Data Standards for Children’s Social Care
Andrew Newman (ODI) and Tom Rintoul (Social Finance) presented a DfE-funded programme to develop data standards for case management systems in children’s social care. The initiative is grounded in the recognition that:
- Data fragmentation is a persistent barrier to safeguarding and service coordination.
- Open data standards can enable local authorities and partners to share information more effectively, reducing duplication and administrative burden.
- The programme is prioritising two high-impact use cases:
- Multi-Agency Information Sharing (MAIS) – enabling a single view of the child.
- Care Placements – improving data exchange to support regional commissioning.
This work is being co-designed with local authorities and suppliers, ensuring it is adoptable, impactful, and aligned with broader government strategies.
“The investment case for prevention is enabled by better data sharing,” noted Andrew Newman.
What This Means for Assistant Directors of Children’s Services
This event reinforced that data is not just a technical issue – it’s a leadership issue. Assistant Directors are uniquely positioned to:
- Champion cross-agency collaboration on data sharing.
- Shape local implementation of national standards and frameworks.
- Ensure ethical, inclusive, and equitable use of data to support vulnerable children.
Coram-i and its partners are committed to supporting ADCS leaders in this journey, offering tools, insights, and a collaborative space to drive change.
What Next?
Here’s a few ways you can engage with the topics further:
- Engage with the data standards programme: contribute to working groups or pilot initiatives.
- Review your local data governance: is it fit for multi-agency collaboration?
- Start conversations with integrated care systems, education, and police partners: where are the quick wins for better data use?
- Join Coram-i: help shape the future of children’s services
About Coram-i
If you’re ready to lead change beyond your own Local Authority and help shape the future of children’s services, we invite you to join Coram-i.
As a member, you will have the opportunity to:
- Collaborate on sector-leading projects to improve data access and integration
- Gain early access to pilots, innovation tools, and insights from pioneering tech partners
- Help co-design solutions to reduce disproportionality and address placement sufficiency
- Influence national priorities and spotlight your local impact
- Be part of a growing national movement for transformation—driving better outcomes for children and families
“We’re here to unlock practical solutions that are simply not possible in isolation. Together, we can achieve positive, lasting change for children and young people.”
– Tanya Coles, Development Lead, Coram-i
To express interest or find out more, contact:
Tanya Coles – tanya.coles@coram.org.uk