Using data for better decision-making in the Welsh public sector

Our Digital Service Standards for Wales say that: 

You need to understand what data will help you to meet the needs of users. Data tells you more about the service and can be shared among relevant organisations to improve users’ experience. 

How to get started  

You should:  

• think about what data you already have and how it could improve the user experience   
• think about what data you can get from others or share about your service to better meet user needs  
• define performance metrics upfront so you know what good looks like and how it will be measured   
• monitor the behaviour of users in real-time through analytics to determine how well the service meets user needs   
• use performance data to make decisions on what needs to be improved   

Here are 3 examples of how organisations in Wales have used data to make better decisions. These examples are based on a webinar held in January 2022.

Watch the webinar

Predicting hospital bed capacity through data 

Jeremy Griffith, Chief Operating Officer for Test Trace Protect at NHS Wales, described how he and his team had used data to predict hospital bed capacity and the impact of vaccinations during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. 

Closing the skills gap 

Suzanne Draper, Head of Insight and Engagement at Data Cymru, discussed the support and training they were offering with their Databasic Cymru and Inform and Inspire programme including help to source, collect or collate data, advice on the best practice for research and evaluation and effective data presentations. 

Data should be easy to understand 

John Morris, Head of Data and Geography at Welsh Government, emphasised that:

• data should be easy to interpret
• you should know who you are targeting
• it's important to be able to challenge data

He gave examples of where the Welsh Government had used data to map drive times, town activity and flood risk.