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Date

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The efficiency imperative: driving impact via data driven outreach With increasing demand and shrinking resources, councils face growing pressure to deliver impactful support to vulnerable residents efficiently.

In this webinar, we explore how data driven outreach campaigns can help local authorities overcome these challenges and achieve impactful results.

Join us to hear from two leading local government organisations as they share their experiences using Campaign Manager, a powerful new feature of the LIFT platform.

Discover how they’ve leveraged their data using intelligent analytics to identify financially vulnerable residents, streamline their outreach processes, and maximise both resident outcomes and cost savings.

This session will cover:

- Strategies to manage rising demand with limited resources
- How data insights can drive targeted and efficient resident support
- Real world results from councils using Campaign Manager for impactful outreach campaigns

Join us to learn how your council can also turn insights into action and make smarter, data-driven decisions to support your communities.

With guest speakers:

- Seth Pearson, Darlington Partnership Director, Darlington Borough Council
- Sarah Small, Darlington Partnership Programme Officer, Darlington Borough Council
- Fahmida Rahman, Senior Policy Officer, Greater London Authority

26/3/2025

10:30am GMT

1.3 hours

Protecting vulnerable consumers in regulated sectors Regulated industries such as water, energy and finance play a critical role in people’s lives. With increasing economic pressures, more consumers are becoming vulnerable, requiring additional support and protections.

Regulators like Ofwat, Ofgem and the FCA have tightened expectations around how businesses identify, support and engage with vulnerable customers. Failure to comply can result in reputational damage, regulatory penalties and customer hardship. But how can organisations balance compliance with commercial priorities while delivering fair outcomes for consumers?

Join industry experts as we explore best practices, regulatory expectations and practical strategies for businesses to proactively identify and protect vulnerable consumers. Gain actionable insights on:

- The evolving regulatory landscape across Ofwat, Ofgem and the FCA
- Effective strategies for identifying and supporting vulnerable customers
- Case studies showcasing successful industry approaches
- How technology and data can enhance consumer protection

Join this webinar to learn how to strengthen your compliance strategy, improve customer engagement and safeguard both consumers and your organisation’s reputation.

Register now to stay ahead of regulatory expectations and build a more consumer focused business.

30/4/2025

10:30am BST

1.3 hours

Harnessing data for regional impact: empowering local leaders to drive change Devolution is one of the core missions of the new government, promising a strong focus on giving local areas more control over services. To tackle economic inactivity, and with many people across the UK needing support, it’s vital that local authorities deliver effective, targeted interventions. The success of tailored, region-specific approaches depends on how well local areas can harness data to drive change.

Local organisations, from Mayoral Combined Authorities to county councils, need to deliver these crucial services. Accessing and using the data insights required to implement efficient and effective programmes is a challenge and, without localised data, decision making can become less accurate. This leads to inefficient resource allocation and missed opportunities to reach those who need help the most.

Data analysis offers the key to overcoming these challenges. By harnessing the power of local data, authorities can get the accurate insights they need to target support where it will be most effective. With the right insights, local areas can design and deliver services that are more tailored, timely and impactful, ensuring the right residents get the right support at the right time.

Proven results from current data led initiatives already show the transformative potential of this approach.

Join this webinar to hear from guest speakers who have successfully implemented data driven campaigns. They will showcase real world examples of how they have come together to achieve measurable outcomes.

We’ll also explore how these data insights can be applied to address key issues like economic inactivity, youth unemployment and social isolation to deliver lasting change across regions.

21/5/2025

10:30am BST

1.3 hours

Blog

How we can use administrative data in research to create impact

Mary-Alice Doyle Published on 04th April 2023

Policy in Practice believes that administrative data has the power to transform social policy.

Our new research team works to explore the potential of administrative data through our reports, evaluations and academic partnerships. We also support cutting edge in-house analysis. Here we preview our plans for 2023, and what we are excited about.

What’s new in the area of data lead research?

We have always had experienced researchers working as part of our team at Policy in Practice.

The day-to-day delivery of our impactful work hinges on the performance of our analysts and policy experts. They work behind the scenes to make sure our award-winning Better Off Calculator is accurate, our (also award-winning) Low Income Family Tracker (LIFT) plaform incorporates the late evidence and our best forecasts, and that when we are asked to provide comments or write reports on a given topic, we do so based on sound methods and analysis.

With our growing list of research partners, several ongoing research projects, increased capacity among our research staff and exciting opportunities in the year ahead, we can take the step of organising our researchers into a team with its own goals and research agenda.

What’s on the agenda for 2023? We have asked our three senior researchers to give us a briefing on what they are working on, and what they would like to work on.

What data lead research are you currently working on?

Magdalena Rossetti

Magdalena Rossetti, Senior Research Analyst

I am currently working on three projects that explore the potential to link administrative data on living standards, to other social policy outcomes. The first looks at the relationship between household deprivation and referrals to social care

The second evaluates how we can use welfare data to reduce the demand for health services. Together with The Health Foundation we are examining whether household deprivation is associated with a higher need for emergency department visits

The third project explores how income deductions to Universal Credit payments such as sanctions and repayments are affecting household poverty.

Juliet-Nil Uraz

Juliet-Nil Uraz, Senior Research Analyssely

Closely linked to my PhD research I am working on a project commissioned by the Justice Lab and the Legal Education Foundation. We are exploring how we can use the administrative benefits data that we process at Policy in Practice to analyse the multidimensional impact of law centres’ work.

The access to justice literature severely lacks impact evaluation studies because it’s so hard to quantify what they do. There is no doubt that legal advice and assistance can have a significant impact on the circumstances of households dealing with life-changing legal problems, such as evictions.

We know we can’t fully capture their impact with numbers, but what we can do is try to understand which outcomes the administrative data is good at capturing, and which it isn’t. That’s what we’re currently exploring.

The project I am managing could have never taken shape without the expertise that Policy in Practice has developed with both benefits data and the social security system.

I am looking forward to speaking at the Socio-Legal Studies annual conference 2023 at Ulster University in early April.

What data led research would you like to do in 2023?

Magdalena Rossetti

Magdalena Rossetti, Senior Research Analyst

In the year ahead, I would love to present our work within the research team to wider audiences.

I also hope to build new partnerships with academic and non-academic researchers to identify those research and policy questions that need to be answered, contributing to understanding the population’s needs.

Regarding new research ideas, I would like to evaluate the impact of the non-take-up of welfare benefits on household financial resilience. With this information we could work with local authorities on strategies to more effectively target services.

The evidence base we are building also creates the pressure needed to influence slow-moving legislation on data governance, which I hope will one day allow wider use of administrative data across government.

I would also like to assess how deductions affect households’ economic trajectories, especially for households with non-dependents who move in with them, or who are impacted by sanctions.

Juliet-Nil Uraz

Juliet-Nil Uraz, Senior Research Analyst

We help local authorities make sense of their administrative benefits data which sees about £1 billion of support going to residents in need. In addition, our Better Off Calculator also helps around two million people each year to maximise their income and check their benefits entitlements. We estimate about £720 million of unclaimed benefits is put into people’s pockets as a direct result of them using our calculator.

One of the future research projects I am the most excited about is to use the calculator to better understand the drivers behind why people don’t take up benefits.

A second area I would like to investigate is how the tools we offer can help in local areas where there is a lack of social welfare advice providers. My question is what differences do our tools make in advice deserts and how could they be even more effective?

Please get in touch

To discuss any of our current research topics, suggest new ideas for us to explore, or invite us to speak at your event please email us at research@policyinpractice.co.uk.