06-18, 11:00–11:45 (Europe/London), Tower Suite 2
Social care workers support the most disadvantaged children in the UK and we help improve the sector with Data and Digital. Due to the extremely sensitive nature of the data in this context and long bureaucratic processes, data tools could neither be created to function on the internet nor could be installed by the users. This is a talk about how we coached social care workers to build a data cleaning tool and how Pyodide enabled it to scale. This talk is for people intrigued by complex problems. No previous knowledge is required.
Three years ago, we set out to figure out how Children’s social care could be improved and found out that although large amounts of detailed data was generated, it was typically untrustworthy. Logistic constraints meant that data could only be cleaned once a year and by that time the insight was no longer as valuable.
The first fifteen minutes of the talk sets the full context; 151 distinct local authorities having large amounts of data but little insight; what it takes to scale a tool within the government and why Python and Pyodide were the most appropriate choices.
The next ten minutes will quantify the impact the tool has had and the opensource community of domain experts that now exist as a result of building the tool together.
Finally, we will share other examples of similar niche Python tools in the social sector.
No previous knowledge expected
Tambe Tabitha Achere works as a Data Analyst at Social Finance UK, a not-for-profit organisation that partners with governments, service providers, the voluntary sector, and the financial to tackle and scale solutions to social problems.
Her work in the Data + Digital Labs involves combining research and tech to reimagine public and social services for the 21st century. This involves partnering with people and communities in developing deep understanding of their most challenging problems. Then working together to design and build innovative human-centred services, that are safe and trusted, and empower people to live happy and healthy lives.
How my name is pronounced
Tambe – The “be” is pronounced as “bear” without the r.
Tabitha – Ta-bee-tha
Achere – Both “e”s are short sounds. “e” as in egg.