Case Study: Developing effective data processes for Staffordshire Moorlands and High Peak Alliance

Client: Staffordshire Moorlands and High Peak Alliance

Date: January - April 2025  

Challenges Faced by the Client:

Mutual Ventures was appointed to support the councils in delivering Levelling Up Funded projects across the Staffordshire Moorlands and High Peak Alliance. During this engagement, Mutual Ventures and Council Officers identified several challenges within the Alliance’s current data insights function. These challenges hindered the Alliance's ability to fully quantify or explain:

• The value for money of their services to taxpayers

• The impact of their transformation activities

• The outcomes realised through externally funded projects (e.g., LUF, UKSPF, REPF, and FHSF investments)

• The performance of each Council against the aims and objectives outlined in their respective Corporate/Borough Plans

Our Support:

In January 2025, Mutual Ventures was tasked with designing new arrangements to enhance the collective data insight capabilities of both councils. These new arrangements aimed to inform decision-making, service design, the prioritisation, design, and evaluation of transformation activities, and the Alliance’s ability to demonstrate impact.

From January to April 2025, Mutual Ventures collaborated closely with the Data and Transformation team to:

1. Conduct a diagnostic exercise to identify data gaps, particularly where data was not collected in relation to objectives and priority actions within each council’s Corporate/Borough Plans.

2. Determine how these gaps were preventing the Alliance from quantifying the impact of services, interventions, and place leadership.

3. Address these gaps by developing a live data set, and revising resident and business surveys.

   
   

Outcome Achieved:

The development of a multi-faceted approach to improved data insights—including a Data Directory, updated Corporate and Borough Plan Frameworks, and proposed business and resident surveys—has enabled the Alliance to foster a culture of data insights across both authorities. With the Data Directory now serving as the ‘single source of truth’ for all staff, the data insights capability across the Officer group is expected to grow further as these insights become embedded.