Leeds experts call for national connected data model to transform children's services
A new report shows how proven approaches already working in Northern England can be scaled nationally to address the urgent need for better data sharing across children’s services.
Edited by Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre Deputy Director Professor Dan Birks, Centre Co-Investigator Professor Mark Mon-Williams, and Professor Faisal Mushtaq, the new ‘Connecting data: Intelligent and informed delivery to support every child to succeed’ report provides a clear case for a national devolved approach to connected data.
“A matter of life and death”
Published by Child of the North and partners, the report reflects consensus across researchers, policymakers, public service leaders and practitioners. It warns that children are being left unsupported, unseen and exposed to avoidable harm because services do not safely and lawfully share and link the information they already hold.
It argues that effective data sharing, enabled by connected data infrastructure, is “literally a matter of life and death”. The report identifies a major national opportunity to strengthen public services, accelerate research and drive economic growth whilst retaining data sovereignty.
The report highlights work by Professor Birks, through the Centre’s Connected Data Analytics programme, as an example of how connected data can be used to address complex public service challenges in practice.
The programme’s projects are co-designed with practitioners from the Bradford region and undertaken by data scientists supported by interdisciplinary teams combining expertise in subject areas, research methods, and applied practice experience.
Work to date has spanned a broad range of topics, from highlighting distinct pathways between school absence, attainment, and future disengagement from employment and training; to estimating how the nature and scale of police demand varies across communities in ways that often run contrary to public expectations; to showing that looked-after children’s risk of going missing increases fourfold in the weeks following a previous missing episode.
The report builds on a Manchester workshop held earlier this year, which brought researchers from across the North of England together with policy teams and scientists from across Whitehall to discuss connected data practices and opportunities, with a particular focus on Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).
Challenges in children’s lives span health, education, social care and wider family circumstances, but services and systems continue to operate in silos. The report highlights how the disconnect makes it harder to identify vulnerability early, coordinate support, and prevent escalation.
The report highlights the urgent need for a new approach to connecting data, drawing on previous analyses conducted by Child of the North and the Children’s Commissioner:
- More than 2 million children in England live in families facing complex needs
- 760,000 vulnerable children were seen by children’s services but received no formal support, while another 830,000 were not even on the radar of services.
- In 81% of serious incidents where a child died or suffered serious harm, lack of coordination between services was driven by poor information sharing, delayed responses and fragmentation.
The report highlights that poor connection between public services remains a persistent challenge. It argues that the challenge is not a lack of data, but a lack of a firm political commitment until now to use the infrastructure, mandates, governance, and delivery models that would allow data to be used safely and meaningfully across organisational boundaries.
Connected Integrated Care Board model
It sets out a clear solution and calls on the government to adopt a national “Connected ICB (Integrated Care Board)” model, using NHS infrastructure to link data across health, education, social care and other services.
Crucially, this is not a single central database, but a devolved model where local systems (and communities) retain control of their data while contributing to a connected national ecosystem that enables shared learning, improved services, and stronger evidence for improving the health of children.
The editors argue that a common national layer of support for Connected ICBs should make full use of the existing publicly funded infrastructure, including the ESRC Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre.
The report concludes that:
The goal is not a single central database, but an interconnected ecosystem in which trusted local systems generate insight, improve services, and support research and innovation at national scale.
The report draws on real-world examples, including Connected Bradford, which has demonstrated how linked data across health, education, social care and policing can reveal patterns of need across populations, support earlier intervention, improve coordination between services, and enable research and evaluation at scale.
These examples show that connected data can be delivered safely, lawfully and with public trust when a devolved model is adopted.
“An asset for science, innovation, and economic growth.”
It highlights a significant opportunity for the UK. Connected data infrastructure is described as “an asset for science, innovation, and economic growth.”
A national model could strengthen the UK’s position as a leader in data-driven research and public service innovation, while improving outcomes for children and families.
The report stresses the current costs of treating symptoms late rather than addressing causes early and argues that connected data for connected services safeguards the sustainability of the state, the cohesion of communities, and the path to enduring national prosperity while retaining data sovereignty.
Its ten recommendations include a national mandate for lawful data linkage, a Connected ICB programme, long-term investment, trusted governance, practical frontline information sharing, education as a full partner, and stronger accountability for shared outcomes.
The authors urge the government to move from isolated local innovation to a nationally backed, regionally delivered model for connected data. This should begin with children and families, given the cross-cutting nature of their needs.
The evidence, expertise and practical examples already exist; what is now needed is the leadership, investment and mandate to scale what works.
The report makes clear that connected data is not a technical upgrade but a foundational shift in how public services operate, stating:
Connected data must be seen as core public-service infrastructure: essential if we are serious about prevention, earlier intervention, public trust and better outcomes.
Without it, the report warns, the government will continue to respond to problems too late and with only partial visibility.
Professor Dan Birks, Deputy Director of the Centre, said:
Children and young people rarely arrive at crisis without warning. The signs are usually there in advance, spread across the records of the services trying their best to help, but rarely joined up.
“Drawing together evidence and practice from across the North, this report shows it doesn't have to be that way. I am proud that our work at the ESRC Vulnerability and Policing Futures Research Centre is part of that effort.
“Through the Centre's Connected Data Analytics programme, we have shown that when routinely collected data is linked safely and lawfully, and we work collaboratively with public services to tackle specific problems, it can genuinely help children and families. Done well, it lets us understand what is driving need, spot it earlier, and get support to families sooner.”
Connected data should be core public service infrastructure. The evidence is here; what's needed now is national leadership to fund and scale connected data, delivered locally where it can make a real difference.
Contact
Contact Kelly Burgess, N8 Communications and Engagement Manager, with any media enquiries Kelly.burgess@manchester.ac.uk | +44 (0) 161 529 3863
