One-Click Statistics…?

The DCSF want to know how local authorities are doing when it comes to providing positive activities to young people. In November Antony Hughes wrote to all Local Authority Directors of Children’s Services to announce a data collection exercise designed to “capture summary information on the pattern of provision of the youth offer over the week, including number of sessions provided on Friday and Saturday nights [and] including a breakdown of youth offer by activity and provider type”.

Of course, this is exactly the sort of information that exists within the Plings Platform, so for the 22 authorities currently involved in the Plings pilot, where the data is up-to-date we’ll be able to present the information needed to complete the DCSF monitoring spreadsheet with the touch of a button. Well, almost…

The categories being used by DCSF to describe activity types do not match 100% with those in Plings, but using the Tag-It tool we’re able to offer a quick interface for authorities to recategorise any activities as required – and then from an updated version of the Stats tool soon to be available, we’ll be able to present the information needed by DCSF.

With continued work to integrate the Parent Know How Directory and Plings (PKHD includes data on activity provision, but not ‘instances’ of activities for all local authorities) we hope that in the future we may even be able to generate these summary statistics for anywhere in the country.