Better Outcomes for Children & Families

Designing for Better Outcomes for Children & Families in Hackney

Faced with financial pressures and operational inefficiencies, the Children & Education Directorate of the London Borough of Hackney (LBH) sought Impera's expertise to redesign their Performance & Monitoring Function. The project aimed to address challenges related to team structures, manual data processing, and the need for a more data and evidence-led approach.

Strategic Integration Across Council Functions

The objectives were:

Redesign the Performance & Monitoring Function in preparation for a workforce consultation.
Design data resources and tools to enhance data and evidence-led decision-making.
Evaluate a roadmap for Earned Autonomy under the Supported Families Programme
Provide coaching and knowledge transfer to LBH's Outcomes, Business Intelligence & Systems Team (OBIS).
Design the Hackney Outcomes Tool to support the Systemic, Trauma Informed & Anti-Racist (STAR) initiative across the Directorate.

Impera executed a comprehensive strategy to address LBH's challenges:

Collaborated closely with the OBIS team through workshops on the art-of-the-possible with data.
Team Structure Redesign: Conducted deep-dive workshops on team structures, roles, and responsibilities. Redesigned and introduced new job descriptions for the team.
Identifying Key Issues: Identified key issues such as data standards and training needs. Designed fixed-term resource roles and a plan to alleviate these within the next 12 months.
Data Strategy and Framework: Developed a data strategy and framework for the Hackney Outcomes Tool.
Logic Models for STAR Initiative: Delivered five logic models supporting LBH's STAR initiative.

Results:

1. Shared knowledge and skills with the OBIS team.

2. Redesigned service structure ready for consultation, addressing a £1.3m budget gap and ensuring a balanced service budget for the next fiscal year.

3. Established a data strategy and framework, setting the stage for developing outcomes tools.

4. Implemented a roadmap for an Earned Autonomy application under the Supported Families Programme.

Impera's collaboration with LBH's Children & Education Directorate not only addressed financial pressures and operational inefficiencies but also laid the foundation for a data-driven and evidence-led approach. The redesigned team structure, developed data strategy, and logic models contribute to LBH's commitment to excellence in outcomes for children and families.

We also supported the development of Hackney Council’s Anti-Racism Framework, helping to embed data, insight, and accountability into their commitment to becoming a fairer, anti-racist borough. Read more here.