The Law Centres Network has embarked on a ‘highly ambitious’ data development project to put law centres in a better position to support clients and fight injustice.
The five-year programme, which is being funded by the City Bridge Foundation, aims to improve law centres’ ability to leverage data 'for storytelling, fighting injustice and decision-making', the network said.
Alex Charles, head of IT and data at the Law Centres Network, told the Gazette the project will help law centres have a greater understanding ‘of what we mean when we’re talking about improving the use of data and how everyone has a role to play in that’.
Another 'big ambition' is to have better data that can be used locally or regionally to help tell stories about the problems law centres are seeing on the ground and make the case for funding.
The programme that the Law Centres Network is trying to develop is ‘highly ambitious’, Charles said.
‘Wherever law centres are on the scale of data maturity, we’re hoping to build their understanding of what is meant by data, what goes into good data management and good data practices; having a clearer consensus across our network on the uses for data; what are we collecting and why are we collecting it; and how are we going to use the data for whatever purpose.’
As well as supporting law centres on their journey of ‘data maturity’, the Law Centres Network will offer fully funded Level 3 data apprenticeships to law centre staff and is in the process of developing a ‘data leaders’ course.
However, the first year of the project will consist primarily of research, discovery and planning. ‘Getting to the heart of the problem, what do we need to focus on, what do law centres want to focus on, what can we do, what can we not do, and then put that together in a draft plan,’ Charles said.
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