Suffolk County Council choose Simpson Associates to collaboratively design and deliver their Azure Synapse Modern Data Platform

Providing a Single Front Door for Children and Young Persons information and SEND cost insights

Simpson Associates, leading Data Analytics consultancy, are pleased to announce they are working with Suffolk County Council to design and build a Modern Data Platform that delivers a Single Front Door of children and young persons’ information, underpinned by a Single View of Child. This will provide the authority the capability to identify ‘the true cost of a SEND child’ and predict future costs. Suffolk chose Microsoft’s Azure Synapse, which is a limitless analytics service that brings data integration, enterprise data warehousing and big data analytics together.

An incredibly important aspect of the project for Suffolk was building a system in which workers could see a single view of a child and their interactions across multiple systems, ensuring safeguarding and informing the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH). The solution being developed matches and merges data from all of the council’s systems (Liquid Logic, Capita One Education, Core +, ContrOCC, Adam, Oracle Fusion) to deliver one complete and accurate record for each child, unified with all of their cases and interactions.

Harriet Wakeling, Head of Data & Intelligence, Suffolk County Council says:

“We’re really enjoying working with Simpson Associates on this incredibly important project. A single source for children and young persons’ information linking across multiple systems will be a real game changer. It will give us the capability to join up our disconnected data, develop holistic insights and drive collaboration across our teams. Additionally, the solution will give us the ability to present this in a way which will inform service delivery, support sufficiency planning and ensure safeguarding. Simpson Associates bring the Azure Synapse technical expertise and Local Government knowledge from working with other local councils, with the collaborative approach that made them the right fit for our project and team.”

Tom Hughes, Business Development Manager, Simpson Associates says: 

“We’re delighted to have been selected by Suffolk County Council to develop their Modern Data Platform. They had a clear vision for the solution and capability they wanted to create, backed-up by a great team that embrace data, insight and technology. The platform we’re developing, and the Single View of Child that underpins it, will give Suffolk one place to access complete & accurate information for children & young people. That information will be used to deliver numerous analytical insights to improve services and safeguarding, starting with identifying the true costs of a SEND child. It’s an exciting project and we’re proud to be a part of it.”

Previously, multiple systems were used in disparity with each other, requiring a manual and resource-consuming process to produce insights. With the Modern Data Platform built on Azure Synapse, this disparity and circularity will be removed, allowing Suffolk to present data from multiple systems in a single Power BI report and share that information with stakeholders, with governance and security applied.

The data platform is underpinned by a master data management capability that matches records across disparate source systems, where there was previously no existing clear connection or ID between records. As a result, Suffolk can now access one complete and accurate record for a child and join up their histories to present the complete context of a child or cohort in a single Power BI dashboard.

Knowledge sharing and skills transfer are fundamental to Simpson Associates’ approach. This is enabling Suffolk County Council to upskill their existing data team to support ongoing and future work on their data analytics resources, and keep up to date with the technology.

About Simpson Associates

Simpson Associates is a leading UK Data Analytics Consultancy and Managed Service Provider, specialising in identifying and supporting local authorities to address their critical service delivery and citizen objectives through trusted data and insights. Their capabilities span Strategy & Consultancy, Data Catalogue & Data Quality, Data Platform and Single View of Citizen, and Data Insights. Their solutions empower forward-thinking Local Authorities to understand and resolve some of the most complex and common challenges. In addition, they offer vast experience spanning a rich business pedigree, combined with an extensive partner network.

About Suffolk County Council
Suffolk County Council is the administrative authority for the county of Suffolk, a culmination of five districts. They are based in Ipswich and are a member of the East of England Local Government Association. The Council has five Directorates, and it’s CYP Children’s & Young People’s Social Care Service is rated as outstanding by Ofsted. Utilising data across these areas is vital for their services.