Abstract
There is significant national interest in tackling issues surrounding the needs of vulnerable children and adults. At the same time, UK cities are under significant financial strain, as local government financial settlements (the distribution of central government resources) decrease in real terms and yet urban populations, which draw on local government services, continue to grow. This study focusses on the city of Birmingham, the UK’s largest and most populous city outside of London. In a data-led study, using data derived from personal social care records, we analyse the management and delivery of social care services by Birmingham City Council, which itself is the largest local authority in Europe. This research employs state-of-the-art data analytic techniques to analyse six years of Birmingham City Council social care data, to identify: (i) Service cost profiles over time; (ii) Geographic dimensions to service demand and delivery; (iii) Patterns in the provision of services, which may assist with future service planning and provision and (iv) The extent to which data value and data protection interact. In response to recent fiscal challenges, Birmingham City Council is expected to make savings of £815 million over the 9-year period 2011/12 to 2019/20. Delivering savings of this scale, whilst protecting and safeguarding the most vulnerable citizens within a growing urban population, is one of the biggest challenges facing the UK’s second largest city.
Original language | English |
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Article number | A4 |
Journal | International Journal of Population Data Science |
Volume | 3 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 10 Jan 2018 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The lead author gratefully acknowledges support by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) for the Centre for Doctoral Training in Urban Science and Progress under Grant number [EP/L016400/1]. The authors also thank Birmingham City Council for providing support and data access through their internship programme.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Authors. Open Access under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en)
Keywords
- Analytics
- Authority
- Birmingham
- Data
- Safeguarding
- Services
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Demography
- Information Systems and Management
- Information Systems
- Health Informatics