Examining the Relevance, Emerging Opportunities and Challenges of Using Data for Scotland's Third Sector Organisations

The third sector has seen dramatic growth since the mid-1990s (NCVO, 2012). Public service reform has led to increasing provision of public services by third sector organisations, and increased involvement of communities in organising and delivering services through volunteering and informal participation (National Audit Office, 2005; Public Administration Select Committee, 2008). The third sector plays a vital role in both the governance and delivery of welfare, particularly in times of austerity. This leads to two challenges for policy makers: i) understanding the make-up and distribution of the third sector to inform policy; and ii) ensuring that third sector organisations have access to the necessary data on service demand and need to inform the design and delivery of services.

The overall aims of the workshop series were to look at how third sector organisations can make better use of data strategically and operationally, to see what data can reveal about the third sector, and to develop the capacity and capability of third sector organisations to work with data.

The specific aims and objectives of the programme were:

• to explore how the scale and characteristics of the Scottish third sector are currently measured and understood, and how this could be further developed;
• to develop awareness of the ways in which data can help inform how third sector organisations deliver services, including public services;
• to identify and showcase examples of best practice in making use of data by third sector organisations;
• to identify and explore the challenges faced by third sector organisations in engaging with data;
• to identify and explore potential solutions to those challenges;
• to build a network of academics, policy makers and practitioners that can help take forward some of the solutions.