The fundamental role of civil and public sector bodies is the provision of efficient and well-directed services that meet the needs of society. Building better services and better systems requires good data which is needed to understand how well policies and services are achieving this. Good data is built on the application of appropriate common data standards.
Public bodies collect significant amounts of information from across society but it can often be difficult to gain a full understanding of the usefulness of this data as different definitions and measures are used, sometimes inadvertently. The use of common data standards improves the transparency and comparability of data across departments and offices. It supports data linkage and integration which in turn increases access to the necessary evidence and insight to support policy and services.
Access to more consistent and comparable data is important for policymakers and service providers in allowing them to better understand how policies and services are meeting the needs of users. Public bodies' analysis of their own data provide them with a certain level of insight but this is greatly enhanced if this information can be compared with data from other data sources, particularly those that have applied the same data standards.
Implemention of common data standards provides benefits for policymakers and those responsible for building data systems and services across government.
The CSO is developing a package of data standards that provide guidance on how key concepts can be defined, measured and presented in a more consistent manner.
These data standards will focus on concepts that are widely used and which are important in understanding trends in the social, economic, and general well-being of Irish society, thereby helping to measure the effect of policies and programmes and in forecasting future needs.
The use of common data standards facilitates innovation, ensures the availability of quality information across the civil and public service, saves time and money while also reducing the burden on the general public.
In addition, system developers can more easily build or upgrade their data systems through implementing the approved standard questions and response options within their system designs. This in turn will facilitate data integration.
We are always interested in hearing from users so that we can develop our work.