UK Open Government National Action Plan 2016 to 2018: Welsh Government end of term self-assessment report

The 3rd UK Open Government National Action Plan was published in May 2016. The plan set out open government commitments for the UK for the next 2 years. In December 2016, commitments from each of the devolved administrations, including Welsh Government were published in an update to the UK plan. These commitments outlined Welsh Government’s ambitions regarding working more openly and involving citizens in decisions that affect them.

As part of the 2-year action plan cycle, governments are required to produce midterm and end-of-term self-assessment reports. This end-of-term self-assessment builds upon the mid-term assessment and enables us to reflect upon the successes and challenges of the current commitments.

Developing the plan

The Office of the Chief Digital Officer was responsible for coordinating the collation of and the ongoing monitoring of Welsh Government commitments within the 3rd UK National Action Plan. Officials liaised closely with colleagues from UK Cabinet Office and the other devolved administrations during the development of the commitments, sharing knowledge and best practice. They continue to liaise regularly to discuss implementation of current commitments and the development of future commitments.

When the plan commitments were being developed, there was no existing civil society network in Wales that specifically focused upon open government. However, a number of the commitments were developed with input from individual external organisations and from civil society. Following the publication of the commitments, Wales Council for Voluntary Action (WCVA) and Electoral Reform Society Cymru (ERS Cymru) were successful in securing funding to enable them to establish Open Government Network Wales, a civil society network within Wales.

Independent Reporting Mechanism

As well as the self-assessment process, the UK National Action Plan is also subject to independent scrutiny. In April 2018 the independent mid-term assessment report was published. The report provided a summary of progress, a critique of success and a series of recommendations. In the report only 2 of the UK commitments were identified as being specific, relevant, potentially transformative, and substantially or fully implemented. These featured or starred commitments were both Welsh Government commitments, and are as follows:

• Well-being of Future Generations Act – National Indicators for Wales
• Well-being duty on specified public bodies in Wales

As we moved into the second year of implementing the commitments we attempted to address some of the recommendations highlighted in the Mid-Term Independent Assessment. For instance, work continues on improving the presentation and accessibility of the National Indicators. Improvements to our statistical open data platform, StatsWales, also continues and we’ve been utilising tools to help improve the visualisation of the data. We’re also attempting to learn from others with regards to their data portals and work is commencing on identifying how we help users find and access open data more easily.

Conclusion and the next steps

Less than 2 years after they were first published, the majority of Welsh Government commitments have been completed. Further details about the progress made against each of the 9 commitments are shown in Annexe 1.

There are some commitments that have been completed, which have milestones identified as ‘ongoing’ as these components will continue into the future. In some cases, such as re-assessment of the requirements for a catalogue of open datasets, we will attempt to take these forward by including them in the next set of Welsh Government commitments. As with the mid-term self - assessment, the end of term self - assessment will also be subject to independent scrutiny.

We fully recognise the need to build upon the work done to date by continuing to drive forward openness and transparency. As the current UK National Action Plan draws to an end, new commitments for the next plan are already being developed. In order to develop these new commitments, we are working with civil society, via the Open Government Network Wales. We hope to build on this approach going forward, whilst learning the lessons from the outcomes of the current action plan.

Develop and implement an open data plan for Welsh Government and work towards achieving the commitments outlined within the plan.

Lead department(s)

Office of the Chief Digital Officer, Welsh Government

Others involved in implementation to date

-

Timeline

March 2016 – March 2018

Overall commitment status

Ongoing

Overall progress against commitment

The Welsh Government Open Data Plan was published in March 2016. Good progress has been made on a number of the commitments set out in the plan. Whilst progress on the implementation of a couple of the commitments has been delayed, resource has now been obtained to review and take forward this work.

Milestone 1: Implement commitments outlined within the Welsh Government Open Data Plan

March 2016 – March 2018

Update on progress against milestones/activities

The majority of commitments within the Open Data Plan have been completed or in the case of open-ended commitments are ongoing.

Work is continuing on developing an Open Data Service for Wales through building upon and the expansion of the existing Lle infrastructure.

Resource has recently been acquired in order to review and to take forward the work around the development of a catalogue of open datasets and the acquisition of open data certification.

Status: Ongoing

Develop an Open Data Service for Wales with a focus on helping improve public services.

Lead department(s)

Head of Geography and Technology, Welsh Government

Others involved in implementation to date

Welsh Government initiative publishing data for Wales, some of which may emanate from other government departments.

Users have been involved in the development of the StatsWales site, e.g. providing feedback, and being updated in various user forums. This has included our user group covering the third sector.

We’re working to allow other public sector partners to publish via StatsWales with their own logo. To date only the Welsh Language Commissioner has done so.

Timeline

March 2016 – March 2017

Overall commitment status

Completed

Overall progress against commitment

The majority of milestones associated with this commitment have been completed and work on developing an Open Data Service for Wales is continuing. Work on the milestone to develop a catalogue of open datasets is ongoing, with resource obtained to review and take forward the work as required.

Milestone 1: StatsWales data published in machine readable format

June 2016 (ongoing)

Update on progress against milestones/activities

All non-archived StatsWales data (90% of content) is now available in machine readable format.

Status: Completed

Milestone 2: StatsWales training material on improvements prepared and delivered

November 2016 – December 2017

Update on progress against milestones/activities

Guidance material relating to OData has been produced and is now available on the StatsWales website. This includes a video demonstrating how to pull data into Excel from the OData API (Application Program Interface).

Status: Completed

Milestone 3: Lle developed to allow users to build their own maps

January 2016 – January 2017

Update on progress against milestones/activities

A Beta service of Lle is now available to all users and the service is being utilised to produce map profiles for Welsh Government departments. Work to improve the quantity and quality of the spatial data available to users to build their own maps has also been initiated.

Status: Completed

Milestone 4: Open data catalogue produced

October 2016 – December 2016

Update on progress against milestones/activities

Resource has recently been obtained to review and take forward the work around developing a catalogue of open datasets as outlined in the Welsh Government Open Data Plan. This work will involve identifying what users require and what a potential solution may look like.

Status: Ongoing

Develop StatsWales, the Welsh Government’s online repository for detailed statistical data, to increase its openness rating to 4*.

Lead department(s)

Head of Geography and Technology, Welsh Government

Others involved in implementation to date

Welsh Government initiative publishing data for Wales, some of which may emanate from other government departments.

Users have been involved in the development of the StatsWales site, e.g. providing feedback, and being updated in various user forums. This has included our user group covering the third sector.

Timeline

March 2016 – December 2017

Overall commitment status

Completed

Overall progress against commitment

Improvements have been made to StatsWales and its guidance and as a result, the openness rating of StatsWales has increased. Work is continuing on investigating the possibility of automatic accreditation of datasets that are made available via StatsWales.

Milestone 1: StatsWales data published in machine readable format

June 2016 (ongoing)

Update on progress against milestones/activities

All non-archived StatsWales data (90% of content) now available in machine readable format.

Status: Completed

Milestone 2: StatsWales guidance and training videos prepared and published

November 2016 – December 2016

Update on progress against milestones/activities

Guidance material relating to OData has been produced and is now available on the StatsWales website. This includes a video demonstrating how to pull data into Excel from the OData API (Application Program Interface).

Note: milestones 2 and 4 have been amalgamated.

Status: Completed

Milestone 3: Accreditation of StatsWales carried out successfully

September 2016 – March 2017

Update on progress against milestones/activities

Work is continuing on investigating the possibility of automatic accreditation of datasets made available via StatsWales.

Status: Ongoing

Milestone 4: StatsWales training material prepared and delivered

November 2016 – December 2017

Update on progress against milestones/activities

Guidance material relating to OData has been produced and is now available on the StatsWales website. This includes a video demonstrating how to pull data into Excel from the OData API (Application Program Interface).

Note: milestones 2 and 4 have been amalgamated.

Status: Completed

In partnership with the Administrative Data Research Centre Wales, the Welsh Government will work to ensure that access to government datasets is available in a secure and safe manner for the purposes of academic and public sector research. Furthermore, such access is promoted to maximise the use of such data for research that is published and made available to support better decisions.

Lead department(s)

Chief Statistician, Welsh Government

Others involved in implementation to date

UK Statistics Authority

Administrative Data Research Centre – Wales (academic partnership); ESRC; Administrative Data Research Network Board

Timeline

Continuous

Overall commitment status

Completed

Overall progress against commitment

In partnership with Administrative Data Research Centre-Wales (ADRC-W), further research has been published. Work is continuing to increase the number of public sector datasets available for Welsh researchers through the ADRC-W. This work includes a jointly-funded Welsh Government-Economic and Social Research Council pilot project to install ‘National Research Data Appliances’ within Local Authorities. The appliances will enable Local Authorities to supply data for research purposes directly and securely to the ADRC-W.

Milestone 1: Publish further research in partnership with the Administrative Data Research Centre-Wales by the end of the financial year

March 2015 – 31 March 2017

Update on progress against milestones/activities

The following projects within the Welsh Government Programme to Maximise the Use of Existing Data have published reports or are in the process of publishing reports:

• Supporting People Data Linking Project
  • Feasibility Study Report – published March 2016
  • Year Two Progress Report and Emerging Findings – published June 2018 and October 2018 respectively
• Fuel Poverty Data Linking Project
  • Report No.1: Initial Findings on the Impact on Health of the Warm Homes Nest Scheme – published April 2017
  • The 2nd and 3rd substantive findings reports are on track to publish between October 2018 and February 2019.

During 2019, a number of projects within the Programme are due to produce more publications of their research findings, including the ‘Flying Start Individual-level Data Collection Feasibility Study’.

Status: Completed / Ongoing

Milestone 2: Increase the number of public sector datasets available for Welsh researchers through the ADRC-W by the end of the financial year

March 2015 – 31 March 2017

Update on progress against milestones/activities

Welsh Government has been working on a number of fronts to increase the number of public sector datasets available for Welsh researchers through the ADRC-W; this has included:

• Working with academic projects to assist and advise them with regard to gaining access to datasets.
• Funding/jointly funding data linking research projects that drive the sharing of additional datasets e.g. data for the Welsh Government funded Warm Homes Nest home energy efficiency scheme.
• Building a requirement to provide datasets to SAIL (Secure Anonymised Information Linkage Databank)/the ADRC-W into grant Terms & Conditions for national programmes e.g. Supporting People and Flying Start, for both of which data has begun to be made available.
• Jointly funding, with the Economic and Social Research Council, the Dataflow Development Project (see Milestone 3 below), which will help support local authorities in developing routine, regular data flows into SAIL/the ADRC-W for use by researchers in Wales and the wider UK.
• Continuing with established routine deposits of public data e.g. for the National Pupil Database and National Survey for Wales.
• Continuing to work with colleagues internal and external to develop data linking projects and support data acquisition e.g. we worked with and supported Cafcass Cymru and Swansea University to acquire funding for a Family Justice Laboratory that will deposit anonymised Cafcass data for England and Wales for linking.

Status: Completed / Ongoing

Milestone 3: Pilot techniques for local authorities to supply data for research in the ADRC-W by the end of the financial year

September 2016 – 31 March 2017

Update on progress against milestones/activities

A jointly funded Welsh Government-Economic and Social Research Council project is underway to pilot the installation of automated data linking technology in local authorities to support them to link datasets and supply data for research purposes to SAIL/ the ADRC-W.

To date, automated data linking technology has been installed in Swansea Local Authority that has enabled the sharing of data with SAIL/the ADRC-W. Work is underway to analyse the data and to install the technology in a further 4 pathfinder local authorities.

Status: Ongoing

Welsh Government will continue to publish government research according to the Government Social Research Publication Protocol, with reports pre-announced and published on the ‘Statistics & Research’ pages of the Welsh Government website. Publication of social research reports, according to the GSR publication protocol, is a key part of the Welsh Government Principles for Research and Evaluation.

Lead department(s)

Chief Social Research Officer, Welsh Government

Others involved in implementation to date

Welsh Government

Timeline

While the GSR publication protocol has been in use by Welsh Government since its introduction in 2010, there has been Ministerial commitment to the use of the protocol from March 2014.

Overall commitment status

Completed

Overall progress against commitment

Welsh Government continues to adhere to the GSR publication protocol and to pre-announce all research publications.

Milestone 1: Using the GSR publication protocol for all research publications

March 2010 (ongoing)

Update on progress against milestones/activities

The Government Social Research Publication Protocol is in place and no breaches have occurred.

Status: Completed

Milestone 2: Ministerial commitment to use of Government Social Research publication protocol

March 2014 (ongoing)

Update on progress against milestones/activities

Ministerial commitment reconfirmed following 2016 election.

Status: Completed

We will make our information and services easier to find and consume by consolidating our digital content on a new Welsh Government website that is focussed on meeting user needs. The site will include an improved consultation service.

Lead department(s)

Head of Corporate Digital Team, Communications Division

Others involved in implementation to date

Welsh citizens are involved in the testing of the website.

Timeline

1 April 2015 – 30 June 2019

Overall commitment status

Completed

Overall progress against commitment

The majority of milestones have been successfully completed, with work on the full migration of content to the new platform continuing as per the date outlined in milestone 5.

Milestone 1: Launch beta consultations service, including response forms that users can save

1 July 2016 – 30 September 2016

Update on progress against milestones/activities

The consultations platform was launched on time and is being well used. Feedback received from both internal and external users has been positive.

Status: Completed

Milestone 2: Launch beta campaigns platform

1 October 2016 – 30 November 2016

Update on progress against milestones/activities

The campaigns platform is used to promote campaigns and has substantially reduced the cost and time required to generate content.

Status: Completed

Milestone 3: Launch beta public bodies platform

1 January 2017 – 31 March 2017

Update on progress against milestones/activities

Several public bodies have been migrated to the new platform and additional functionality is now being scoped for future phases of development.

Status: Completed

Milestone 4: Publish first tranche of beta corporate content

1 October 2016 – 30 April 2017

Update on progress against milestones/activities

A limited first tranche of content has been delivered and continues to be refined.

Status: Completed

Milestone 5: Publish first tranche of beta corporate content

1 May 2017 – 30 June 2019

Update on progress against milestones/activities

Work is continuing on moving the remaining corporate content to the new platform.

Status: Ongoing

Welsh Government will develop a code for ethical supply chain behaviour, that will ensure awareness and understanding of actions to mitigate against ethical supply chain issues.

Lead department(s)

Special Projects Manager, Value Wales, ESNR

Others involved in implementation to date

Public sector organisations in Wales

Businesses and third sector organisations in Wales.

Timeline

March 2016 – early in 2017

Overall commitment status

Completed

Overall progress against commitment

The Code of Practice for Ethical Employment in Supply Chains was launched in March 2017. As of October 2018, 136 organisations had signed up to the Code with additional organisations in the process of signing up.

Milestone 1: First draft completed and introduced at Procurex

March 2016 – September 2016

Update on progress against milestones/activities

The draft Code was introduced at Procurex 2016 event.

Status: Completed

Milestone 2: Task and Finish Group established and first meeting set-up

October 2016 – November 2016

Update on progress against milestones/activities

The introduction of the code at Procurex 2016 was a success and led to the publication of the Code of Practice for Ethical Employment in Supply Chains in March 2017.

The engagement with the Task and Finish Group continues – with on-going work to oversee the implementation of the Code.

Status: Completed

Milestone 3: Engagement with business and third sector

October 2016 – early 2017

Update on progress against milestones/activities

A continuing programme of work designed to raise awareness of the Code and to improve business sign-up via the Welsh Government’s Business Wales service is underway.

In October 2018, the first collaborative supplier-focussed Code of Practice event was held in Gwynedd.

Status: Completed / Ongoing

Milestone 4: Ethical supply chain code launch

Early in 2017

Update on progress against milestones/activities

The code was launched on 9 March 2017 at the Workforce Partnership Council meeting.

Status: Completed

Milestone 5: Sign-up

Ongoing

Update on progress against milestones/activities

By October 2018, 136 organisations had signed up to the Code and many are working hard to put the Code’s commitments into practice. These organisations include all Welsh Universities, the Police forces of Wales, 14 Local Authorities, 2 housing associations and a number of business and third sector organisations. Other organisations are in the process of enrolment and more are considering doing so.

Status: Completed / Ongoing

To measure progress towards the achievement of the 7 well-being goals for Wales set out in the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, and report on them annually.

Lead department(s)

Chief Statistician

Others involved in implementation to date

Specified public bodies under the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015

Future Generations Commissioner for Wales

Auditor General for Wales.

Timeline

March 2016 – early in 2017 (end date revised from ‘early 2017’ to incorporate the time period for milestone 2)

Overall commitment status

Completed

Overall progress against commitment

This commitment was completed as planned. The National Indicators were laid before the National Assembly for Wales in March 2016 and the data underpinning the indicators published on StatsWales open data services by September 2017. These open datasets were used to populate interactive webpages for each indicator and were part of a wider package supporting the annual reporting against the goals as part of the Well-being of Wales report.

Milestone 1: Lay the ‘National Indicators for Wales’ before the National Assembly for Wales

April 2015 – March 2016

Update on progress against milestones/activities

The Welsh Government laid before the National Assembly for Wales a set of 46 national indicators designed to measure progress at a Wales level in achieving the 7 well-being goals for Wales. An accompanying technical document was published to provide further information on the final indicators.

Status: Completed

Milestone 2: Produce the first Annual Well-being Report for Wales

April 2016 – Summer 2017

Update on progress against milestones/activities

The Well-being of Wales 2016/17 Report was published on 25 September 2017 as an interactive on-line report using open data sources. The data for the national indicators were published on the StatsWales open data platform and presented visually using Power B.I dashboards. A 2nd edition was published on September 20th 2018.

Publication was moved to September to ensure further analysis of National Survey for Wales’s data could be undertaken.

Status: Completed

All public bodies, listed in the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, have a duty to set and publish well-being objectives that outline how they will contribute to achieving each of the well-being goals and take reasonable steps to meet those objectives.

Lead department(s)

-

Others involved in implementation to date

The 43 specified public bodies under the Act and Public Service Boards

Future Generations Commissioner for Wales

Auditor General for Wales

Timeline

April 2016 onwards

Overall commitment status

Completed

Overall progress against commitment

The duty on specified public bodies to set and publish well-being objectives, and duty on Public Services Boards to assess local well-being is contained within the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. These are the first duties that need to be discharged in order to provide the foundation for specified public bodies and Public Services Boards to deliver the promise of the Act. Milestones 2 and 3 were completed within the statutory timeframes set out in the Act.

All public bodies subject to the Act have published their well-being objectives and associated well-being statement as required by the Act. Public Service Boards Local Well-being Plans have been published and Public Bodies and Public Service Boards, subject to the Act, are currently taking steps to meet their objectives in accordance with the Sustainable Development Principle.

The Future Generations Commissioner published ‘Well-being in Wales: the journey so far’ which outlines what the organisations have said they will do in this first year and provides advice on how they can best demonstrate they are taking effective steps to meet their objectives.

The Auditor General for Wales has published his commentary as a parallel report, ‘Reflecting on Year One: How Have Public Bodies Responded to the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015? ' on how the 44 public bodies are beginning to respond to their duties under the Well-being of Future Generations Act.

Milestone 1: Legal duty comes into force

April 2016 – April 2016

Update on progress against milestones/activities

The relevant section of the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 were commenced on 1 April 2016.

Status: Completed

Milestone 2: Public Bodies publish their first well-being objectives

April 2016 – April 2017

Update on progress against milestones/activities

All public bodies subject to the well-being duty published their first well-being objectives. These can be found on the respective websites. A list of public bodies subject to the well-being duty.

Status: Completed

Milestone 3: Public Service Boards – Assessment of local well-being

April 2016 – May 2017

Update on progress against milestones/activities

Public Service Boards have completed their assessment of local well-being which will form the basis on which the boards will determine the local objectives it sets. Further information on GOV.WALES

Status: Completed