Giving communities a powerful say in public sector data and AI projects
Communities are affected daily in both positive and negative ways by data governance decisions made by local and national governments. These arise through interactions with public services such as health and care; schooling; policing and justice; tax and benefits, as well as in more pervasive ways through government’s collection and dissemination of data, statistics and evidence to inform policymaking.
The use of data and AI within the public sector is essential for effective, evidence-based policymaking and for the efficient delivery of digital public services. Among other things, increasing use of data and AI promises opportunities to provide more joined-up healthcare; personalise education; tackle the courts backlog; and make it easier for citizens to access public services.
However, uses of data and AI can also be damaging to and contentious with the public. According to a recent survey, over half of people don’t trust local or central governments to keep their data safe, including being concerned about that data being shared or sold to the private sector. People may be made the target of damaging or biased policies as a result of profiling; miss the opportunity to benefit from cutting edge research by being absent or underrepresented in key datasets; or feel caricatured and disenfranchised through the way data is collected about them and their communities. This is intensified through the increasing use of AI and automated decision making built on this data, where a lack of transparency, accountability and redress has the potential for even greater harms.
Research on public attitudes on data finds that deliberation enables the public to navigate these tensions between risks and benefits with the necessary nuance. Citizens are generally happy for data to be used for public benefit, as long as safeguards are in place, and research by ADR UK and the Office for Statistics Regulation has found that “the public want to be involved in making decisions about whether public good is being served”. Public engagement exercises are already being run by the public sector, such as the £2m investment by DHSC for large scale public engagement. But these need to be scaled at the same rate as governments develop the use of data and AI to improve public services.
Our approach
This programme aims to develop narratives, practice and policy around the public participation in public sector data and AI projects through the following activities.
- Identifying and creating case studies about the ways in which communities are affected by public sector uses of data and AI – similar to our existing Data Stories reports on Work and Health – and about how public bodies are engaging with the public around data and AI.
- Running a series of partnership-driven practical design labs to explore, collaboratively develop and catalyse practical guidance and support for public participation in a range of different scenarios, such as during data/digital/AI policy development; public sector tech procurement; the development of new AI systems; or the creation of national statistics.
- Convening a peer network of practitioners across the public sector who are interested in public engagement around data and AI, providing a mechanism for them to learn from each other and external experts on topics of their choosing.
- Running a series of events and meetings with a wider set of stakeholders inside and outside the public sector, to raise awareness of this work and increase adoption of the recommendations emerging from it.
We are particularly grateful to The Mohn Westlake Foundation for their generous help and support for this work.
Resources
The London Borough of Camden has used public participation to help inform procurement as part of its mission-led approach to governing. This sits alongside its major public participation initiative around data, the Camden Data Charter. While requiring some investment and cultural changes, decisions made in these ways are seen as reflecting the priorities of the public; being authentic and evidence-led, which can help bring long-term political stability. They are also seen as improving community relations and increasing democratic engagement.
This case study is part of a series exploring how public sector organisations involve the public, workers and civil society in decisions about data and AI, and some of the consequences when they do not. Read more about our work on public involvement in public sector data and AI.
The Health Research Authority’s Confidentiality Advisory Group (CAG) is an independent body that provides expert advice on the use of confidential patient information in the public interest. The CAG requires researchers proposing to use patient data to involve the public to understand public interest, the acceptability of the data processing, and how patients should be given opportunities to opt-out of the research. The CAG supports accountability by publishing its minutes and registers of requests.
This case study is part of a series exploring how public sector organisations involve the public, workers and civil society in decisions about data and AI, and some of the consequences when they do not. Read more about our work on public involvement in public sector data and AI.
The Legal Aid Agency processes fee claims from legal professionals for their work on legal aid cases. In 2016 a new system was introduced as part of a wider digitisation programme, including the automation of assessing and awarding payment claims made by barristers. Case workers weren’t consulted on the introduction and functionality of the system, and there with weak mechanisms to feed back on its operation and impacts on workers and other stakeholders. Among wider significant disruption, it became apparent that the system had been incorrectly assessing claims, with an 19% error rate (compared to 3% for case workers) leading to costly overpayments, audits, corrections and revisions, as well as additional staff workload, disruption and dissatisfaction.
This case study is part of a series exploring how public sector organisations involve the public, workers and civil society in decisions about data and AI, and some of the consequences when they do not. Read more about our work on public involvement in public sector data and AI.
Events
On Wednesday 9 April 2025 at 2pm we will hold the seventh meeting of a community of practice as part of our project on Giving communities a powerful say in public sector data and AI projects.
Unconferences are participant-driven meetups that focus on sharing, learning and community building.
This unconference is for people (particularly inside the public sector) who are interested in ensuring that public, community and worker voices are heard in decisions about data, digital and AI.
On Wednesday 12 March 2025 at 2pm we will hold the sixth meeting of a community of practice as part of our project on Giving communities a powerful say in public sector data and AI projects.
The Procurement Act is about much more than new legislation – it’s an opportunity to re-imagine how buyers and suppliers can work together to deliver outstanding public services. The biggest set of regulatory changes in a generation will create new opportunities – but also challenges as the entire supply chain adjusts to this new landscape.
On 25 February Jeni Tennison, our Founder and Executive Director, will be the keynote at TPXimpact’s ‘Power of Data’ event in London, Convening the UK’s top data leaders and policymakers to shape the future of government data strategy.
On Wednesday 12 February 2025 at 2pm we will hold the fifth meeting of a community of practice as part of our project on Giving communities a powerful say in public sector data and AI projects.
The Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) is currently running a consultation on a refresh of the Code of Practice for Statistics (the Code) to ensure it continues to meet the needs of its wide and evolving audience. The Code sets the standards that producers of official statistics should commit to. Compliance with the Code gives people confidence that published government statistics have public value, are high quality, and are produced by people and organisations that are trustworthy.
On Wednesday 15 January 2025 at 2pm we will hold the fourth meeting of a community of practice as part of our project on Giving communities a powerful say in public sector data and AI projects.
On Wednesday 11 December 2024 at 2pm we will hold the third meeting of a community of practice – an online workshop – as part of our project on Giving communities a powerful say in public sector data and AI projects.
The Labour Government has a manifesto commitment to build a National Data Library (NDL) “to bring together existing research programmes and help deliver data-driven public services, whilst maintaining strong safeguards and ensuring all of the public benefit”. This commitment is in the context of a drive for greater AI innovation and adoption across the economy.
Digitalisation within the public sector continues at pace. UK Labour is strongly signalling a technology-driven strategy for wide ranging public services reform and a significant role for private sector vendors.
In order to shape public sector digitalisation towards fair and equitable outcomes for workers and communities alike, a range of voices and perspectives need to be meaningfully incorporated at all stages.
On Thursday 3 October 2024 we held the second meeting of a community of practice as part of our project on Giving communities a powerful say in public sector data and AI projects.
On Thursday 18 July 2024, on Zoom, we held the first meeting of a community of practice as part of our project on Giving communities a powerful say in public sector data and AI projects.
With the use of AI and data driven tools increasing in the civil service and by public servants, Adam spoke on a panel at the annual conference of the FDA, the union representing public service managers and professionals.
Appearing alongside a colleague from the TUC and in conversation with the FDA’s General Secretary, Adam discussed Connected by Data’s work with TUC Cymru and the implications of the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill for public service workers.
Opinion
A strategic approach to the adoption of AI in the public sector should focus investments in places that will make a difference. Saving money is one of the big priorities for this government, so where should it target AI to realise those ambitions?
I’ve been appointed to an external advisory panel to support the design of the “digital centre” in DSIT (currently a smooched together combination of GDS, CDDO and i.AI). I put out a call on Bluesky for reckons and pointers that has had quite the response, summarised here by Tim Paul but you should go read all the responses. I want to try here to distil some of the topics, questions and opinions around the design of public services, technology support, and what DSIT needs to do as the “digital centre”.
The Department for Education has recently released public attitudes research on what parents and pupils think about AI in education, as part of its announcement of a £4m investment to create a dataset to support building AI tools. This is a bit of a hangover from the previous government (the work was carried out earlier in 2024), but reflective of the current government’s commitment to maximising adoption of AI across the public sector.
Before I dig into the details, I should first say that it’s fantastic to see public sector organisations carrying out public attitudes research to inform how they approach the adoption of AI. This kind of research can be used to prioritise investments, inform governance processes to address anticipated harms, and identify barriers and blockers to adoption, as well as working out how to communicate about governmental plans.
Here I want to pull out some specific insights from the research that highlight considerations for how technology is rolled out for public services, namely about profit sharing; schools as trusted decision makers; and points about equity and choice. Then I’m going to discuss some lessons that should be taken into future similar public engagement exercises, particularly about shifting understanding and acceptance of technology; consulting teachers and workers; and the overall approach we need of “you said, we listened”.
I posted recently about the challenge of adoption of AI by the public sector.
There are two sides to this: how the public sector adopts AI itself, and how the public adopts AI-driven public services.
I’ve posted recently about the challenge of purpose and priorities in the adoption of AI by the public sector. This blog post expands on this to look not at what I think the priorities should be, but about how they should be decided, and that prioritisation method institutionalised given it’s not a one off exercise.
Weeknotes
Weeknotes are a combination of updates and personal reflection written on a routine basis