The LCR Data Community of practice held its third gathering on Thursday 10 July, bringing together around 20 data profressionbals for an online exploration of AI transparency and practical data solutions.
Community charter of data and AI
Emily Rempel from the Civic Data Cooperative presented the recently published Liverpool City Region Community Charter on Data and AI – a set of 11 principles developed through extensie engagement with 60 randomly-selected residents across the region. The charter was created from a comprehensive community engagement process over several months, where residents explored what trustworthy and beneficial data and AI innovation should look like for their communities. The resulting principles cover such key areas as
- Defining community benefit and ensuring human dignity remains central
- Security, accountability and transparency requirements
- Expectations around inclusivity, privacy and legal compliance
- Governance frameowrks that support innovation and community benefit
Emily emphasised that not all principles apply to every project, but they provide a framework for ensureing data and AI work servces genunine community needs.
St Helens Council’s AI approach to data management
Ste Sharples from St Helens Council shared their comprehensive apporach to a unified data platform that supports everything from buisiness intelligence to AI powered citizen services. Their “Helen” AI assistant can handle complex citizen queries 24/7 through a single digital front door.
The technical foundation rests on a cloud-based data management system built on Microsoft Fabric. This approach provides near real-time data access, and has eliminated spreadsheet-based reporting. Ste highlighted several key benefits
- A single source that streamlines access for business intelligence and more
- Cost effective innovation built on existing technology infrastructure
- Secure but accessible platform that can bridge organisations and enhance collaboration
This system has delivered resullts including saving half a million pounds from the social care budget through technology enabled care innovations.
Get involved
Our next gathering will take place in September as an in-person event Sign up to the mailing list to stay connected.
This work is being conducted by Open Data Manchester for the Civic Data Cooperative at the University of Liverpool