United KingdomPublic sector2015–2019Hackney Council
Xantura Early Help Profiling System
Hackney ended its child-risk profiling pilot because limited and inconsistent data did not justify further investment
Problem
Hackney wanted to combine existing information to help social workers identify children who might need early support before maltreatment occurred.
Approach
The council trialled Xantura's Early Help Profiling System alongside its usual work from 2015. It said alerts did not trigger action during the pilot. In October 2019, the council confirmed that it had ended the project because available data was more limited than expected and its quality varied, leaving insufficiently useful insights to justify further investment. Reporting also raised concerns that families had not been told how their information was being used.
Results
No published figures
Takeaway
The pilot's value depended on data that proved less available and consistent than expected. Hackney stopped after testing alongside existing services rather than using the alerts to trigger interventions.
Categories
- Size
- Large enterprise
- Industry
- Public sector
- Business function
- Production and quality
- Innovation type
- Process innovation
- AI technology
- Predictive analytics and ML
- Adoption
- Vendor solution
- Evidence
- Press reporting
Sources
Source summaries
The council attributed cancellation to limited data, variable quality and insufficient benefits. It said the system ran alongside ordinary social work and was not designed to trigger action during the trial.
The report described the pilot, payments to Xantura since 2015 and the council's account of how alerts were tested. It also documented concerns about undisclosed indicators and the absence of notification to affected families.
Full details are in the original sources.