Analytics

Improving social services with better decision-making begins by analysing available data about people’s lives and wellbeing.

Our analytics team supports the social system’s ability to use data analytics and insights for social sector decision making. Ultimately, we want to empower social service providers and government agencies to understand, decide on and do more of what really works, for better lives.

What is analytics?

Analytics provides one type of evidence to support better decision making. Analytics is the use of computer skills and statistics to draw conclusions from data. We seek to blend analytics with complementary information including qualitative data, science and people’s lived experience.

What can analytics do?

Social sector analytics can help social service providers and government agencies improve:

  • evidence informed decision making
  • service delivery measurement, and
  • develop and enhance innovative social services.

Our tools for technical users

We've produced analytical tools and reusable code for technical users who have access to Stats NZ's Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI).
Code, assembly and visualisation tools and user guidance is publicly available on GitHub — an open source, collaborative software development platform and repository.

Available resources include:

Topic
Subject
Tool
Description
 Representative timeline modelling  People’s life experience  Method and code  Constructing cross-sector representative timelines of people's life experience
 Representative timeline visualisation  People’s life experience  Run code  Interactive timeline visualisation tool for exploring journey timelines
 Wellbeing impacts evaluation  Benefit to employment transition  Method and code  Using linked administrative and survey data to evaluate the wellbeing impacts of transitioning from benefit to employment
 Wellbeing impacts evaluation  Social housing  Method and code  Using linked administrative and survey data to evaluate the wellbeing impacts of social housing
 Social services variables  Social Investment Analytical layer  User guide and code  Constructing events structured tables for cross-agency analytics in Stats NZ’s Integrated Data Infrastrcuture (IDI)
 Services access  Mental health and addictions  Data definition and code  Events structured table of mental health and addictions service access based on available IDI data

 Visit the Social Investment Agency Github(external link) or the Social Wellbeing Github(external link).

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