The Liverpool Civic Data Cooperative commissioned Oxford Insights in partnership with Lateral Economics to conduct an independent economic evaluation of its health data linkage work. We created an innovative approach to valuing health datasets, alongside stakeholder research to understand the CDC’s other contributions to the region. We found that the Cooperative delivers a strong return on investment: for every £1 invested, between £3.96 and £8.87 of economic value is generated from its datasets alone. Aside from the economic value of its data, we also found that CDC projects contributed to a variety of improved public health outcomes, including reducing A&E admissions, preventing accidental dwelling fires, and supporting mass event pilots during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The challenge

The Liverpool City Region Civic Data Cooperative (CDC) is a data stewardship initiative established to enhance the use of data for public good in the Liverpool City Region. As the CDC reached the end of its five-year funding period, it sought an independent economic-focused evaluation of its work to supplement a wider programme evaluation. The CDC commissioned Oxford Insights, in partnership with Lateral Economics, to:

• assess the economic benefits generated by the CDC’s data linkage initiatives;
• examine the overall value for money and return on investment of these activities; and
• explore the potential for future economic benefits and opportunities to maximize impact.

Improved sharing and linkage of health data is a national priority. In its policy paper Data saves lives: Reshaping health and social care with data, the Department of Health and Social Care highlights the potential value of health data and its goal that secure data environments like those the CDC has enabled will soon be the standard way to access NHS health data for research. If the Liverpool CDC’s work reflects good value for money, it could serve as a model for other regions in the UK. 

Our approach

We took a theory-based approach, beginning with the development of a theory of change that clarifies how benefits are achieved. We then engaged with stakeholders across the organisation to understand the nature and scale of benefits, as well as the extent to which they can be attributed to the interventions. Insights from these conversations informed the assumptions underpinning our economic calculations.

There is no widely agreed method of economically valuing datasets and the work that goes into creating, cleaning, processing, and governing this data. This is particularly true in the case of open or civic data, which are the CDC’s focus. 

To address this challenge, we took an innovative approach to valuing the health datasets the CDC has helped create. We identified comparable datasets in the nascent real world data (RWD) industry and used market intelligence platforms to research average market prices for data access. To supplement this work, we also estimated dataset values using more traditional cost-based approaches and company valuation estimates. 

Our impact

Our work found that the CDC delivers a strong return on investment through the creation of high-value data assets. We conservatively estimated that the CDC achieves a benefit–cost ratio (BCR) of between 3.96 and 8.87, meaning that for every £1 invested, between £3.96 and £8.87 of economic value is generated.

Stakeholder research also confirmed that the CDC was instrumental in securing £55 million in research funding for the Liverpool City Region, with £6.4 million in funding solely attributable to the CDC. To illustrate how the CDC’s work translates directly into real-world impacts, we produced three case studies. These demonstrate the CDC’s contributions to a variety of public health outcomes, including reducing A&E admissions, preventing accidental dwelling fires, and supporting mass event pilots during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Photo by Atanas Paskalev on Unsplash