Fact sheet
Data Exchange
February 2017
People are at the centre of a social investment
approach. It’s about investing in the right
services to help improve people’s lives.
It’s called social investment, not spending, because
it’s about investing resources upfront to enable
people in need to thrive over the longer-term.
The Social Investment Unit (SIU) was established as a
cross-agency unit to advance and embed the
Government’s social investment approach.
The SIU uses data and analytics to apply rigorous and
Why share data?
By safely and securely sharing the data held on
Kiwis in need, we can better understand their
current and future needs and help improve their
lives by providing effective social services.
Personal information will only be shared with the
permission of the individual (every individual owns
the data that relates to them). Kiwis will have the
ability to decide what information they’re
comfortable with sharing, with whom and for what
purpose. They can ‘opt-out’ of having their personal
information shared, at any time.
services are for Kiwis in need.
The SIU has been working with social sector
organisations to develop a cloud-based Data
Exchange: a robust platform to enable the safe and
secure sharing of data in near real-time.
What is the social sector?
Ensuring the security and privacy of data is a key
priority for the Data Exchange and the SIU.
The social sector is about more than government
health boards ... the list continues.
Organisations participating on the Data Exchange
will:
 Determine and manage what data they share,
with whom and when
 Receive only the data the sharing organisation
makes available to them.
An integral part of New Zealand society, the social
Benefits of the Data Exchange
evidence-based investment practices to social
services, which helps to determine what the right
agencies. It includes community partners, service
providers, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs),
charities, Crown Agencies, local government, district
sector supports all Kiwis by investing in their
education, health and wellbeing so they can live
fulfilling and productive lives. But some people need
more support to thrive and enhance their quality of
life.
The social sector also invests in communities so they
can enable people to thrive and help them when
they need support.
SIU-2017-0079
With increased levels of security over current
methods of data sharing, the Data Exchange will:
 Provide a safe and secure exchange of data
between social sector organisations
 Connect social sector organisations in a way
that’s easy, consistent and efficient
 Help front-line staff improve service delivery
by providing better information about the people
they work with
 Measure the effectiveness of services
delivered and outcomes for people over their
lifetime


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Inform better policy and investment
decisions
Promote standardised approaches to privacy,
data management and data standards
Allow for a data feedback loop to gain insights
into the outcomes and performance of services
delivered.
How it works
When fully developed, the Data Exchange will
enable system-wide two-way sharing of
anonymised and non-anonymised data through a
cloud-based platform, which will clean, structure
and manage the exchange of data.
The Data Exchange will automatically collect and
deliver data to participating NGOs and service
providers to support their service delivery.
Access to the Data Exchange is via a secure logon, with each participating organisation having
specific terms and conditions governing their
activities on the exchange. This includes standards,
governance, security parameters and purposebased access to data and other relevant rules.
The system relies on small pieces of software
(agents) running on a server in each participant
organisation. Agents handle the automated, specific
collection of data (using a very strong level of
encryption), and sends it to the cloud-based
platform, where it’s sent on to another agent.
The platform can handle many agents sending lots
of data to multiple destinations simultaneously.
The end-to-end solution is fully auditable and can
track who, how, when and what data is moving
around between participants on the Data Exchange.
Prod-1 live
The first ‘live’ transfer of data across the Data
Exchange – for test purposes only – was
successfully completed in December 2016, when
anonymised data was transferred between the
Ministry of Social Development and the Methodist
Mission Southern.
Up next
Three production stages will be implemented over
the next five years, with each bringing expanded
features, technology, business components and
operational scale.
Prod
Year
Focus
Prod-1
2016/17
Data Sharing Service
goes into production,
using anonymised data
Prod-2
2017/19
More agencies and
NGOs added
Identity Resolution
Service (IDRS) added
Data Publishing Service
added
Prod-3
2019/22
More agencies and
NGOs added
Participants will have a phased entry onto the Data
Exchange and will be able to share data they hold
as part of standing-up the technology.
Security and privacy
A number of mechanisms exist to ensure Kiwis’
privacy is protected, including legislation,
contractual and information sharing arrangements
and Memoranda of Understanding.
Security and privacy principles and methods have
been designed in conjunction with a range of social
sector organisations, to ensure the Data Exchange
is robust and works for everyone.
‘Privacy by design’ principles have been used to
develop the Data Exchange to protect privacy (and,
by association, security), by embedding design
features, protocols and processes that improve and
optimise privacy and security.
When service providers are contracted, a range of
information is collected for business and research
purposes. All organisations accessing this
information are legally bound to hold it securely and
use it appropriately.
Who will use the data?
Different groups will have access to different levels
of data for different purposes:
• Front-line staff – make more informed
decisions and more targeted services delivered
faster
• NGOs and contacted service providers –
monitor the delivery of services and fine-tune
their programmes and how they’re tracking
against expected results
• Government agencies – inform investment and
policy decision-making decisions to deliver more
targeted services
• Ministers – determine whether the government
is delivering on expected results.
Encryption ensures data is only seen by those who
are authorised to do so.
SIU’s role as the operator of the Data
Exchange
To ensure the proper protocols are in place for data
sharing, the SIU works closely with:
The SIU is accountable and responsible for
ensuring the Data Exchange is fit-for-purpose,
including managing and monitoring participants and
the way it is used.
•
•
•
•
Office of the Privacy Commissioner
Government Chief Privacy Officer
Government Chief Information Officer
Ministry of Justice on the privacy approach
being taken
• Data Futures Partnership, an independent group
funded by government to work with Kiwis to
create the right systems, settings and conditions
to allow data to be used to help make
New Zealand a better place.
Disclosure statements
To make sure social sector organisations can
legally share customers’ personal information – and
that it can be used for analytical purposes – a
series of common disclosure statements have been
drafted for government agencies to use with their
customers. This includes overarching statements
that can be used in written or verbal privacy
disclosure statements.
When engaging with social sector organisations
wanting to use the Data Exchange, the SIU will:
• Give a clear understanding about why data is
being used for social investment purposes,
including the privacy, human rights and ethical
considerations the SIU works within
• Set out the conditions that must be in place to
ensure customers know how any data they
provide is intended to be used
• Provide details on how this data can be used to
improve service delivery, or for research
• Follow agreed approaches, developed in
association with social sector organisations.
Generic example of how the Data Exchange works
More information
For more information, please visit www.siu.govt.nz
Email the SIU at [email protected]