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Sharing Value: Share the insights

Think about who might benefit from the insights, what they might need and how they will have access.

Consider the approach

Think about the nature of the insights and talk to those who may be interested in them. Get their views about what approach makes sense to them as well as to your agency.

Even if insights are sensitive in nature, it may still be very useful to share them in a lawful and appropriate way with people who can apply them for better outcomes for service users.

To ensure the value of the insights is realised, agencies that own the data or insights should always plan to share them. If they do not want to share the insights more broadly then the agency should explain why — this may be for legal, safety, cultural or other reasons.

Having access

These groups range from having less access to results and the results being less open through to having more access to results and the results being more open.

Table 1: Example of how access could work

  Less access More accesss Most accesss
Who will have access? Your team or agency People directly involved Broader stakeholders
What will they have access to? Final results (PDF or Word version) Data tables Structured data
How will they have access? In person with no ‘takeaways’ (for example, presentation) Closed access Wider access

If the work is not sensitive and may have broad public interest, it may be simpler and more valuable to use an ‘open data’ approach. You can find more information on how to do this on Data.govt.nz.

In this context, to ensure the insights can be fully used without copyright-related concerns, government agencies can license copyright works containing the insights under a Creative Commons licence in accordance with the New Zealand Government Open Access and Licensing framework (NZGOAL).

NZGOAL is all-of-government guidance for agencies to follow when releasing copyright works and non-copyright material for reuse by others. If an agency takes this approach, it should follow the NZGOAL Review and Release Process to ensure it has the legal rights required to license the copyright works and that it takes other legal considerations into account.

NZGOAL — Data.govt.nz

Things to consider

  • If the information is non-personal, but still sensitive, how can access be controlled to limit misuse or misinterpretation? Alternatively, will interested agencies need additional support to limit or reduce these risks?
  • How is privacy being protected? When sharing insights with others, take all reasonable steps to ensure people cannot be identified from those insights, either from the insights alone or in conjunction with other information. This can be particularly important when only a small number of people are affected by the subject matter of the information. For example, the small number of people affected by a particular disability or condition.
  • If sensitive insights are being shared with specific audiences and / or there is a re-identification risk, consider whether contractual controls on use and / or re-identification is a good idea.
  • Are there any limitations or bias in the data (for example, data gaps or quality issues) that need to be communicated with the insights?
  • Can the methodology and the software code used to produce the insights also be shared, for openness and transparency?
  • Are the insights being shared in line with the original plan? If not, why not?

Share results with those directly involved

Give the people or agencies who were involved in the insights an opportunity to understand the insights and to use them. This may be the service users themselves, agencies involved in the original collection or creation of data, and people directly involved in doing or reviewing the work.

There may be other parties who have an interest in the insights, but it’s important for trust and integrity reasons — consider the Data Protection and Use Policy’s (DPUP’s) Mahitahitanga Principle — to ensure those directly involved in the work can see the results. It recognises their contribution and increases value through broader application.

Mahitahitanga Principle

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