Combined Authority Series 1 — Article 3 of 3

VCSE Commissioning Analytics Series — Article 10 of 18 | Combined Authority Series 1 — Article 3 of 3

Why Employment, Housing and Skills Contracts Demand Different Data Infrastructure | Combined Authority Series 1 — Article 3 of 3

Devolved commissioning VCSE data infrastructure for employment, housing, and skills contracts is the analytical foundation that enables VCSE organisations to track participant outcomes, evidence social value delivery, and produce automated commissioner reports for combined authority and other devolved funding bodies. These contracts sit outside the NHS and adult social care frameworks that most VCSE data strategies are built around — which means the data infrastructure required is different in important ways.

Employment and skills contracts, typically commissioned through combined authorities or through devolved DWP programmes such as the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and Multiply, require tracking of individual participant journeys from initial referral through to employment entry or qualification completion. The outcome definitions are specific — a job entry may need to be evidenced with employer confirmation and a start date; a qualification may need to be verified through the awarding body. Proximity to the labour market progress, soft skills development, and distance-travelled measures are increasingly required alongside hard outcome counts.

Housing contracts, commissioned through combined authorities, Homes England partnerships, or local authority housing departments, require tracking of individual cases from housing needs assessment through to outcome — stable accommodation achieved, adaptations completed, tenancy sustained at three and six months. The outcome pathway for housing is longer and less linear than employment outcomes, requiring a data infrastructure that can manage complex, non-sequential case records.

Skills contracts, including those funded through devolved Adult Education Budget, require individual learner records with qualification aim, start date, planned end date, actual end date, and outcome — whether the learner achieved, withdrew, or transferred. This data typically needs to feed into the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) Individual Learner Record submission as well as the combined authority performance report — creating a dual reporting obligation that requires a single underlying data standard.

The Key Data Architecture Decisions for Devolved Contract Reporting

Building data infrastructure for devolved commissioning requires three architectural decisions before any system is configured. First, the unit of analysis. Is the service tracking individual participants, individual cases, or individual interventions? Employment contracts track individuals. Housing contracts may track households. Skills contracts track individual learners. Getting this wrong at the architecture stage means the data cannot produce the outcomes evidence the contract requires.

Second, the outcome definition. Every devolved contract has a specific outcome definition, and the data infrastructure must be configured to evidence that definition precisely. A combined authority employment contract might define a sustained employment outcome as sixteen weeks of continuous employment. A DWP-funded programme might define it as thirteen weeks. Using the wrong definition in your data system produces evidence that does not match the contract requirement — which creates performance disputes at review.

Third, the follow-up protocol. Most employment and housing outcomes require a follow-up contact at a defined point after the initial outcome is achieved — to verify sustainability. Thirteen-week and twenty-six-week employment sustainment checks are standard. Six-month tenancy sustainment checks are common in housing contracts. The data infrastructure must be able to schedule and record these follow-up contacts automatically, because manual follow-up processes at scale create significant gaps in the outcome evidence.

Connecting Devolved Contract Data to a Single Power BI Reporting Layer

Most VCSEs delivering across employment, housing, and skills contracts use different case management systems for each service type — or use a single flexible system like Charitylog or Lamplight that is configured differently for each contract. This creates a data consolidation challenge: multiple data sources, multiple outcome definitions, multiple commissioner report formats.

Quematics solves this through our VCSE commissioning analytics service — a single Power BI reporting layer that connects to all data sources simultaneously, applies each contract’s specific outcome definitions and KPI calculations, and produces separate automated reports for each commissioner in their required format. The VCSE has one reporting environment that serves multiple commissioners — rather than maintaining separate reporting processes for each contract.

This approach becomes particularly valuable for VCSEs holding combined authority contracts alongside NHS ICB or local authority adult social care contracts. The same Power BI infrastructure that produces the combined authority social value KPI report also produces the ICB outcomes report and the local authority CLD-aligned return — with each report drawing from a shared underlying data model that ensures consistency across all reporting outputs.

Social Value Reporting as a Competitive Advantage in Devolved Commissioning

The VCSEs that win and retain combined authority contracts in 2026 and beyond are those that can demonstrate social value delivery with social value analytics, not just intention. A VCSE that arrives at a combined authority commissioning conversation with a Power BI dashboard showing real-time social value KPI performance — local jobs created, qualifications gained, wellbeing scores improved, carbon commitments tracked — is making a fundamentally different impression to one that relies on quarterly narrative reports.

This competitive dynamic is accelerating. Combined authority procurement teams are becoming more sophisticated. The Procurement Act 2023 transparency requirements mean that underperformance is visible and consequential. And the April 2026 report on VCSE and combined authority partnership working across the North identified data and impact evidence as one of the key enablers of stronger commissioning relationships — alongside trust, transparency, and genuine co-design of services.

Frequently Asked Questions

What data infrastructure do VCSEs need for employment and skills contracts?

VCSEs delivering employment and skills contracts need individual participant tracking from referral through to outcome, capturing employment status, qualifications gained, protected characteristics, and follow-up employment sustainability, feeding automated reporting in the format required by the combined authority or DWP commissioner.

How do employment outcome definitions differ between combined authority contracts?

Employment outcome definitions vary significantly — some define a job entry as any paid employment started, others require a minimum hours or weeks sustained. VCSEs must understand the specific outcome definition in their contract and configure data collection to evidence it precisely.

What is the difference between an output and an outcome in devolved commissioning?

An output is an activity delivered — a training session completed, a referral made. An outcome is the result for the participant — a job gained, a qualification achieved, housing secured. Devolved commissioning contracts increasingly require outcome evidence, which demands longitudinal participant tracking rather than activity recording.

How does Power BI connect to employment and skills case management systems?

Power BI connects to employment and skills case management systems via API, scheduled data export, or direct database connection. Common systems include Charitylog, bespoke CRMs, and DWP-supplied systems. Quematics builds the integration and transformation layer that maps these systems to the combined authority reporting format.

Can Quematics build data infrastructure for VCSEs holding multiple devolved contracts?

Yes. Quematics builds multi-contract Power BI dashboards that consolidate data from employment, housing, and skills contracts across multiple combined authority commissioners into a single reporting environment — enabling VCSEs to manage all reporting obligations from one place.

To discuss how Quematics can build devolved commissioning data infrastructure for your VCSE, visit our data analytics for charities page or our Power BI consultancy page, or contact us for a free 30-minute data review.