‘Data’ tells you lots of things. It tells you, hopefully, what is happening. For instance, the data on the amount of children in child poverty. The data should throw up the figures, and what direction they are going in: is it increasing, or is it reducing?
Data is about proving something. And proving something is about measuring things. Measuring results, outcomes and outputs is now expected in all manner of things to do with social investment – that is, the money that government or philanthropists invest to bring about change.
You have to prove that what you
