The Department does not yet have the data it needs to understand the impact of the innovation programme. Systems that provide high quality information to everyone involved can contribute to a culture of evaluation and an understanding of 6 Evaluating innovation projects in children’s social care what is working. Lack of data has proved a challenge for many Innovation Programme projects. Furthermore the small scale of projects within the Innovation Programme risks creating statistical challenges understanding the impacts of these schemes on particular minority groups. The Department needs to balance support for local authorities collecting the information they need locally, with considerations for what is required nationally to understand the effectiveness of these schemes across population groups. More widely, the Department concedes there is not currently a shared view on what data needs to be collected across the children’s social care sector. The Department reports it has work underway in response to recommendations around data raised by the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care. Recommendation: The Department should set out the standards it expects for local data collection, and make clear the benefits for local authorities of collecting good quality data. The Department should also use its new outcomes framework to shape its own data collection strategy.