Join the Data Ethics Committee

Establishing the Essex Centre for Data Analytics (ecda) is proving an incredible journey for Essex Police, Essex County Council and the University of Essex.

Success is a journey, not a destination. ecda offers the principal partners a fantastic opportunity to learn, grow, and share for social good; to create change across their organisations and the system; and more significantly to enable data driven insight to inform the decisions we make about the future of our county.

Reducing harm; providing better services to our communities; protecting the most vulnerable people in Essex; data is very powerful when combined with the lived experience, and the opportunities to use data for good are exciting when data is shared and used ethically.

We are looking for people living and working in Essex to join the new Data Ethics Committee (DEC) to provide additional and independent advice to ecda on any ethical considerations or issues arising in each of the Centre’s data projects, and suggest any action or omission they consider appropriate with regard to the ethics issues identified. Full terms of reference for the committee can be found here. 

Volunteers will join the existing 10 Committee members who together have a range of skills that include data science, ethics, ethical use of technology, human rights, public sector and/or police ethics, social policy, IT, change management, research methods, health policy, regulatory frameworks, sociology, criminology, general or digital ethics and moral philosophy.

Your experience and eligibility

You do not need to have any specific qualifications or areas of expertise to volunteer to join the DEC. You just need to be a resident of the county. We want you to be you! And to provide your thoughts, and experiences as a resident, this will especially assist in identifying any issues of discrimination, privacy and other ethical issues from your perspective as a resident who may potentially be impacted by the work of ecda.

The DEC will actively seek a membership that reflects the county and its citizens in terms of age, gender, ethnicity and religion.

What's involved

The Committee will meet four times a year.

Meetings will be around 90 minutes-2hours long, and timings will vary to suit members. We understand that not everyone will be available to attend every meeting. Currently meetings will be held online via a platform such as Teams/Zoom, again to be agreed by members.

If physical meetings are held in future, members will be reimbursed for reasonable expenses, however please be aware that you are volunteering to participate in the Committee, and as such there is no financial provision for members’ participation beyond payment of expenses.  

Apply now

Applications are being accepted throughout 2021.

If you would like to apply please provide a short personal statement detailing why you're applying and what you think you can bring to the Committee.

Applications should be made via email to david.caplan@essex.gov.uk 

Your written application will be followed by a short interview with the Head of the Essex Centre for Data Analytics, David Caplan.

 

Page last updated 21 July 2021