Member Spotlight – Dr Nadia Al-Sabouni
Business Intelligence Partner, Buckinghamshire Council
Tell us about your day to day role at Buckinghamshire Council
As a Business Intelligence Partner for Buckinghamshire Council, I work closely with customers, including Council Service Directors and Heads of Service, to develop robust pipelines of insight work. The insight and analysis we provide are used to drive business improvement, demand management, behaviour change, and innovation in service delivery.
What is your involvement in the BDEx?
I joined the BDEx about a year into the project and helped shape and deliver the website platform. Since then, I have taken the lead in coordinating new content such as data sets and resources from the Council to go onto the site. As part of the core project team, I have also played a key role in shaping the future strategy of the BDEx into a Community of Practice.
What has been your motivation for the BDEx?
I am deeply passionate about this project and find it incredibly fulfilling to work on. I see a real demand and benefit in sharing skills and knowledge between sectors, including the public, VCSE, and private sectors. Our Business Intelligence team can contribute our expertise in indicator design, data architecture, and predictive modelling. In turn, I have learned a great deal from my colleagues in the BDEx project group about Theory of Change and Data Development. It is truly a mutually beneficial relationship.
How have you used the BDEx so far?
Theory of Change is a framework commonly used across the VCSE and increasingly within Public Health. However, it was relatively unheard of in the wider public sector. While working with my VCSE colleagues on the BDEx project team, we ran some lunch and learn sessions where I was introduced to this framework and its implementation methods. I immediately saw its applications for the work we do at the Council and set about adapting it to make it more relevant to our operations. We call this approach the ‘Evaluation Framework,’ and it has become one of the Business Intelligence team’s key service offerings.
What is a key benefit of being a member of the BDEx, in your view?
I would just like to end with a small note of thanks. The Bucks Data Exchange is more than just a web-platform; it is a place where people from different sectors can come together to learn from one another towards the common goal of adding social value. This project and the people who are working on it have been and continue to be incredible.
