How the University of Veracruz used data visualisation to help develop the state’s Observatory on Food Security and Nutrition

Background

The University of Veracruz was established in 1944 and is considered the state’s premier institution of higher education. The university now has a presence in five university regions and 28 municipalities. The university works with many national and state-level organisations that are seeking to improve the lives of people living in Veracruz.

The Faculty of Nutrition, Xalapa, which belongs to the Universidad Veracruzana, works in partnership with other agencies and hosts the Centre for Food Security and Nutrition State of Veracruz (OBSAN). The Observatory’s mission is is to provide a platform that provides information on food security and nutrition in the State of Veracruz and to contributes to decision-making and policy development.

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Using data reporting to turn a data rich resource into useful intelligence for council employees and partner organisations

 

Hertfordshire is located just to the north of London and stands astride the key road and rail routes between London and the major cities of the Midlands and North. It also borders the counties of Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Essex. It has a population of just over 1 million. Hertfordshire County Council is committed to publishing its data to demonstrate transparency in operations and to allow access to information free of charge.

The council encourages greater use of data so that citizens are able to challenge and scrutinise what the council does. Much of this data is being made available through the Hertfordshire Local Information System (http://www.HertsLIS.org). Content includes economic statistics, community safety, socio-economic data, public health and area profiles, and demographic data. HertsLIS was developed by Community Information and Intelligence Unit (CIIU) which is managed by Bernard Thirkettle.

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OCSI Data Packs Version 2.4 gives Local Information Systems latest data

The Data Packs version 2.4 update provides users with the latest data, benchmarks and outputs available for all geographies.

Major new datasets in this version include:

• Pupil attainment by location of educational institution,
• Employment by occupation group.

Major updated datasets include:

• Mortality rates from key conditions,
• Local Alcohol Profile,
• Earnings by place of work and residence,
• Outcomes and performance measures for children in care and at risk children,
• Fuel Poverty rate.

The full lists of new and updated datasets, including details of all indicators in the Data Packs can be requested from us.

Major new datasets

Pupil attainment by location of education institution The Department for Education have published information about the GCSE and equivalent  results for pupils at the end of Key Stage 4 (KS4) in maintained schools in England. The results are for the 2010/11 academic year. Unlike previous pupil attainment results, contained

within the Data Packs, this data shows results based on location of where pupils went to school rather than their local residence. For the first time, the GCSE data also includes information on pupils taking the English Baccalaureate and on pupils making expected progress in English and Maths. Data is provided in Data Packs down to Local Authority level.

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UK InstantAtlas User Conferences – Review

This year’s InstantAtlas User Conferences were held in Rochdale at the Town Hall and in London at the London Council Buildings. Both offered attendees a mix of presentation and open discussion as well as the opportunity to learn more about examples of leading applications of InstantAtlas (IA) products from established users.

IAUC Rochdale review by John Patterson, Research & Intelligence Officer, Blackpool Council

Extracts taken from John’s review, the full post is available here

If you haven’t come across InstantAtlas(IA) before it’s currently one of two things:

• If you are like me and you have a very small budget for research software then it’s a desktop GIS tool which creates various interactive atlases (like this one).
• If you have a much larger budget, then it leans more toward a data storing, profile generating, atlas creating server software (like this one).

IAUC London review by Julian Tyndale-Biscoe

The London conference kicked off with a welcome and introduction from Stephen Croney Corporate GIS & Information Manager, London Borough of Newham and Geowise Managing Director, Mike Forster. With the London event hot on the heels of the northern conference Mike said both events were designed to help users understand how data visualisation is helping IA customers meet their goals. He said they were a great opportunity to hear about what developments were being planned for the suite of InstantAtlas products.

Read the full review here 

How Wolverhampton’s Local Information System is driving consistency of data use and helping deliver evidence-based strategic planning

Background

The Corporate Strategy and Improvement Unit at Wolverhampton City Council provides statistics, information, research and intelligence for decision making and is responsible for demographic data held by the council.

Debbie Turner, Policy Officer (Research & Information) in the Unit, says the decision to develop a Local information System (LIS) came from a recognition that data wasn’t being used effectively and that there was a great deal of duplication of effort when it came to local intelligence.

“We were getting a lot of requests for the same information, often from the people working together on the same projects or in the same service while at the same time we knew there was good work going on in pockets across the council and other organisations,” she says. “We also spent a lot of our time co-ordinating data collection from a range of services for people within the council or for partner organisations.”

Debbie says one of their key aims was to improve information management and to ensure that the most up-to-date data, from the right sources was being used. The Unit started to develop a business case for an LIS and created a project group consisting of key strategic partners from across the city. The business case was signed off in September 2010 and the Unit set about a tender process. After assessing three bids InstantAtlas was awarded the contract.

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Cumbria Intelligence Observatory – ‘Bringing consistency to statutory assessment through online data visualisation’

Background

Cumbria County Council has been using InstantAtlas to develop interactive online reports that have been used to support work around statutory assessments. Rebecca Raw is Research, Information and Intelligence Officer within the Performance & Intelligence Unit at the council. Several years ago the team was asked to put together area profiles that could be used by council officers to better understand the profile of local areas. Data was collected and presented in spreadsheets. However, as Rebecca explains: “we found that circulating complex spreadsheets was not ideal”.

 “Through our involvement with the Cumbria Intelligence Observatory project we discovered that Cumbria PCT was using InstantAtlas and there was a strong feeling amongst Observatory partners that we should do the same.”

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Helping local communities in Trafford represent themselves and highlight their needs using an online interactive data hub

Background

Trafford Council has been an advocate of open data since May 2010 when the council took the decision to create an open data page on its website to allow access to numerous data it collects. This includes: council tax, business rates, location data, such as for schools and leisure centres and election results.

However, it wanted to use the data more effectively to create an intelligence resource. With NESTA funding and support from a steering group which included other Greater Manchester local authorities it embarked on an initiative called DataGM – a platform that would allow data sharing across Greater Manchester.

Alongside its work with DataGM, Trafford also wanted to develop its own data sharing initiative and went out to tender for a solution that would enable it to develop what it saw as a data observatory for Trafford.

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East Riding Data Observatory – Supporting the localism agenda in the East Riding of Yorkshire through a data presentation initiative

Background

The East Riding Observatory is an online resource that provides easy access to population, economic, community safety, health and education data for local authorities, partner agencies and communities across the East Riding of Yorkshire. The East Riding Data Observatory is a member of the Humber Data Observatory Group. Other Observatories in this group are: North Lincolnshire Council, North East Lincolnshire and Kingston upon Hull.

Gareth Hughes is senior research officer at the Observatory. He explains that Regional Improvement and Efficiencies Partnership (RIEP) funding was made available and Humber Data Observatory Group members were asked to highlight areas for investment.

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IPPR – How a UK think tank is using data presentation turn a project on the needs of older people in London into a useful resource

Background

IPPR, the Institute for Public Policy Research, is the UK’s leading progressive think tank, producing rigorous research and innovative policy ideas. IPPR publishes more than 50 reports each year and it uses its website as a hub for progressive thinking.

Getting started

One of its recent projects was supported by the City Bridge Trust – a charity that supports charitable activity benefitting Greater London. The project culminated in a report Older Londoners that highlighted the urgent need to tackle social isolation among the oldest members in society. It found that the number of people in London aged over-65 is expected to rise by a third in the next 20 years and those aged over 90, by 95 per cent.

Senior research fellow Kayte Lawton says: “It was a project looking at ageing and growing problems faced by the over-80s. This is a group of people who are often classed with the over-65s but we wanted to differentiate the needs of this older group. They often have greater social care and health needs.”

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How the London Borough of Newham is supporting evidence-based policy-making and decision-making through data presentation

Background

Newham Info is the name given to the London Borough of Newham’s information and intelligence hub. The idea started out as a data and statistics hub with an associated website which came online in late 2003. However, the vision was to develop an observatory and create a resource where users could find data from a wide range of sources and covering a wealth of issues to support evidence-based policy-making across the public sector in the borough. 

 

Getting started

Stephen Croney is Information Manager, Improvement and Performance Service in Policy, Partnerships and Communications at the London Borough of Newham. He joined the council in 2009 with responsibility for the boroughs GIS systems and turning the existing data store into an observatory that focused more on making information easier to access and use, ‘Telling the Newham Story’.  “The idea was to have a site that could be used by anyone to improve decision-making, support partnership working and better prepare the borough, its partners and stakeholders for the future,” he says.

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Poole Partnership | ‘Providing an information resource to help commissioners of childrens’ services address local priorities’

Background

Poole Partnership is the Local Strategic Partnership for Poole. It involves community, voluntary and faith groups, working together with businesses and the public sector. It  aims to achieve long-term improvements to the quality of life for people living in Poole.

We spoke to Sara Ireland, Senior Research Officer, about the project. “It originated from work with a children and young people’s dataset that we had been working on for a number of years. We realised we were sitting on a large amount of information and were only able to do a limited amount with it – so we wanted to find a way of getting it into the public domain in a friendly format,” she says.

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Image Credit – Jim Linwood