July 2009 Newsletter No. 90 s w e N a i r a
supporting local researchers in the public sectorL
LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION www.laria.gov.uk
Also inside this issue Saving Cambridgeshire's Post Offices, Census Questions, 40 Years of Cheshire R&I
News Laria Contents
Contents Page
From the Chair - Andy Davis 1
Laria Conference 2009 - University of Loughborough 2
Proposals for the 2011 Census: the selection of topics 10 and questions in England and Wales
ONS Centre for Regional and Local Statistics (CRLS) 16
SOS - Save Our Stores: Using Research to help limit 18 Post Office Closures in Cambridgeshire
Hearing from both sides: 20 Older people, dignity, and home care in Newcastle
A ‘secret citizen’ experience of contacting Essex County Council 22 for information on care options and residential homes
How employee surveys are getting it wrong 23
LARIA Excellence in Research Award 2009 25
The Young Researcher Network - your chance to get involved 25
40 Years of Cheshire County Council R & I 27
LARIA Annual General Meeting 2009 29
LARIA’s new website launched 29
Book Review 30
ALGIS in LARIA Update 31
Westminster City Council’s Research and Consultation Team 31
Statutory Requirements for Research in Central 33 and Local Government in Scotland
R & I News 34
LARIA People 41
Guide for Contributors 42
Next Issue 42
Just the Job 42
This edition was produced by Anne Cunningham, Alan Holcroft, Spencer Payne, Graham Smith, Richard Stevens, Joy Thompson, Mike Towers, John Wicks, David Wilburn.
LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria From the Chair
Hello, and welcome to this edition of This is where LARIA LariaNews. can truly demonstrate its real strength. As a We held another very successful LARIA Annual support network for Conference at the end of March, this time round at researchers across the Loughborough University. Our theme for the public sector, it Conference was ‘Rising to the Challenge’, and clearly provides an excellent there are plenty of challenges facing us as mechanism for some researchers at the moment! I hope that if you were real sharing of the at the Conference you found it useful and relevant, knowledge and and that you also had the opportunity to catch up expertise around how with friends and colleagues from elsewhere. we are tackling both the current and This edition of LariaNews contains a brief summary emerging agendas. It Andy Davis of each of the Conference sessions, and many of the provides a great presentations are also available on our website, opportunity for you to www.laria.gov.uk, if you were unable to attend the really promote the projects that you complete, show event. the outcomes that these have in our local communities, and also to share experiences around Speaking of the website, we will shortly be launching how you have tackled issues which others may be just the new LARIA website, bringing a fresh new look starting or struggling to get to grips with. and feel to the site. It will also have some new functionality to enable to enable you to better share Add into the mix increasingly scarce resources across your ideas and work with other researchers and to the public sector, and it becomes more obvious that promote what you are doing. we can’t, and indeed shouldn’t, all need to try to re-invent the wheel in everything we do. LARIA is And the LARIA Events Group is currently planning here for you to for share ideas and experiences, raise the events and activities we will be putting on over your profile, and also seeking out new opportunities the coming year. It promises to be a very varied for partnership working. There is some fantastic work programme, reflecting in more detail some of those being delivered by researchers in the public sector themes that were picked up during our Conference. leading to real outcomes, so we shouldn’t be afraid For example, one event of note - particularly for to shout about it more. researchers in Scotland - is the LARIA in Scotland Conference taking place on October 8th, which will See you next time, and I hope you have an enjoyable give an opportunity to explore a range of issues Summer. specific to the public sector in Scotland. Again, details of all of our events will be on the website, so it is worth checking back regularly.
The diverse range of topics covered at this year’s Conference highlighted the array of skills, knowledge and expertise which we all increasingly need to be Andy Davis armed with as researchers, and also the vast and Chair, LARIA widening scope of the projects we are getting involved in.
Page 1 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria LARIA Conference 2009 - University of Loughborough
LARIA’s annual conference was held at the University of Loughborough from 30 March to 1 April. The theme of this year’s conference was “Rising to the Challenge: Research for Policy 2009”.
Day One – Monday 30 March Professor John Benington, Warwick Business School and Chair of LARCI, opened this year’s LARIA Conference with a very thought-provoking and lively
Paula Black The study resulted in changes to policies aimed at assisting less well off households.
Stuart Booker from Fife Council followed with an account of the background and findings of the recently published ‘Hexagon’ Report on Statutory Requirements for Research in Scottish Central & Local
John Benington presentation. Arguing that we are currently in a period of immense and profound change, certainly much bigger than many of us understand at the moment, he emphasised how changes will impact on all areas of our lives, business, and society, and will also prompt a shift in the role that local authorities have to play. He challenged councils and local partnerships to develop a 'Place Shield' rather than maintaining and promoting the current emphasis Stuart Booker around their role as 'Place Shapers'. Government, funded by the Scottish Government and LARIA. Looking specifically at the statutory Stream 1 requirements for research in local government, Stuart Stream one was led off by Paula Black of Brighton described the remit of the study, its methodology and and Hove City Council. Paula discussed how the the actions arising, including capacity building, Council had commissioned OSCI (Oxford Consultants strategic planning of research and co-operation in for Social Inclusion) to undertake a poverty mapping data sharing. The Report demonstrates how the exercise as part of a ‘reducing inequality’ review. demand for research has continued to grow, yet the OSCI made extensive use of the modelling of Index capacity to undertake the research has not kept up. of Multiple Deprivation scores down to Census Output Area level, with 'surprising' findings. This Stream 2 prompted a big debate in Brighton amongst elected In the parallel stream two, Joanna Sumner and members, particularly when the proportion of Rachel Duke from Hackney LB’s Policy & deprived households living outside of areas receiving Performance team joined with Tanya Parkinson targeted funding was revealed. from Continental Research to give a thought-
Page 2 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria LARIA Conference 2009 - University of Loughborough cont...
political process and institution, local government would need a greater focus on providing more efficient and effective local services, and a commitment to better value for money. Tim saw real opportunities for local authority researchers to help inform improvements in local public services, and encouraged them to be innovative; collaborate with local and regional partners; involve local people; and find ways to build capacity for high quality local research.
Day Two – Tuesday 31 March Delegates had the choice of two alternative streams: Tanya Parkinson, Joanna Sumner and Rachel Duke Stream 1 provoking presentation on the use of the ‘Hackney Tuesday morning in the Stanford Room began with a Matters’ online e-panel to engage with citizens. The talk by Caroline Masundire, Rocket Science UK, and session focused on ‘clean streets’, and investigated Steve Browning from the Big Lottery Fund, on the perceptions of cleanliness held by different “Community Empowerment through Asset Transfer”. community groups. The research showed that dealing with the problem involves several council services – not street-sweeping alone. There were signs of the development of a culture which values research, and of willingness among a wide range of citizens to be involved in improving services.
This was followed by a session from Tim Allen, Director of LGAR (Local Government Association Analysis and Research), on addressing the challenges
Steve Browning and Caroline Masundire The talk described the aims of the Asset Transfer programme: strengthening the third sector, improving community access to quality facilities, and improving local partnership working. The speakers also summarised emerging findings from an ongoing evaluation at the programme, project and community levels: http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/ qa_eval_comm_assets_prog.htm
Tim Allen This was followed by a particularly well illustrated facing local authorities in the future. These included: presentation from Ann Griffiths and Colin Green, the impact of a global economy and the current from Surrey County Council and Surrey Police recession; climate change, population growth and a respectively, concerning the Surrey Improvement greater demand on finite resources; and the Partnership experience of Neighbourhood increasing complexity in service delivery, such as Engagement. Ann and Colin outlined the processes personalisation of services and partnership working. involved in their particular way of attempting to Against a backdrop of declining public trust in the understand their communities, which involved community engagement, data sharing and joint
Page 3 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria LARIA Conference 2009 - University of Loughborough cont...
The Stream 1 session after lunch was the first of the day given by ONS, at which Garnett Compton began by looking at issues around the planning of the 2011 Census, a topic which drew a good deal of interest and comment.
ONS then provided a double-headed and lively presentation on 2011 census matters. Owen Abbott, Methodology Directorate, opened with a
Ann Griffiths and Colin Green commissioning. Using a ‘Heat Map’ and Communities Index, they were able to demonstrate how the project team was able to read local needs and priorities.
Following the morning break, the stream continued with a presentation entitled “Community Empowerment through Participatory Budgeting” given by Abigail Pennington of Wirral Council and ONS presenters Garnet Compton, Duncan Swan of Mott MacDonald. Helen Bray and Owen Abbott description of the approach being taken to maximize coverage – including the post-Census coverage assessment exercise. After providing an overview of the major problems encountered with the 2001 Census, he explained the approach to estimating the numbers likely to be ‘missed’ in 2011. The post- Census survey will involve interviewer visits to 1% of postcodes in England & Wales (around 320,000 households), and information gained will be ‘matched’ with actual Census responses. New data collected will be used to assess the Census undercount and profile household types so that the final data published for 2011 is truly ‘One Number’. Duncan Swan and Abigail Pennington The second part of the presentation was given by The presentation focussed on how area forum Helen Bray who is leading the ONS Stakeholder structures were used for the ‘You Decide’ marketing and communications team. Helen participatory budgeting pilots to determine how described the ongoing work to ensure that the councillors should spend £20,000 on local projects in address list used for the Census is of the highest each area forum. Use of various survey possible quality. Local government involvement is methodologies - random postal, web-based and on- considered critical, and Census Liaison Managers are street – produced results that were presented to required in every local authority to help with this task. Councillors as local priorities. Evaluating this well- publicised project through focus groups, it was found Questions came thick and fast, with topics including to be popular with participants and to have increased coverage of communal establishments (yes, they will the transparency and understanding of budgeting be included in the Census coverage survey); dealing processes. with two-tier authorities; liaising with PCTs to access
Page 4 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria LARIA Conference 2009 - University of Loughborough cont... patient data on households/addresses, and the need opportunities such as Wikis, Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, for as much Census publicity as possible. U-Tube, Mash-Ups and Flickr for communicating and sharing information with their public. Karen examined Stream 2 what these various ‘Web 2.0’ technologies had to In the Normanton Room, this stream started with a offer, and discussed their uses and abuses, their benefits presentation from Jo Butcher of ENCAMS (soon to and their risks, urging researchers to get involved and revert to the name Keep Britain Tidy) on explore the potential of these applications.
Leonie McCarthy of the New Link Asylum & Migration Service and Rowena Sampson from Peterborough City Council gave a joint presentation
Jo Butcher Challenging Environments. Jo examined the extent to which local opinion data reflects the physical evaluation of the cleanliness of an area. She looked Leonie McCarthy and Rowena Sampson at work in the Nottingham area, and how a gap in this workshop describing the £2.2 million analysis helped assess resident priorities. Jo finished Government-funded multi-agency approach to by encouraging councils to conduct more qualitative managing the effects of a large and diverse work to talk with residents and understand their community of migrants in the dispersal area of priorities. Peterborough. The challenges faced by the existing communities were outlined and discussed and the Delegates attending this stream then split into three clear need to understand and deal with the fears and groups for workshop discussions. In a technologically prejudices in all communities affected was put across, enlivening and inspiring workshop session on the use with some practical examples of actions taken and of the internet to manage data, Karen Blakeman of the link with performance indicator NI 1. Rhodes Blakeman Associates explored the extent to which local authorities are exploiting frontier internet The third workshop, led by Jill Tuffnell of SQW
Karen Blakeman Jill Tuffnell
Page 5 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria LARIA Conference 2009 - University of Loughborough cont...
Consulting, was a timely presentation on how local authorities can find out about their local economy. Jill examined a range of national datasets which local authorities can use, which included information about the local population available from the Census and Labour Force Survey; as well as information on the local workforce and local commuting patterns. To supplement this national data, local authorities should be able to access a range of information about local businesses, local surveys by business organisations, local directory databases and modelled data. Jill outlined some of the advantages and disadvantages of using different datasets, as well as James Ruiz tips and advice. In the second presentation, Brian Wilson of Brian Following lunch, Richard Bryan from QA Research Wilson Associates described how he had explored spoke about “Life After Care”, and a project in how far each of the 198 National Indicators is capable of disaggregation to small spatial units.
Richard Bryan Brian Wilson which six focus groups were used to explore the transition experienced by a varied group of young people from across England as they left the care The final presentation from Rob Radburn, system. Significant issues were raised about the lack Leicestershire County Council, described how of stability and support, such as multiple visualisation combined with marketing analysis accommodation moves and transient key workers, explored questions involving the identification of whilst young people aspired to a stable and independent life. The resultant report very much reaffirmed previous findings about this issue: http://www.qaresearch.co.uk/downloads
Stream 2 concluded with three excellent ‘Showcase’ presentations of 10 minutes each.
The first, from James Ruiz of Ealing Council, described how he designed and led a series of research training sessions aimed at Council staff involved in research and consultation activities across all services. The presentation reviewed the course content, participant response and future training plans. Rob Radburn
Page 6 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria LARIA Conference 2009 - University of Loughborough cont... libraries’ “best users”, the behaviour of priority Day Three – Wednesday 1 April groups, and patterns in space and time. Delegates again had the choice of two alternative streams, each containing three presentations, The second day’s programme was rounded off with a followed by the closing plenary session. plenary presentation from Hendrik Grothuis and Michael Soper of Cambridgeshire County Council, Stream 1 winners of the 2008 LARIA Excellence in Research In a well-supported opening session, Tom Wraith Award, in which they expounded on their successful and Marko Stojovic from the Audit Commission research project ‘SOS - Saved our Stores: Using discussed the background to the Place Survey and the Research and Information to Protect Post Offices from Closure’. Mike and Hendrik presented the research work undertaken in Cambridgeshire to support local partners to reduce the impact of post office closures. The research team built a detailed data model to describe all the issues that would influence the decision to keep or close any of the post offices in the area. This work was successfully used by partner agencies to minimise the number of post office closures. The role played by local government researchers and the impact they can have on issues such as this was discussed. You can read more about this winning project on p18. Marko Stojovic and Tom Wraith The LARIA Annual General Meeting (see page 29) current situation in terms of the publication of drew the afternoon to a close. The day then findings. The role of the CLG in reviewing the culminated in a visit to the National Space Centre findings before publication was explained, before the in Leicester, where delegates were entranced by the session moved on to the importance of research superb display of space equipment and ephemera, evidence in the Comprehensive Area Assessment including exhibits of the ‘real things’ and an all- (CAA). In particular, the role of the Audit Commission round cinema experience taking them to the edge of in looking at local information sources was outlined, the universe – and back again. This was and the Commission’s work with councils to draw out complemented by an excellent dinner set amidst the the value of the findings discussed. Space Centre’s exhibition area, followed by the presentation of the LARIA Excellence in Research This theme was picked up by Rowena Sampson Award 2008 (sponsored by CACI Ltd) to from Peterborough City Council and Catherine Cambridgeshire County Council delegates. Wilburn from NWA Social Research, who together showed how a local authority could draw out more value from their Place Survey findings. Catherine
LARIA Chair Andy Davis and the winning Cambridgeshire team Catherine Wilburn
Page 7 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria LARIA Conference 2009 - University of Loughborough cont... presented analysis which showed different resident priorities in urban inner city and rural areas. This was backed up by regression analysis and findings from focus groups in those areas, including video footage. She went on to show that these area differences could be masked by focusing on the average score across the council area as a whole. The session encouraged all councils to dig a little deeper into the findings and present more than just the headline figures.
In the absence of the advertised speaker for the next session, John Maslen from Geowise kindly and Sam Woods and Anne Forshaw provide a service that informs practice and makes a real difference.
Next up in this stream was a presentation entitled “Back to the future – Research to inform the Sustainable Community Strategy” by Mark Yeadon, London Borough of Waltham Forest and Kirstin McLarty, Ipsos Mori. They described a deliberative
John Maslen bravely stepped in at the last minute to deliver a workshop on empowering citizens and communities with information. The session looked at how best to achieve this, and some of the relevant actions, needs and tools, raising particular areas for consideration such as the digital divide, information overload and information gatekeeper issues. Wider publication of information and the interpretation of it by interested Mark Yeadon and Kirstin McLarty parties were also deliberated during some lively debate. approach to formulating a sustainable community strategy that had been highly commended by the Stream Two LARIA ‘Excellence in Research’ judging panel. In a Anne Forshaw, M-E-L Research and Sam Woods, series of four workshops, participants mapped a West Midlands Police, presented work that had been journey over time as to how they could get to their undertaken in the “Feeling The Difference Survey”, versions of Heaven or Hell for the Borough. This which consults with over 21,000 people each year. timeline focussed on what tipping points or triggers Anne described the methodology used, and Sam were needed and how cumulative changes can result followed up by presenting some of the results from in a better outcome in the longer term – the ‘future the survey, and some examples of how the findings backwards’ technique. had been used by West Midlands Police. The work was intended to supplement the data from the Judy Parry et al from Cheshire County Council, in a British Crime Survey and Place Surveys, and by final presentation in this stream, described their understanding community requirements it aims to award-winning work to reduce road traffic accidents
Page 8 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria LARIA Conference 2009 - University of Loughborough cont... on a major Cheshire road - ‘Improving Road Safety on the A41 Chester’. The project consisted of several defined stages. First came the initial analysis of the accidents that had taken place, and the identification of a ‘typical’ person involved in accidents on this stretch of road. Secondly, focus groups were held with people that fitted the profile of accident participants, while road traffic engineers developed measures to improve certain junctions. Thirdly, focus groups were used to develop an education campaign, which was then implemented. Finally, the impact of the campaign was measured by using further focus groups. Overall it was shown that the scheme had reduced accidents on the road Michael Blastland significantly. Hopefully stimulated by everything that they had seen and heard, both from the speakers and from To close this year’s Conference, journalist, writer, and colleagues in the research business, delegates picked broadcaster Michael Blastland gave a fascinating, up their LARIA-emblazoned shoulder bags and data engaging and uplifting perspective on the use of sticks, together with various other items from the data and statistics by and about the public sector. many exhibition stands, and set off to explore their Using some very familiar examples, Michael's own local universes. presentation was a real lesson to us all on how the data we all use, analyse, and share with others can This summary was collated by Bob Cuthill from often be interpreted and presented in ways based notes provided by the chairs and facilitators of more on perception and misjudgment than on truth. the various sessions. At a time when high profile use of data and statistics is so often headline news, it was refreshing and Next year’s Conference will be held at Royal educational to hear how some of our work is both Holloway College, London from April 12th to used and abused. 14th, 2010. Advertisement
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Page 9 The Old Grammar School, Derby Road, Farnworth Village, Widnes, Cheshire WA8 9LG. 0800 542 0700 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria Proposals for the 2011 Census: the selection of topics and questions in England and Wales
By Ian White, Office for National Statistics The Census questions The topics proposed for the Census are those that The UK Statistics Authority’s proposals for the have been shown to be most needed by local next Census in England and Wales, to be taken authorities and other major users of census in March 2011, were published and presented to information, and for which questions have been Parliament and the National Assembly for Wales devised that can be expected to produce reliable and in a Government White Paper on 11 December. accurate data. In each case, no other comparable and (Similar proposals for the Census in Scotland accessible source of the information is available in were published on the same day, and those for combination with other items in the Census. Northern Ireland are expected to be published later this summer.) This article reports on the The topics that the UK Statistics Authority proposes questions that are being proposed in England should be included in the 2011 Census are listed in and Wales and notes the degree to which these Box 1. The following paragraphs note some of the are being harmonised across the rest of the UK. significant changes from the questions included in the 2001 Census. Consultation on topics with local authorities The topic content of the 2011 Census has been Box 1 Questions proposed for the 2011 Census driven principally by the demands and requirements in England and Wales of a wide range of users of census statistics, the evaluation of the 2001 Census, and the advice and At all properties occupied by households and for guidance of organisations with experience of similar all unoccupied household accommodation: operations. There has been extensive consultation, • Address, including the postcode. through a structure of formal advisory committees, public meetings, and via the Census website. For households • Number and names of all residents whether Consultation with local authorities, in particular, has present or temporarily absent on Census night; been managed through the CLIP Census Sub Group, • Tenure of accommodation; led on the LA side by John Hollis, and via the Local • Type of accommodation and whether or not it is Authority Liaison Programme. This programme is self-contained; being developed through a network of Census • Type of landlord (for households in rented Regional Champions appointed from among the accommodation); Regional Returning Officers for each of the nine • Number of rooms (and bedrooms*); Government Offices in the England Regions and the • Type of central heating*; and Returning Officer for Wales. Many LAs responded to • Number of cars and vans owned or available. the major consultation on topics carried out by ONS in 2005/06 and 2006/07. For all residents in households • Name, sex, and date of birth; The proposals for the Census also take account of • Marital status (including civil partnership status*); the results of a programme of research and testing • Relationship to others within the household; aimed at achieving a better understanding of the • Student status; public’s comprehension and perception of census- • Whether or not students live at enumerated related concepts. Question wording, questionnaire address during term time; design and delivery methods have all been subjected • Usual address one year ago; to small- and large-scale testing, including a major • Country of birth; Test in May 2007 in five local authorities, which was • Citizenship (passports held)*; reported upon in LariaNews 86 (see LARIA website at • Month and year of entry into the UK*; www.laria.gov.uk). • Intended length of stay in the UK*; • National identity* and ethnic group; • Religion; • Language*; Continued over
Page 10 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria Proposals for the 2011 Census: the selection of topics and questions in England and Wales cont...
Box 1 cont... establishing residency status, particularly for short- term migrants – the estimation of which is an issue of • Welsh language proficiency (in Wales only); particular concern to many local authorities. • General health; Information from the traditional question on country • Long-standing illness or disability; of birth will continue to provide information on ‘ever • Provision of unpaid personal care; migrants’, and together with a new question to • Educational and vocational qualifications; identify citizenship the information will provide • Second residences*; estimates of the numbers and circumstances of • Economic activity in the week before the Census; (sometimes small) immigrant communities from • Time since last employment; various countries, who may have particular needs. • Employment status; • Supervisor status; Second residence • Hours worked; In an attempt to improve Census coverage and to • Job title and description of occupation; better understand the reasons for undercoverage, • Name of employer and nature of employer’s ONS is building in more ways of assessing usual business at place of work (industry); residency by introducing new questions on second • Workplace address; and residence and the reasons for staying at such an • Means of travel to work. address.
For all visitors in households Cultural characteristics • Name, sex, and date of birth; It is again proposed to include a question on ethnic • Usual address (or country of usual residence if a group in the 2011 Census to meet a wide range of non-UK resident). uses of ethnicity data. However, the response categories have been developed from the frame of For residents in communal establishments the 2001 Census question to meet changing user • As for residents in household except for the requirements, by including ‘Gypsy and Irish relationship to others within the household; Traveller’ and ‘Arab’. A further change is to move • Status of persons within the establishment. the ‘Chinese’ category from the ‘Other’ group to the ‘Asian/Asian British’ group. The proposed question in For communal establishments England is shown at Figure 1(a) on page 12. • Type of establishment. Ethnicity is clearly a dynamic characteristic when Topics marked* are proposed for inclusion in the considered nationally, and the Census must seek to Census in England and Wales for the first time. reflect this. However it is equally important to be able to compare the results from one Census to another, Civil partnership and to that end, the question must retain a degree of Following the implementation of the Civil Partnership stability over time. In order to make provision for Act 2004, the traditional question on marital status everybody, regardless of their broad ethnic group, to has been expanded to include response categories indicate their identity as being British, English or for civil partnership status. Welsh (or Scottish or Northern Irish, etc), a new additional and separate component to the question New migration questions will ask about national identity (Figure 1(b)). In As in every Census since 1961, a question will ask Wales, the categories/tick boxes for ‘English’ and about the usual address of each person one year ‘Welsh’ will be transposed. before the Census. However, additional questions new to the Census in 2011 will also ask about the month and year of entry to the UK and intended length of stay in the UK for all those persons born outside UK. This is to provide a better way of
Page 11 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria Proposals for the 2011 Census: the selection of topics and questions in England and Wales cont...
Figure 1 - The proposed 2011 Census questions and in particular the impact of English (or Welsh) on ethnicity and national identity in England language ability on employment and other social inclusion indicators, the 2011 Census will include (a) Ethnicity question in England new questions on main language used and, for those whose main language is not English, their ability in speaking English (Figure 2).
Figure 2 The proposed 2011 Census questions on language in England
Health In addition to the now usual question on long-term illness, a general health question will again ask the respondents to assess their own health over the preceding 12 months, but this time on a five-point scale ranging from ‘Very good’ to ‘Very bad’. This expands upon the three response categories in the 2001 Census question.
Qualifications A question on educational and vocational qualifications will again be included to assess educational achievement and labour market participation across the population. However the separate 2001 question on particular professional qualifications is not being retained; instead there will be a response category for ‘professional qualifications’ to be recorded. (b) National identity question in England To better understand the diversity of the population, Questions on visitors Traditionally each decennial census covers all the people in England and Wales. But prior to the 2001 Census, local authority users in particular expressed a strong preference for the Census to count persons at their place of residence, whether or not they were actually present there on Census night. This change was thus made in 2001, and it was also decided not to count visitors in order to reduce the burden on the public.
Page 12 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria Proposals for the 2011 Census: the selection of topics and questions in England and Wales cont...
There is some evidence, however, that this failure to at a person’s workplace has been omitted from the attempt to capture visitors, and the resulting lack of 2011 proposals. clarity as to where visitors should be recorded, were two of the factors that led to the undercoverage in UK harmonisation the 2001 Census. Consequently, although ONS proposes ONS has been working closely with the Census again to enumerate persons where they are usually Offices in Scotland and Northern Ireland to ensure as resident, some limited information on visitors present much comparability as possible of topics and in households on Census night – covering name, questions, in order to maximise the harmonisation of sex, date of birth and usual address (or country statistical outputs across the United Kingdom. This is of residence for non-UK residents) - will also be necessary to fulfil not only the commitment of the collected, and separate counts produced where National Statistician and the Registrars General to required. meet domestic users’ need for UK outputs, but also the UK’s obligation to provide consistent statistics to Questions about the household’s accommodation Eurostat and the United Nations. In addition to the long-standing census question on number of rooms, a new question is proposed which Figure 3 (see p14) summarises the degree of seeks to identify the number of bedrooms. harmonisation across the UK for those topics and questions that are currently being planned for the 2001 questions not included in 2011 2009 Rehearsal in England, Wales and Northern Consultation on the topic content for the 2011 Ireland in October (the Rehearsal in Scotland was Census has (as ever) resulted in a much larger carried out in March). LariaNews readers should note, demand for questions than it would be possible to however, that the proposals for the questions in accommodate on a Census form that households Northern Ireland have not yet been formally agreed could reasonably be expected to complete. with the Assembly there and must therefore be Consequently a number of difficult decisions have regarded, for the moment, as provisional only. The had to be made in assessing the different questions for these topics and all the other 2011 Census requirements for information and balancing the questions will not be finalised until Parliament and needs for change against continuity. A number of the devolved legislatures approve them in secondary questions included in 2001 have not been retained in legislation, towards the end of 2009/early 2010. the proposals for 2011. Further details The traditional question on whether or not households Fuller details of the proposals for topics and questions have exclusive use of either a bath/shower or toilet in the 2011 Census are set out in the White Paper, amenities, or both, is no longer regarded as which is available from the Census website at: providing a sufficiently discriminating indicator in the http://www.ons.gov.uk/census/2011-census/ allocation of resources for housing development and 2011-census-project/legislation/index.html regeneration. Consequently, this question has been dropped from the 2011 Census, as has the question The next issue of LariaNews will include a on lowest floor level of accommodation. A new summary of the methodological and operational question on the type of central heating means, developments designed to improve coverage in however, that basic housing standards will continue the 2011 Census and the quality of the resulting to be reflected, and this information will be used by statistical outputs. central government, local authorities and other users to facilitate work on fuel poverty and deprivation. For further information, please contact Ian These requirements have been reinforced by new White ([email protected]) and emerging needs for better information on renewable energy and energy efficiency. Of the labour market topics, only the often poorly- answered question on number of people employed
Page 13 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria Proposals for the 2011 Census: the selection of topics and questions in England and Wales cont...
Figure 3 Harmonisation of 2011 Census questions across the UK Topic/question Comparability across the UK* Major differences
Full Partial Incomplete None
Demographic topics Sex Date of birth Marital/civil partnership status Relationship within household
Schoolchild and full-time students separately Student status identified in Scottish rehearsal, but may be harmonised in 2011
Term-time address for students Migration topics Country of birth Question in Northern Ireland limited to entry Month/year of entry to UK to Northern Ireland Intention to stay Not included in Scotland Address 1 year before Census Citizenship Not included in Scotland Second residence England and Wales only Cultural topics Different question designs in Scotland and National identity Northern Ireland Different response tick boxes in Scotland and Ethnicity Northern Ireland Some different response tick boxes Religion in Scotland and different question design in Northern Ireland
Wales only. Questions to be included on Welsh language Gaelic in Scotland and on Irish and Ulster Scots in Northern Ireland
Main language Question on ‘language other than English used in the home’ to be asked in Scotland Question in England, Wales and Northern Proficiency in English Ireland to be asked only of those whose main language is not English Health-related topics General health status Long-term illness/disability
Nature of long-term illness/disability Not in England and Wales
Page 14 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria Proposals for the 2011 Census: the selection of topics and questions in England and Wales cont...
Topic/question Comparability across the UK* Major differences
Full Partial Incomplete None Provision of care Education topics
Different response categories in Scotland and Qualifications Northern Ireland to reflect different educational systems and treatment of foreign qualifications
Labour market topics Economic activity status Time since last employment Employment status Supervisor status Open (write-in) question to be included in Hours worked Scotland Occupation Industry Scotland and Northern Ireland to include Workplace address address of place of study
Some different response tick boxes in Scotland Means of travel to work and Northern Ireland, where question also includes travel to place of study
Household accommodation, amenities and income
Tenure of accommodation Type of accommodation Type of landlord Number of rooms Number of bedrooms England and Wales only Type of central heating Number of cars/vans Accessibility for disabled Northern Ireland only
Household income Scotland only * Full comparability across the UK = more or less the Incomplete comparability = topic where questions same question for all countries would be significantly different and would enable Partial comparability across the UK = same topic but only a broad level of statistical comparability different question wording, which would cause only No comparability = question would not be included minor loss of statistical comparability in one or more countries Page 15 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria ONS Centre for Regional and Local Statistics (CRLS)
By Judith Jones • nine Regional Statisticians working with the Beginnings of CRLS Regional Development Agencies and other regional During 2008, ONS considered the future organisation bodies across England; of work on regional and local statistics. In order to • the Neighbourhood Statistics (NeSS) website; make the best use of available analytical resource, it • Regional Trends; was decided to combine the activities of the Regional • Regional Snapshot; Economic Analysis Division (READ), including the • analytical outputs and guidance. Regional Statisticians, with those of the Regional Neighbourhood Outputs and Analysis Division CRLS will 'champion' requirements for regional and (RNOAD), best known for its Neighbourhood local statistics with producers in both ONS and the Statistics, Regional Trends and Regional Snapshot Government Statistical Service (GSS), and work with products. The new Centre for Regional and Local the Devolved Administrations to ensure consistent UK Statistics will develop and deliver a single coherent statistics where required. We will engage with users agenda for regional and local statistics. to establish their current and future needs, and seek feedback about the relevance of our statistical outputs. The CRLS came into formal existence on 1 November We are working closely with the Association of Regional 2008, and this article introduces the Centre and its Observatories (ARO) and Statistics Users Forum to set plans for the immediate future. up a Regional and Local Statistics User Group, which should meet for the first time later this year. Aims and responsibilities of the Centre Our aim is to provide statistics, analysis and advice to Regional Statisticians enable greater understanding of places and how they Regional Statisticians, based in each of the English compare and change over time, to underpin effective regions, are contributing to work to develop regional decision making in the regions, local authorities and strategies, which aim to improve economic neighbourhoods. This can be summarised as performance and reduce the gap in growth rates ‘Understanding Places’. between regions. Their role includes bringing knowledge from the regions into ONS; advising on The importance of regional and local statistics has GSS statistics and their use; and collaborating on continued to grow in recent years as more region-specific projects, the development of regional responsibility has been devolved to the countries of evidence bases, and Local Economic Assessments. the United Kingdom, English regions, sub-regions (including city-regions) and local authorities. Regional Neighbourhood Statistics and local bodies need a sound evidence base on Neighbourhood Statistics which to develop, implement, evaluate and monitor (www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk) was policies and interventions that will impact on the lives created to support neighbourhood renewal activity of residents. CRLS supports ‘evidence-based’ policy aimed at regenerating communities, promoting making by providing official statistics on the regions economic growth and tackling deprivation. Since the and smaller areas, and as such is responsible for: launch of the NeSS website in 2000 there has been continuous activity to improve its functionality, add and update data sets, and provide guidance on how to make the most effective use of the data. Further developments will be taken forward as part of a wider work programme to improve dissemination of information by ONS.
Regional outputs Regional Trends 41 is due out in late June (see http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/ Product.asp?vlnk=14356). It will again provide a wealth of information and insights into the regions Head of CRLS Judith Jones, with fellow and the differences between them. managers Paul Vickers and Dev Virdee
Page 16 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria ONS Centre for Regional and Local Statistics (CRLS) cont...
Regional Snapshot provides additional interesting Products facts and figures about Wales, Scotland, Northern A number of innovative new products have been Ireland and each of the English regions. Information produced by the Centre, including: about 'Regional Snapshot' and the new 'Regional Statistics Directory of Online Tables' can be found via • CommuterView - takes 2001 Census Travel To these links: Work Area (TTWA) data and presents the information in a highly interactive way on a free • http://www.statistics.gov.uk/ DVD. The product is complemented by regionalsnapshot/ CommuterFlows, which provides all the underlying • http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/ Origin-Destination Census data. Product.asp?vlnk=14161 • Atlas of Deprivation - information from the Indices of Deprivation 2007 has been mapped to produce Analytical Work Programme the Atlas of Deprivation, available on a free CD. A significant aspect of the Centre’s work will be to • Change Over Time Analysis - the interactive improve understanding of economic and social ‘Change over Time Analysis Viewer’ supports change affecting regions and local areas - particularly existing guidance for analysing change within an the impact of the recession and, in due course, the area and is available free on CD (see subsequent upturn and recovery. Analytical work will http://tinyurl.com/5ksbyu). include identifying the determinants of regional • NeSS Data Exchange is an online service designed performance and growth, such as productivity, to make it easier to interrogate and engage with investment, skills, innovation and enterprise, and the Neighbourhood Statistics Datastore. Using producing regional breakdowns of Gross Value machine-to-machine technology, it allows users to Added (GVA) and productivity by sector. These import over 300 geographically referenced datasets developments will be reported regularly through into their local systems easily, quickly and free of articles in the Economic and Labour Market Review charge. More information can be found at (http://www.statistics.gov.uk/elmr/). http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/ dissemination/Info.do?page=nde.htm Analysis of social deprivation across regions and local authorities will help to improve the understanding of If you would like more information on CRLS, or inequality and disadvantage and its impact on individuals any of the products above, please email and communities. This work will look at many factors [email protected] including poverty, income and social inclusion.
Along with Communities and Local Government and the ONS Centre for Demography, CRLS will contribute to the Improving Migration and Population Statistics (IMPS) programme, to aid understanding of migration and its impact on regions.
Finally, CRLS will provide regional and local pictures of Britain through the analysis of key topics of interest, including worklessness, the economy, poverty, enterprise and health.
Page 17 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria SOS – Save Our Stores: Using Research to help limit Post Office Closures in Cambridgeshire
Here Michael Soper describes the innovative As a starting point for formulating the ‘data model’, project which won Cambridgeshire the LARIA the research team did a broad analysis of potential Excellence in Research Award 2008. issues that could influence decision making around post office closures. We settled on four main issues: Background Over the past eighteen months, Post Office Limited • Protecting areas of high deprivation has been carrying out the ‘Network Change • Protecting vulnerable groups within the population Programme’, including the compulsory closure of • Identifying areas of housing growth 2,500 branches. As closures were announced in each • Protecting isolated communities region, the issue become one of great significance for local communities, a big media story and a Areas of High Deprivation priority for councillors and their local authorities. Using the GIS, we were able to show which post offices fell within relatively deprived areas according The issue of potential post office closures was to the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD). Very few considered by the Cambridgeshire Local Area of the post offices were in areas that met the Agreement Board, which resolved to establish a national deprivation protection criteria set by the partnership group; the ‘Post Office Network Change government. However we were able to demonstrate Group’ (PONCG) to oversee work in the County to the difference in relative deprivation on a County and reduce the possible number of closures and their Regional scale and put forward a strong argument for impact. After examining experiences elsewhere in protecting a number of offices. England, it became apparent that the traditional way of fighting proposed closures - raising petitions, Vulnerable Groups running media campaigns or mounting counter We utilised the background information provided arguments once closures are announced - were with the MOSAIC1 demographic tool to identify proving ineffective. which household types were particularly dependent on Post Office services. We were then able, within For Cambridgeshire we decided to use our research the GIS, to combine the MOSAIC data with the post team to build a detailed ‘data model’ to describe all office buffers to produce a household profile for each the issues that would influence the decision to keep post office catchment. This was then used to rank or close any of the post offices in our area. From this, each post office in terms of the proportion of researchers formulated four key information areas ‘vulnerable’ households within its catchment. that could have a bearing upon the closures. This research work was then used as the focus for all our Housing Growth partner agency contact with Post Office Ltd, ahead We were able to cross-reference with existing work to of them starting work on the closures for our region. identify and monitor areas of major planned housing growth. We identified which sites fell close to existing Running the Research Project post office provision and were able to provide details The first stage in the work was to build a data set of of estimated development timetables. post office locations on a Geographical Information System (GIS), together with associated buffers Isolated Communities representing a catchment area around each. This was Approximately 60% of the population of then combined with a variety of other datasets. From Cambridgeshire and Peterborough live in areas this early modelling, it became apparent that the defined as rural by DEFRA (source: Classification of closure criteria set for Post Office Ltd by the Local Authorities 2005). We used demographic data government were sufficiently loose to bring nearly all (small area population estimates), travel times and the offices in the County under threat of possible details of the public transport network to describe closure. the nature and extent of rural isolation within the County. We also added details of fenland roads liable to flooding, in order to inform Post Office Limited’s model of ‘nearest alternative’ post offices in the event of a closure.
Page 18 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria SOS – Save Our Stores: cont...
Communicating the Results already existed within the County Council Research All the data was then brought together to form a Team. But of equal importance are the links made detailed picture for each post office. This allowed us during this project between the team and elected to make a detailed case for protection for a high members, policy officers and the communications proportion of the network in Cambridgeshire. We team. then communicated this to Post Office Ltd within a presentation and provided them with the detailed For further details, please contact Michael Soper work. at Cambridgeshire County Council ([email protected]) Elected members also participated in the dissemination of the results, and the local debate, Figure 1: Percentage of Post Office network particularly within the media, revolved around closed with no replacement outreach service protecting vulnerable communities and ensuring post provided. (Source: Post Office Ltd, Closure offices were not closed in areas of future growth. Announcement Documents, Spring 2009)
Based on experience elsewhere in the Country we had estimated likely closures in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough of between 30 and 40. When the closures were announced there were only 26, with 12 of those communities receiving alternative outreach services. We also received direct feedback from Post Office Ltd saying that they had shelved the possible closure of 3 out of 6 post offices in Cambridge City as a direct result of our submission.
Conclusions When the closures for Cambridgeshire were announced we managed to achieve a significant reduction in the number of closure announcements compared to other Counties [see Figure 1]. We also achieved a much higher rate of replacement ‘outreach’ services compared to other areas. The work of the research team was much praised, with considerable feedback pointing to the research, and the subsequent communication of it, as being fundamental to limiting the closures in our area.
Beyond the immediate impact on the County’s post office network, the research work to fight the post office closures has been used as part of Cambridgeshire County Council's annual ‘Direction of Travel Self Assessment’, (as required by the Audit Commission). Within the submission the work was identified as representing best practice.
Research has been highlighted in this case as a means for bringing partners together and as something of relevance and importance that can make a real difference. It was possible to carry out this work due to the capacity and knowledge that 1 MOSAIC – An economic / demographic model produced by Experian that is used to describe individual household characteristics Page 19 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria Hearing from both sides: Older people, dignity, and home care in Newcastle
By Louise Reeve service, and five with care workers employed by Care at Home. The main ethical concern was preserving Introduction participants’ confidentiality, so that they could speak In 2006, Ivan Lewis MP, the then Minister for Care freely and would not have any concerns about Services, launched the “Dignity in Care” campaign to possible effects of taking part on their employment promote dignity for older people receiving health and or the services they used. This was ensured by using social care. One year later, the “Putting People First” pseudonyms for each participant, with only the lead ministerial concordat set out the government’s vision researcher having access to the “key file” which for the transformation of adult social care, placing a contained their personal details, and keeping strong emphasis on personalisation, defined as transcripts and tapes either locked up or password- follows: “Every person who receives support, protected (if in electronic format). Before publishing whether provided by statutory services or funded by any findings, all the quotations selected for themselves, will have choice and control over the publication were checked and anonymised, ensuring shape of that support in all care settings”i. that no details which might be used to identify anyone taking part in the research had been left in. Newcastle City Council aims to respond to these challenges in a positive way. We discovered in doing Findings so that we needed to devise a better working The main findings were as follows. Firstly, the definition of dignity in care for use when making research confirmed that concepts of dignity decisions about care provision, good care practice, expressed in academic research and central and training for care workers. In December 2007, government policy were largely accurate in terms of therefore, I decided that I would choose older people how much they reflected the views of older people and dignity in care for my research topic for the receiving care and home care workers. In particular, dissertation for my MA degree in Applied Policy the following aspects of dignity were very important Research at Newcastle University. in home care:
The focus was on dignity and home care, because • Dignity as empathy: “Ensuring that policies and this is likely to be an increasingly important form of practices emphasise that service providers should care provision given the emphasis placed on personal always try to see things from the perspective of choice by the personalisation agenda, yet has the person receiving services.” remained “under-theorised and under-researched”ii. • Dignity and respect for autonomy: “Enabling people to maintain the maximum possible level of Methods and Ethics independence, choice and control”iii. Having chosen semi-structured interviews as the main research method, it was decided to interview Both older people and care workers strongly agreed both older people receiving care at home, and some with these ideas, making comments such as: of the care workers who provide it, in order to understand how dignity in care operates “on both • “I treat them with respect, and they treat me with sides”. respect.” (Older person) • “That’s what I always remember, it’s as if it was my A preliminary step was to undertake a review of family.” (Care worker) academic literature and central government policy papers which discussed concepts of dignity. This was done both to inform the interview questions, and to make it possible to compare how accurately these i Department of Health (2007b) "Personalisation - Department of Health concepts reflected what older people and care - Social Care". Accessible online at: http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/ workers thought about dignity. SocialCare/Socialcarereform/Personalisation/index.htm (last accessed 17/08/2008). ii Twigg, J. (1999) "The spatial ordering of care: public and private in A total of ten interviews were conducted in April- bathing at home". Sociology of Health and Illness, 21, 9, pp. 381-400. May 2008 – five with older people receiving care at iii These are the Dignity Challenges nos. 2 and 4, from the Social Care Institute for Excellence (2007) “Dignity in Care: Adult Services Practice home in Newcastle from the Council’s Care at Home Guide 9”. London, SCIE.
Page 20 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria Hearing from both sides: Older people, dignity, and home care in Newcastle cont... and, with regard to respecting people’s autonomy: importance of the “invisible labour” done by both older people and care workers in building good • “You’re there to help, not to take over.” relationships of mutual trust and respect, and also (Care worker) the importance of respecting older people’s • “Not overstepping the boundaries by just sort of autonomy. doing things… • “You don’t just put it [laundry] in, you’ve got to In the course of the research, considerable data was remember to ask them, ‘Do you want this washing also gathered on what people think about the home machine on yet?’” (Care worker) care service and how it might be improved. This has been analysed and presented to Newcastle City This latter quote indicates the importance of Council’s Adult Services Directorate, to assist them in conducting qualitative research when exploring these service improvement. The main findings have also topics. Without talking to people to gather rich data, been passed on to them, and officers are now going one cannot get the fine detail of how dignity to consider both the most appropriate definition of operates in practice in the care at home situation. dignity to use in policymaking, and whether there is any way to modify how care services are provided to Questions were also asked about factors which increase older people’s satisfaction with them and affected workers’ ability to provide dignified care. the job satisfaction of care workers. Both older people and care workers agreed that the most important factor in this respect was for care If readers would like to discuss my findings workers to have enough time to spend with their further, I can be contacted as follows: clients and get to know them personally, including their likes and dislikes. Louise Reeve, Principal Policy and Research Officer, Room 245, Newcastle Civic Centre, Conclusions Barras Bridge, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE99 2RP. Conducting this research has contributed to Telephone: 0191 277 7508 knowledge about how dignity operates in home care Email: [email protected] provision. In particular, it has begun to draw out the Advertisement
Page 21 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria A ‘secret citizen’ experience of contacting Essex County Council for information on care options and residential homes
Introduction six calls to the main ‘Contact Essex’ general enquiries Good quality, timely information is important to number. everyone, even more so when they are seeking to make choices that may have a big impact on their Findings lives. The Department of Health paper ‘Our Health, Each call was assessed by the mystery shoppers in Our Care, Our Say’ (2006) highlights ‘choice’ as one terms of: of the fundamental outcomes for adult social care services. Hence, the provision of quality, timely • Helpfulness of advisor; information is a high priority for adult social care. • Information provided on residential and other types of care; A study carried out by the Office of Fair Trading in • Advice about an assessment; 2005 showed that people usually approach their • Funding advice; local authority in the first instance when they are • Impact of financial situation on response. looking for information about care services. In addition, the study found that most people approach While, in the CSCI study, the information provided by the council in person or by telephone. councils was reported as being inconsistent between calls, the information provided to the mystery shoppers In 2007, a mystery shopping exercise carried out by in this study was viewed as generally consistent. the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) However, only printed materials were offered for found that information provided by councils on adult information on residential care and not all care options social care was sometimes inconsistent and that were mentioned. The standard of printed information there was no clear pattern of responses across areas. met the recommendations made by CSCI, although Recommendations relating to the provision of printed printed information was not received in all cases. information were also made. On the basis of these findings, a number of In order to determine whether the CSCI findings recommendations were made regarding the provision were of local significance, a mystery shopper study of verbal and printed information. was commissioned in Essex to see how people are treated when they request information by telephone The original full report detailing findings and and to see if the processes in place are adequate for recommendations can be requested from: service users to make an informed choice. Tricia Capes, Policy, Development and Research, Methods Adults Health and Community Well-being, Essex During August 2008, a mystery shopping exercise County Council (email known as ‘secret citizen’ was implemented and the [email protected]) fieldwork for the study was undertaken by the ‘Why Not’ Older People’s Research Group. In order to carry References out the exercise effectively, it was necessary for the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) (2007) mystery shoppers not to disclose their true identity or A Fair Contract with Older People? London: CSCI. purpose. Ethical consideration was given to these factors and full ethical approval was obtained from Commission for Social Care Inspection (2007) Hello, the Essex Social Care Research Governance Group. How Can I Help? An Analysis of Mystery Shoppers’ Experiences of Local Council Social Care Information Each telephone call made by a member of the Group Services, London: CSCI. represented a person’s initial contact with Essex enquiring about care options for an elderly relative, Department of Health (2006) Our Health, Our Care, and the callers were provided with a relevant Our Say: A New Direction for Community Services, scenario to base their enquiry upon. There were six London: The Stationery Office. scenarios in total and twelve calls were made, each scenario being employed twice. Six calls were made Office of Fair Trading (2005) Care Homes for Older to the ‘Contact Essex’ Adult Social Care number and People in the UK: A Market Study, London: OFT.
Page 22 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria How employee surveys are getting it wrong
Most employee surveys, including those used in The limitations of the agree/disagree scale local government, are asking the wrong The basic problem with the agree/disagree scale questions and fail to identify the key issues, approach is that it is actually very poor at doing any says Peter Hutton. of these. The fact is that most of the questions you should be asking do not fit at all comfortably in the The unacceptable trend agree/disagree format. The technique is only suitable Since the 1980s, it has become apparent that an for measuring attitudes, opinions and beliefs, but not increasing number of employee research consultants, behaviours, motivations or knowledge. It is no good and their clients, believe that the right way to if you want employees to prioritise different options, construct an employee survey questionnaire is to such as the things they most value in their job or the come up with a list of statements and ask staff how kinds of information they want to receive. Very strongly they agree or disagree with each one often, what you are doing is measuring a range of (strongly agree, tend to agree, neither, tend to symptoms of deep-rooted issues whilst failing to disagree, strongly disagree). Sadly, local government identify what those issues are. employee research seems to have been swept along by this trend. The situation is made worse by the fact that many consultancies insist on only using their own The reason this is so disturbing is that the technique proprietary list of statements. Their main selling point itself is very limited in what it can do. In no other is that you can then compare your results with area of research would you confine yourself to using measures from a number of other organisations to just one question technique – the agree/disagree see how well you are performing against their scale. You would quite sensibly utilise a wide range ‘norms’. of scales (e.g. good/poor, satisfied/dissatisfied, gradations of awareness, frequency of undertaking However, this approach has two major various behaviours, acceptability of different policies disadvantages. The first is there is no customisation etc), lists from which to select answers (sources of of the questions to meet the needs of your particular information, important factors in the job, benefits organisation; so unless the key issues you face used etc), and open-ended questions. happen to correspond to the questions they ask, they are unlikely to be revealed by the survey. The second The purpose of an employee survey is that, in order to work in any organisation, the Arguably there are broadly three things a general, statements have to be phrased in a generic, often performance-related employee survey should do: somewhat bland way, which can make it difficult to • First, it should examine how understand what the answers mean in any particular satisfied/motivated/committed your staff are, what organisation. they want from their job and how far they are getting it. The statements ‘Communications are good in this • Second, it should capture the unique views and company’ and ‘My information needs are well met’ insights of your staff with respect to what needs for example, are too bland and general to mean to be improved in the organisation so that it can anything very much. They may be reassuring when be more effective. most people agree with them but if they disagree • Third, it should provide feedback on how well the with them, you have no idea what they are referring to. various systems, processes, and policies that you have put in place are working (e.g. buy-in to Other standardised statements suffer from the fact values, whether management behaviours are as that different organisations use different terms and desired, whether people attend team so the same term will work differently in different meetings/have appraisals etc). cultures. For example, the statement ‘I believe strongly in the goals and objectives of (Employer)’ will not work well where the organisation uses different terminology such as ‘aims’ and ‘values’ or where different divisions or departments have their own goals and objectives that are different to the corporate goals and objectives.
Page 23 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria How employee surveys are getting it wrong cont...
The statement ‘I am inspired by the person leading this organisation’ might be clear in an organisation How should you approach your employee survey? like Virgin, where Richard Branson would be widely The way a council should approach its employee recognised as ‘the person leading Virgin’, but it survey is to start with its own business/HR/internal would not play out well in cultures where the communications plans, then to work with a emphasis is on devolving power and where there are researcher who can develop bespoke questions that organisations within organisations. Such norms match where they want the organisation to go. quickly become meaningless if the statements mean While a few key normative questions are useful, different things in different organisations. having the whole questionnaire subverted by them is ridiculous. The primary objective should be to Organisations that adopt a questionnaire consisting undertake research that enables you to understand of a standardised list of agree/disagree statements the unique issues your council faces - not to build up sacrifice relevance for conformity. Rather than using the normative databases of the consultant while a survey to help them achieve their unique goals, failing to identify the critical issues. they effectively defer to a model that says that success is to be defined in terms of achieving a Peter Hutton ([email protected], particular attitudinal profile. tel 0208 770 3960) is managing director of BrandEnergy Research Limited There is little sound rationale behind this. For one (www.brandenergyresearch.com) and author of: thing, attitudes are only one aspect of what defines ‘What Are Your Staff Trying to Tell You? an organisation. For another, different organisations Revealing Best and Worst Practice in Employee will, and should, have different priorities, even in the Surveys’. same sector. One standardised profile need not fit a local authority as well as an airline or even a central government department or even another local authority, especially if their situations (performance, socio-economic profile of the area, district vs. county) are quite different.
Employee surveys The wrong approach
business standardised questions results that do mission/vision/values/ questionnaire relate to not relate to the objectives researcher’s business ‘model’
The right approach
business desired appropriate results that mission/vision/values/ knowledge, survey relate to core objectives behaviours, questions business attitudes thinking
Page 24 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria LARIA Excellence in Research Award 2009
Sponsored by CACI Limited What the judges are looking for The judges, made up of LARIA Council members and Get the recognition you deserve external researchers, will be looking for: We’ve all done research that we’re really proud of. Maybe you have introduced an exciting new initiative • a sound research methodology; to improve the quality of the research you carry out. • research that involves trying something new and Perhaps your research has changed the way your being creative; authority works or delivers its services. Or it could • research that demonstrates an impact on policy just be something you think went well. The range of and practice; and research is open because we want as many local • the overall presentation of your submission, authorities as possible to enter for the award. This is including why your research should win the award. your opportunity to get the recognition you deserve. How to enter The prize You should send a submission of up to 1,500 words. Once again, the award is being sponsored by CACI The judges will make their decision based on this, so Limited, a leading provider of marketing solutions please don’t send any supporting documents or files. and information systems. As well as paying for a You can enter more than one piece of work from place at the LARIA Annual Conference 2010 for the your authority. winner, up to £2,000 worth of CACI data will be provided for use by the winning authority. Please email your submissions to Mike Walker, chair of the LARIA Member Development The winner will receive a trophy at a special Activity Group, at presentation at the annual conference. The award [email protected]. winner will also have the opportunity to present their research either at the conference or at another The closing date is 30th October 2009. appropriate event. Good luck. The award will be given to an authority, where it is hoped that the employees who carried out or commissioned the research will benefit.
The Young Researcher Network - your chance to get involved
Introduction The National Youth Agency (NYA) is the national expert and developmental organisation for supporting those who work with young people in England. It is a registered charity, a company limited by guarantee and a specified body under section 78(1) of the Local Government Finance Act 1988.
The NYA aims to advance youth work to promote influence policy and practice. In 2008/09, the YRN young people's personal and social development, supported 14 research projects led by young people. and their voice, influence and place in society. Past projects The Young Researcher Network (YRN) is a project of The research projects addressed a broad range of the National Youth Agency, involving a network of issues that affect young people’s lives from across organisations that support and encourage young England and provided a sound evidence base with people’s active participation in youth-led research to
Page 25 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria The Young Researcher Network - your chance to get involved cont... clear recommendations for changes in policy and make a real positive, practical difference in practice. Youth-led research produces new insights developing a broader research agenda and in which may otherwise be missed. For example, a developing the next generation of talented, group of young people from Bradford carried out motivated researchers. research looking at how to provide better education, support and counselling for young people in care. Getting involved Another group of young people from Birmingham One of our aims is for all local authority research conducted research on disability and identity and a units to establish and embed the practice of further group of young Gypsies and Travellers supporting youth-led research projects as part of conducted research on changes in identity and their core business. culture over the last 40 years. The latter presented their work to the All Party Parliamentary Group on The YRN would support this process as the national Gypsy and Traveller Law Reform. A full list of the 14 coordinating body. This would include seeking out research reports from 2008 is available here: new opportunities for youth-led research and http://www.nya.org.uk/information/127849/ involving young researchers in commissioned pieces researchreports/ of work. The YRN would provide advocacy for youth- led research along with training, advice and guidance Looking ahead in the research process for young people and support The YRN provides young people, and their support workers. workers, with research training and identifies opportunities to carry out youth led research. We are Through our experience of supporting youth led currently exploring opportunities for youth led research, the YRN has produced a toolkit research and developing a business plan for 2009/10. (http://www.nya.org.uk/information/118654/ So far the YRN has developed strong links with yrnonlineresearchtoolkit/) and a ‘How to…’ guide academic research bodies but not with research units for involving young people in research in local government. (http://www.participationworks.org.uk/ resources/how-to-involve-children-and-young- There is a fantastic opportunity to develop links people-in-research). Both these resources are free between the YRN and research teams/functions to download. within local authorities. Everyone could benefit from this development: Next steps We now plan to: • Young people would gain support and advice 1. Identify a number of local authorities across the from research experts, access to data, hardware country to pilot youth led research projects in 2009. and software in their local area, and also a ‘way in’ 2. Hold an event which shows how youth led research to access their audience – policy makers and can be done, and showcases the work supported elected members – to make sure their research is through the Young Researcher Network so far. used and ultimately to secure positive outcomes for young people. If you would like to find out more about the YRN, or to register your interest in being one of • Local Authorities would get some great local the pilot local authority areas, and/or attending research projects through which young people’s the event outlined above, please contact: voice could directly influence policy makers on the issues that are important to young people in their Jon Adamson (email [email protected], local area. Involvement would also add value to tel 0116 242 7417) or existing local youth-led research. Local authorities Dr. Darren Sharpe (email [email protected], would have a brilliant example of how they are tel 0116 242 7464) genuinely engaging with young people on the things that matter to them in their area, not in a For further information go to: tokenistic way and not just through consultation. It http://www.nya.org.uk/ would also enable local authorities collectively to youngresearchernetwork
Page 26 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria 40 Years of Cheshire County Council R&I
By Gordon Hamilton Consolidation The 1970s Cheshire County Council’s Research and Intelligence During the 1970s we started undertaking annual Unit celebrated its 40th birthday this year - just as postal household surveys, which provided valuable Cheshire County Council ceased to exist! A rather context about population and household strange contrast of fortunes, you might think. characteristics and use of council services. (We got 75% response with 2 reminders – how times have The Beginning changed!). We established Cheshire Facts and Established in 1969, Cheshire County Council R&I Figures, a topic-based monthly-updated loose-leaf Unit has been the longest serving unit in England. binder full of statistical information about the Thanks to a visionary clerk to the council (chief Cheshire community and County Council services. executive-to-be), Sir John Boynton, it actually pre- dated by three years the Bains Report which We also had a focus on education issues. Cheshire recommended setting up such units in local had a rapidly growing population, especially with two government. new towns (Runcorn and Warrington). We provided useful information for the school building The unit began under the management of John programme, through pupil forecasts and monitoring Gillespie, who soon moved on to set up an R&I unit of parameters such as child generation rates from in Devon. The first ‘official’ photo shows a rather new houses. bashful crew, including two well-known LARIA luminaries. Second from left is Graham Smith, Head Through these developments we succeeded in raising of R&I until 1989, and co-founder, former Chair and our profile among both officers and members. Being then Administrator of LARIA. Third from right is at the corporate policy centre, and supporting the Bryan Hall, R&I manager from 1989 to 2004 and largest council service, were very important factors in Chair of LARIA from 1998 until 2002. establishing R&I as a valued resource. But having imaginative strategic-thinking managers who knew how to use information was also vital.
The 1980s This was the decade when we established ourselves as the prime supplier of population estimates and forecasts for the County Council, eight district councils and other public agencies. In collaboration with Julian le Grand (then at LSE), we completed what is probably still the largest ‘home-grown’ household interview survey ever undertaken by a local authority, collecting detailed information from around 6,500 households and 17,000 individuals on their use of County Council services. For this we The Unit in 1975 - peering into a dazzling future? recruited an excellent fieldwork force of interviewers which we have maintained since. Where do you put a shiny new R&I unit? Well, Cheshire’s began life in the then Clerk’s Department, We also pioneered the geographical analysis of but soon moved to the Treasury to become half of a economic disadvantage (anyone remember GIMMS?), Central Policy and Research Unit (CPRU), where it and sent a clear message that effective support for stayed for most of its first two decades. such communities needs multi-agency partnerships. Our new economic intelligence service played an ever-increasing role in the co-ordination of research both within the council and with partner organisations.
Page 27 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria 40 Years of Cheshire County Council R&I cont...
This was a time of phenomenal changes in our The ‘Final’ Years computing power. I can remember, in the early 80s, In the noughties we went from strength to strength. sitting in a meeting that spent a whole morning The new millennium brought a citizens' panel, further agonising over how we could justify buying a PC! Quality of Life and Best Value User Satisfaction Surveys, Whatever would we use it for?! We tentatively enhanced population forecasting and estimation, and bought a Sinclair QL! the development of a local statistics system. Monitoring performance at neighbourhood level has become one Onwards and Upwards of the major challenges for us. Other 'elephant' tasks During the 1990s the Unit was to expand further its have included improving data sharing, and developing market research activity, in response to the ‘customer GIS as a tool for service planning and improvement. orientation’ drive of the John Major government and In both cases, the frustration has been getting those the general rise in service and corporate consultation. with clout to appreciate what there is to gain, but The prospect of unitary local government first arose significant progress has now been made. at this time, and the unit was to provide much support for the debate on options. Looking Back As we look forward to new developments such as Our in-house Quality of Life Survey in 1995 provided Comprehensive Area Assessment, we can look back invaluable insight into the improvements people with pride on the past 40 years, having acquired an wanted to see in their communities. It highlighted enviable reputation for providing a prompt, timely, the divergence between perception and experience relevant, competent and friendly service. of issues such as crime, heightening the Council’s community focus and leading to the creation of a We have also survived many changes, and the Community Development department. worries and pressures that go with them. During the many past re-organisations, R&I never appeared on When re-organisation finally came in 1998, with the the initial structure charts. But in the latest shift to loss of two districts and a third of our budget, it two unitary councils, R&I was in there early on in resulted in much uncertainty and staff turnover. both new structures! While that is no doubt down to However, the Unit survived and recovered. A the need for an ‘evidence base’ - i.e. what we do is councillor described R&I as the “jewel in Cheshire’s not optional any more - I also take it as recognition crown”. As one senior manager put it, “if R&I of the value that we have contributed over the years. disappeared, we would have to re-invent it”. So although Cheshire County Council R&I has come The 1990s brought another life-changing to an end, the standards we set and the spirit in which technological development - the World Wide Web. we worked will be very much alive and kicking in the Before this, we didn’t know what we didn’t know. new world. Just see how professional we look now! Now we did! We eagerly grasped the opportunity to disseminate community intelligence and research For further information, please contact publications through our new website, enabling a Gordon Hamilton, Research and Intelligence whole range of people to obtain data about local Manager, Cheshire East Council communities and learn about our service. ([email protected])
Towards the end of the decade, New Labour’s Modernising Agenda was to lift demand for R&I services yet further, through support for Community Strategies, Best Value Reviews and Crime and Disorder Strategies. In the drive for service improvement, we started to develop our expertise in qualitative research, further enhancing our valued reputation. By this time we were very much in demand and keeping the plates spinning was quite a challenge. The Unit in 2009 - basking in a dazzling past! Page 28 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria LARIA Annual General Meeting 2009
The LARIA AGM was held at Loughborough on 31st Andy also said that looking forward, the economic March 2009, and was very well attended. downturn will undoubtedly continue to define the agenda as well as shape the topics and areas of work LARIA Chair Andy Davis presented his report, in that as researchers we will need to get increasingly which he thanked all involved with LARIA for their involved in. It will also significantly influence how we input over the past year, including both our paid staff in the public sector organise our resources and and our volunteers. Special thanks were given to capacity against the backdrop of the need for further Sarah Byrne and Doris Besford as they took on their efficiencies and cost savings. And in LARIA we need respective roles of LARIA Events Co-ordinator and to consider how we make best use of our resources LARIA Administrator. so that we can continue to operate effectively to meet the needs of our membership. Emma Burnett also stood down as LARIA Treasurer, and thanks are made to Emma for her work with us Elections took place at the AGM; over the past few years. • Andy Davis was nominated as LARIA Chair, and Highlights from the past year include ALGIS formally was re-elected. joining LARIA as an Activity Group. To have ALGIS as • Mike Walker was nominated as LARIA Vice-Chair, one of our Activity Groups will give a real and was re-elected. opportunity for LARIA members to get involved in the information management work that the group There were two vacancies for elected members of the does, and also to benefit from the knowledge and Council, with four nominations received. After a expertise coming through ALGIS. ballot, Roger Sykes and Mike Soper were elected to the Council. Our programme of events continued to attract good attendance from across the public sector, tackling a Chairs of Activity Groups were agreed as follows; wide range of issues relevant to our members. • Strategy & Policy Group - Andy Davis Andy referred to the success of the LARIA Excellence • Events Group - Gerallt Evans-Hughes in Research Award, which this year had been • Member Development Group - Mike Walker awarded to the outstanding work by researchers at • Website Group - Neil Wholey Cambridgeshire County Council addressing the issues • Newsletter Group - Joy Thompson surrounding local Post Office closures. • LARIA in Scotland - Paul Davison • ALGIS in LARIA - Jane Inman
LARIA’s new website launched
A new-look LARIA website (www.laria.gov.uk) was launched in June. It was built using the same core design as the LGA and I&DeA websites. We have flexibility in the design and want to build new features and content that reflects the needs of members. If you have any ideas on how we could improve the website then please let us know.
To send us your ideas, or to find out how your could be more involved by joining the Website Group, please contact Neil Wholey by email on [email protected]
Page 29 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria Book Review
‘Sleepwalking to Segregation’? Challenging Reading this book it seems hard to believe that for so myths about race and migration long the narrative presented in our newspapers, even by institutions that are charged with promoting first Nissa Finney and Ludi Simpson ‘multiculturalism’ and latterly ‘community cohesion’, Policy Press 2009 ISBN 9781847420077 has been so misguided and has hung on such a thin and flawed evidence base. The shifting terminology Reviewed by Joy Thompson means that seemingly comparable statistics may refer to very different issues. Bringing these quotes and In the last edition of LariaNews, we noted the recent myths together in one publication highlights the publication of this book and promised that a review extent to which this has occurred and also the extent would follow. Nissa Finney and Ludi Simpson present to which it has been universally accepted. a very accessible, easy-to-read counter-argument to the many ill-informed headline-grabbing race and The use of Census data may be argued to now be immigration ‘factoids’ presented by various agencies outdated, yet this is a clear presentation of evidence on both sides of the political spectrum. from a reliable source, when more up-to-date estimates use methodologies that remain in their The first two chapters set out the terminology and infancy. This book is a sound contribution to a debate concepts surrounding the subject, and introduce the that has not been had based purely on evidence, thorny issue of how to represent ethnic groups in even though everybody claims to have statistics to official statistics. These are followed by five chapters prove their argument. The extent to which statistics aimed at presenting the facts behind the myths. are used to prove unfounded points has never been as apparent as when exposed here. Between them, these chapters examine everything from the extent of immigration to the UK (we are If you were fortunate enough to catch Michael not ‘swamped’), to the supposed burden imposed by Blastland’s closing presentation at the LARIA immigrants (findings suggest that people migrating Conference on the misuse of statistics, this book is to the UK are relatively more educated, younger and very much in the same vein. It may get in the way of healthier than those born in the UK, and that most some great headlines, but ‘Sleepwalking to of the additional demand for space and housing is Segregation’? will let the facts tell a story that for too generated by natural growth). Importantly, this text long has been mis-told! challenges the perceived unwillingness of minority groups to integrate, and the notion that Britain is becoming a country of ghettos. Asking “will white flight from large cities result in the white population becoming a minority in the near future?” it presents evidence suggesting that this will not be the case, and that what is occurring is affluence flight - those with the means to do so have moved to the suburbs, regardless of ethnicity.
The assembled evidence is rounded off by a full chapter of conclusions, followed by a useful quick reference summary of myth-busting facts. This section examines commonly accepted yet factually incorrect statements on immigration, segregation and population change which have become almost folklore, and presents evidence to counter each in turn.
Page 30 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria ALGIS in LARIA Update
ALGIS is now an activity group of LARIA, and as such With a new phase ahead of us and some exciting we hope to be able to provide seminars and events opportunities presenting themselves, we are looking which pick up on the information management for new people to join the committee and to help to aspects of local authority research. put ALGIS on the map in its new form. Could it be you? No experience is necessary, it looks good on the We sponsored the LGC Fundamentals of Information CV and it gives you some great contacts and Management in May, and it was interesting to see experience. how information management is now high on the agenda. ALGIS has been promoting the importance If this could be you, do give me a ring for a no of information management in local government obligation chat! throughout its existence, but there seems to have been a time when its value was not really recognised Please tell your colleagues about us and get them to and ICT was seen as the solution. There is a growing visit our web site at www.algis.org.uk for more recognition that this is not the case and the skills information on future events. required for good information management are being valued again. Jane Inman - Chair of ALGIS in LARIA [email protected] Our next event this year is a seminar in July on 01926 418633 autoclassification tools and their use in indexing intranet and internet content and as a part of electronic document and records management schemes. It promises to be an excellent day, with the opportunity to hear how these tools work and what the pitfalls are to their implementation.
Westminster City Council’s Research and Consultation Team
Introduction campaign. The challenge set is to prove whether Research and consultation is at the heart of communications works or not and to give advice on everything Westminster City Council does. We are which approaches are likely to be successful or not. committed to extracting the maximum use from our Our role has been recognised by the CIPR (Chartered data to drive forward the policies most in tune with Institute of Public Relations) who presented us with the priorities of local residents and other users of their Excellence Award for Planning, Research and services. This has led to the council being Evaluation in 2008. This award covered both the commended for its use of public opinion research by private and the public sector. the Audit Commission, and being presented with a number of national awards. The team also runs an It is vitally important that our work is linked to external research consultancy working for other local communications and the council more generally. Our authorities, and strives to support them in making team manager is part of the senior communications the best use of their data. management team, and regularly presents to all senior managers and members. We model ourselves Focus on communications on a professional market research team. This enables We focus on public opinion research and us to sub-contract only fieldwork and data consultation, and are part of the award-winning processing. We design our own questionnaires and Westminster communications team (winning nine write our own reports and presentations. national awards since the beginning of 2008). We play a key part in this success by providing the research needed to run a successful communications
Page 31 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria Westminster City Council’s Research and Consultation Team cont...
Overview of projects has risen from 53% to 67%, and overall satisfaction Working in the communications team enables us to with the council has gone from 76% to 85%. This see our research making a real impact. Our findings backs up analysis from the LGA’s Reputation Campaign, are regularly presented to both the political and which suggests that if informed levels are improved managerial leadership of the council. These reports then satisfaction will rise. With this understanding, usually form the basis of developing the policies and and the insight from the Reputation Tracker, we were overall strategy of the council. The projects we are able to actively drive through a rise in satisfaction. responsible for are: In the driving seat • City Survey – A quota sampled face-to-face We need to increase the value we extract from residents’ survey of 3,000 residents aged 16 and research findings. The council is demanding more over, carried out at the end of each year, which asks insight into what drives perceptions rather than residents their perceptions of council services and simply measuring a benchmark figure. Having done the local area. It is the council’s main method of this for communications we are now producing tracking performance, and provides ward-based data. reports looking at the drivers of perceptions of value • Reputation Tracker - A quota sampled telephone for money, customer care and fear of crime. To help survey of 500 residents aged 16 and over, carried this process the reorganisation of the council has led out every three months, asking residents about to the communications team being renamed their perceptions of the council as an organisation “Communications and Strategy”. The strategy part and awareness of council communication and reflects the key role of research within the organisation other activity. to help support change. As part of this reorganisation, • Place Survey – The survey is run to statutory research and consultation across the council is being requirements, but achieves one of the lowest unified under the central team’s direction. This will response rates in the country due the nature of enable us to draw together more information into central London. We note the findings but use the our modelling on what drives users’ perceptions. City Survey and Reputation Tracker to benchmark our performance. Learning from each other • Your Voice – Online and paper staff survey. This is We welcome discussion with other councils, and are carried out on an 18-month basis, and happy to share information on what we have found. performance is further tracked through smaller Being members of LARIA is important to us as we see online quarterly surveys. The council is currently it as an opportunity to learn from others and share going through a reorganisation, so the survey has insight. Researching public opinion is a jigsaw puzzle. been increased in frequency to every few months. We have to assemble the right pieces of data to form • Ad hoc projects – The team help and support the model which best reflects what is going on. To do others in the council, providing guidance in this we need to ask new questions, learn from the consultation and engagement activity. experience of others and think of the broader picture. • External projects – The team work with over a dozen local authorities each year on research and For further information please contact Neil consultation projects. These can often be as part Wholey, Head of Research and Consultation, of a broader review of communications in general, Westminster City Council. Tel 020 7641 3317 but increasingly they are the team’s own research email [email protected] clients. The main area of activity is to replicate the work of the Reputation Tracker, either as a standalone single survey or an ongoing series of surveys.
Reputation Tracker One area to highlight is the Reputation Tracker which has led to a significant investment in communications and changes in policy. In the four years before it was introduced, satisfaction had remained stubbornly around 76%. In the two years since the first wave, the percentage feeling informed Westminster’s Research and Consultation Team: Pinal Patel, Neil Wholey and Jennifer Compton Page 32 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria Statutory Requirements for Research in Central and Local Government in Scotland
By Stuart Booker (Fife Council and LARIA in Another significant feature is the implicit nature of Scotland Steering Group) much current research. For example, there is no explicit legislative requirement for evidence-based Introduction policy in Scotland. However, as the report notes, Early in 2008 the Scottish Government and LARIA “local authorities and Government Ministers are jointly commissioned research to identify the under duties to provide Best Value and to show Statutory Requirements for Research in Central and sound governance and this provides a statutory Local Government in Scotland. This research was under-pinning to the political imperative to ensure commissioned in order to understand better the that policies are evidence-based”. Much of the many and varied requirements for research by research that local government researchers undertake government in Scotland and to consider the implications is driven by such “hidden” legislative demands. of these requirements for research capacity. Key Findings – capacity for research The research was partly inspired by an earlier report, The report also highlights the implications of these jointly published by LARIA and the Local Government varied demands for research capacity. Association in 2003, on: Statutory Requirements for Research – a Review of Responsibilities for English One significant finding is a perception (that seems to and Welsh Local Government (see be widely held in Scottish local authorities) that http://www.laria.gov.uk/content/articles/ “demand for research has increased in recent years statutoryrequirements.pdf for further details). and that [researchers] feel under greater pressure because their authorities’ research capacities have not New perspectives increased in line with the increased demands”. The present research aimed to extend the scope of LARIA’s understanding about these issues to The report highlights examples of cooperation on Scotland, which has a separate legal system and research issues (both within local government and where local government is a devolved responsibility. between central and local government) that have It also sought to provide a deeper look at the helped to make research more efficient and more implications of recent legislation, which has increasingly effective. Based, in part, on these examples the report introduced implicit demands for research arising from suggests twelve possible actions that could help build other legislative requirements, rather than explicit research capacity. demands for specific research activities or outputs. Conclusion The resulting report was published in early April and The report will make interesting reading to anyone highlights a number of features of research in local involved in local government research, whether in government. Scotland or elsewhere. It highlights the central role that researchers play in modern government and also the Key findings – demands for research way that their contribution can be hidden by the implicit One key feature is the rich variety of legislative nature of many legislative demands for their work. demands that imply a need for research, including: The report can be downloaded from: • general powers to carry out research; http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/ • the introduction of best value and the focus on 2009/04/02143815/0 performance management; For further information, please contact Stuart • the need to prepare plans and assessments; Booker (email [email protected]) • the need to consult and engage with stakeholders; • the demand for evidence-based policy; • the introduction of a National Performance Framework and Single Outcome Agreements; • the requirement to respond to requests for information by third parties.
Launch event for the new report Page 33 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria R & I News
Audit Commission approach to this – areas were often not aware of the range of projects running locally, resulting in either Tired of Hanging Around – Using sport and duplication or gaps in provision. There was also a lack leisure activities to prevent anti-social behaviour of data on the cost and performance of current by young people projects. This study used a mixed methods approach, with a focus on young people and on providers of sport and This report sets out recommendations for councils leisure activities. There were four main parts to the working with their local strategic partnerships, and research: for central government, to encourage improvements • a literature review (available on the website); in the design of projects and the funding systems • interviews with a range of stakeholders in 14 local that are fundamental to their success. authorities; • an electronic survey of projects running activities We have also published a suite of tools including a with young people; and video featuring successful projects to help councils and • 17 focus groups with young people to get their their partners respond to the report’s recommendations. perspective on anti-social behaviour and the The report and tools are available at: activities available in their area. www.audit-commission.gov.uk/hangingaround
The research found that sport and leisure projects involving music, film-making or football, when Working better together? designed in consultation with young people, can Managing local strategic partnerships help stop them from drifting into anti-social The Audit Commission national study Working Better behaviour. But these projects struggle with a funding Together? Managing local strategic partnerships system that is wasteful, inefficient and bureaucratic. report, published 21 April, reviews arrangements for Youth workers, who should be devoting their performance, resource management, and governance. attention to young people, can spend a third of their time managing budgets and chasing new funding. The research which underpins the report involved a Even when funding is secured, it is often fixed and mixed methods approach. An electronic survey of short-term, with no guarantee of renewal. 388 LSPs in England was complemented with in- depth qualitative research in seventeen local areas, But it is not just central government that could be involving semi-structured interviews with a range of doing more to alleviate these funding challenges. stakeholders - local authority chief executives, Project workers can also be more creative with the political leaders, LSP managers and a range of senior resources available to them. Working with partners partner bodies. We also undertook delivery chain like the police, health agencies or schools can pull in workshops in six areas, where partners worked extra staffing or equipment towards common goals through a series of structured questions based such as tackling drug and alcohol abuse, obesity or around the outcomes they were trying to achieve in teenage pregnancy. their local area. Finally, ten LSP meetings were observed in order to understand the dynamics Funding arrangements are not the only issue between partners. affecting the success of projects. Young people must be asked for their input to make sure ‘cool’ activities The report identifies LSPs as evolving and maturing, are available in the right place, at the right time. All and concludes that local and national partners still too often young peoples’ views were not sought need to recognise the key dynamics that support before designing new projects, or the young people partnership working. It recommends a layered approach consulted were not representative of the type of to joint working, suggesting that LSPs should: young people projects were aimed at. • at a strategic level - set overall direction and check There were also problems with the evidence on progress; which commissioning decisions were based. • at an executive level - allocate resources and Although there were some good targeted activities in manage performance; and existence, there was little evidence of an area based • operationally - deal with the delivery of services.
Page 34 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria R & I News cont...
It also says LSPs should ‘review progress, make • Practice-based commissioning; decisions and challenge one another based on • Financial aspects of fair access to care and performance and resource information.’ And there is personalisation of services in social care; a special mention for elected members, who it says • Alcohol misuse (also fits under additional themes); should better understand LSPs through training and • Medium-term financial planning. the scrutiny role. Theme 2: Value for money The Audit Commission has provided a range of products • Value for money in policing (possible joint study to help LSPs and their partners on their improvement with Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary); journeys and to influence government to improve • Value for money in teaching (possible joint study policy. Products include self-assessment questionnaires with Ofsted); to improve partnership working and governance, a • Housing: the efficiency and effectiveness of scrutiny paper giving key messages for overview and landlord services (possible joint study with the scrutiny functions of councils, and a delivery chain Tenant Services Authority); analysis tool to remove obstacles to local joint working. • Review of efficiency in social care (following further Notable practice case studies are also available. discussion with DH and the Care Quality Commission).
An online LSP improvement tool is available. Theme 3: Supporting young people and families Read the report Working Better Together? and • Older teenagers not in education, employment or view the supporting materials at: training. http://tinyurl.com/r8x441 Theme 4: Devolution and governance • PCT provider arms/community services. Audit Commission outlines national studies programme 2009/10 Theme 5: Sustainable development In 2008/09 the Audit Commission published a wide • Adaptation to climate change. range of studies and research projects (see www.audit-commission.gov.uk/nationalstudies). The detailed scoping of any of these proposed studies Several studies achieved high impact in the media or research projects may result in a change of and all of them influenced central and local direction or objective. government. Our 2009/10 programme aims to continue helping local public services to improve by To keep up-to-date with our programme and identifying actions that work, highlighting critical individual studies, please go to www.audit- issues, and examining national trends. commission.gov.uk/nationalstudies or email [email protected] The programme seeks to identify developments in the political, economic and social environment while expanding our knowledge base, especially in the The Cathie Marsh Centre for Census light of the Comprehensive Area Assessment. After and Survey Research (CCSR) extensive consultation, the Commission has structured its programme of research and studies Large demographic datasets now available free under five themes: of charge to not-for-profit organisations The Samples of Anonymised Records (SARs) are very Theme 1: Finance and financial management large datasets drawn from the 1991 and 2001 • Local public sector pensions; nationwide censuses. The 1991 and 2001 Individual • Financial reporting in local government (tracking SARs cover 2% and 3% respectively of the total the implementation of International Financial enumerated population of the UK. They contain Reporting Standards, or IFRS); individual level data covering more than 60 variables • Managing through a downturn: follow-on to such as housing, education, ethnicity, health and Crunch time; employment. • Concessionary travel: implications of the new duties;
Page 35 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria R & I News cont...
The Small Area Microdata file (SAM) is a 5% sample provides employees, particularly middle and of individuals for all countries of the UK, with 2.96 departmental managers, with a greater million cases. Local Authority is the lowest level of understanding of the strategic issues facing the Fire geography for England and Wales, Council Areas for and Rescue Service by monitoring, reviewing and Scotland and Parliamentary Constituencies for condensing key issues into a weekly e-bulletin. Northern Ireland. The median sample size for an authority is 5.6 thousand records and nearly eighty authorities have more than 10,000 records. The individual level data contain a wide range of Census topics including health, transport, housing, NS-SEC, education and demographic features.
The Individual SARs and SAM are now available free Issues highlighted in the bulletin also feed intelligence of charge to not-for-profit organisations, including and research strategies and the risk planning elements Local Authorities, Health Authorities, Central of Service design, in conjunction with other key Government and charities. More information can be departments. Key issues featuring in the bulletin are found at http://sars.census.ac.uk routinely used by strategic managers to lobby government and other partners and to increase the To access these files you need to complete an End influence of the Service in the wider policy User Licence Agreement, available from development area. http://www.ccsr.ac.uk/sars/access/nonacademic/ Once the application is processed we will send the What are some of main issues facing the Fire data on a CD in SPSS, Stata and NSDstat format. We and Rescue Service over the next year? will also include a free copy of the NSDstat software; • Local Area Agreements (LAA) however, the whole SAM is too large for NSDstat to • Multi Area Agreements (MAA) process. To circumvent this problem we can provide • Comprehensive Area Assessments (CAA) the data in NSDstat format for your region only. • Local Strategic Partnerships (LSP) • Equality and Diversity If you need training in using a particular software • Regional Control Centre project (RCC) package, CCSR offer a wide range of courses. Details • Involving local communities can be found at • Water Rescue agenda http://www.ccsr.ac.uk/courses/index.html • Data protection • Risk Management If you have any queries please contact • Investing in young leaders [email protected] • Environmental issues
The Key Developments Bulletin was launched in 2006 Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service and has quickly expanded its distribution list to a number of Fire and Rescue Services across England. Unique horizon scanning service Being able to prepare for and anticipate future Please contact Matthew Maguire, Government challenges, developments and opportunities is vital to Liaison Officer at Cheshire Fire and Rescue an organisation’s success. For an emergency service, Service if you would like further information on like the fire and rescue service, the ability to adapt the Key Developments Bulletin: and respond to external developments can have a [email protected] critical outcome for public and firefighter safety. Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service provides a weekly horizon scanning service that updates managers on Encams the most important developments from the national, regional and local levels that are likely to impact on London: Its People and their Litter fire and rescue service policy, planning, budgets or The condition of a local environment can significantly procedures. The Key Developments Bulletin affect feelings of wellbeing, with residents living in
Page 36 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria R & I News cont... the dirtiest and more deprived London boroughs associations and any other land managers in the feeling less safe than residents living in the cleanest Greater London area and beyond, who want to tackle and more affluent boroughs. issues of local environmental quality and associated feelings of safety. So says research recently conducted by the environmental charity ENCAMS, who run the Keep The research report entitled ‘London: Its People Britain Tidy campaign, and Capital Standards, a and their Litter’ is available to download or London-wide partnership created to improve local order from environmental quality in the Capital. http://www.encams.org/publications/ main.asp?cat=8 Background ENCAMS and Capital Standards have been working For more information please contact Market together since 2002 to assess the ground cleanliness Research Director, Jo Butcher on 01942 612627 of London using ENCAMS Local Environmental ([email protected]), or Andrea Talbot, Quality Survey of England (LEQSE) methodology. This Market Research Manager on 01942 612658 gives an objective measure of the quantity, location ([email protected]) and severity of specific problems in any given area. However, an effective strategy also needs to be informed from a more subjective perspective. Essex County Council
Capital Standards therefore commissioned ENCAMS Understanding the barriers to accessing social to undertake a perception survey with residents of care support in Essex London, in order to understand the factors which The in-house Evidence Team at Essex Adult Social Care affect public satisfaction with cleanliness across are investigating the barriers for marginalised people London. This research went by the name of ‘London: (Black and Ethnic minorities and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Its People and their Litter’. and Transgender) in accessing social care support.
Who did we talk to and what did we do? The team are using a variety of innovative methods in The sample for this research consisted of over 2400 order to consult with these groups on a large scale. on-street interviews spread across all of the 33 This work has ranged from contacting local support London boroughs, broadly reflecting the demography groups to attending a lively Hindu group for an of each. In order to identify any differences across evening of traditional music and singing. the boroughs in terms of cleanliness and level of affluence, they were divided into four groups based The findings from these projects will contribute on their cleanliness scores, and four groups based on towards the future of personalised care in Essex that their Index of Multiple Deprivation scores. truly reflects and meets the needs of the individual.
Key findings For further information, please contact Key themes emerged within the results, with Victoria James ([email protected]) differences observed between affluent and deprived areas and between the cleanest and dirtiest boroughs.
The research also identified priority issues for action: general litter, vandalism, dog fouling, the condition of the highways in terms of repair, graffiti, drugs- related litter and fly-tipping.
Who will find this research useful? This report highlights the links between perceptions of cleanliness and actual cleanliness scores, deprivation, and feelings of safety. ENCAMS believes that it will be of interest to local authorities, housing Service users in Essex
Page 37 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria R & I News cont...
The ISSUES Project CityForm’s survey of homeowners in Leicester and Sheffield cross-referenced information about how The Sustainable Urban Environments (SUE) they use their homes with their actual energy output. Programme (http://www.urbansustainability Analysis then revealed that the number of bedrooms exchange.org.uk/) is an EPSRC-funded portfolio of in a household was the most significant indicator of research looking at ways of improving sustainability its energy consumption. in the urban environment, and the ISSUES project (Implementation Strategies for Sustainable These results also revealed a direct link between energy Urban Environment Systems) is its knowledge use and technology ownership. As technology transfer arm. becomes increasingly important to our everyday lives, these findings could impact heavily on how we Planning and Designing an Inclusive calculate domestic energy consumption in the future Journey Environment and even how local authorities classify households for One of the initial SUE consortia, called Accessibility tax purposes. and User Needs in Transport for Sustainable Urban Environments (AUNT SUE), works on socially inclusive The results have been submitted to the UK design and operation in transport and the related Government’s Foresight study into creating public realm. The team is producing a tool-kit that sustainable communities by 2020. can be used at all scales from the macro right down to the micro-level of streets, vehicles and facilities For further information contact Dr. Keith Baker: (e.g. bus stops, signage, ticketing). Central to the [email protected] approach is the integration of policy, design and operations throughout the whole journey environment. Northwest Regional Development A typical tool is the Street Design Index (‘SDI’), Agency & The Local Futures Group using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to enable designers and planners to model the urban Understanding the North West’s ‘role of place’ environment more comprehensively, and to understand how its diverse features can affect users' The Northwest Regional Development Agency perceptions of streets and public areas. The Index can (NWDA) Research Team is currently undertaking a be used to identify areas that are perceived project exploring the role of 'place'. As part of this negatively by pedestrians and so have the potential project they have been making use of the full range to restrict their movements. of Place Profiles from the Local Futures Group.
For more details contact Prof. Graeme Evans The Team provides cross-cutting support to NWDA ([email protected]) or visit colleagues and partners, in the form of data and www.aunt-sue.info/tools.html analysis, monitoring and benchmarking, economic assessment, briefings on data and policy and by New Model for Domestic Energy Consumption commissioning research. It also helps to disseminate and CityForm is another SUE consortium, with its own widen access to data and intelligence via the dedicated website at http://www.city-form.org/. Its specialist web portal, the Regional Intelligence Unit (RIU). research into domestic energy use has found that existing models of how people use their homes and Currently, the Regional Intelligence Unit are the energy they consume are outdated. researching the role of ‘place’ and looking at the wider agenda for the region, including issues such as In the past, traditional domestic energy models quality of life and culture. Thinking spatially about identified kitchens and living rooms as the higher the regional economy is the key to developing new energy consuming rooms of a house. But the new ideas and ways of connecting both at the local and research shows that people are now more likely to global scale. The research the RIU have already use their bedrooms as living spaces, using technology conducted has shown that understanding ‘place’ is for entertainment and office work and propelling important but has also made clear that it is a difficult bedrooms into the high energy consuming category. concept with varied meanings.
Page 38 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria R & I News cont...
As part of this work, the RIU have been using Place SPRU, along with the Social Disadvantage Research Profiles to enhance their own understanding of the Centre at the University of Oxford, has produced the region; as an additional source of data; and to first index of child well-being at the level of Lower quickly provide answers to day-to-day enquiries. The Layer Super Output Areas (LSOAs) for England. The Team is also about to make district level Profiles index will enable the policy and research community available to users across the region, through the sub- to identify which local areas are the highest priority regional pages of the RIU. for action to raise child well-being, and the extent to which services and initiatives are focussing on the Place Profiles are currently available at a sub-regional, well-being of children in those areas. local authority district; ward; or lower layer super output area level and cover the following themes: The index uses mainly administrative data on children • Economy: economic performance; industrial covering seven domains of well-being: structure; business and enterprise; skills and qualifications; labour market • income; • Society: demographics (age; ethnicity; • health; households; migration and change); occupations; • education; prosperity; deprivation; health; crime • housing; • Environment: housing; commercial and industrial • environment; floor space; transport and communications; local • crime; amenities; natural environment • children in need.
The RIU sub-regional pages (which will soon The data and report are now available from: contain the North West’s Place Profiles) are on http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/ http://www.nwriu.co.uk/ communities/childwellbeing2009. informationresources/130.aspx. Indicators are combined at LSOA level, and an overall For more information about the work of the index is created at both LSOA and local or unitary NWDA Research Team, go to authority levels. http://www.nwriu.co.uk/researchprogramme/ 19.aspx or contact Emma Charnock on Anybody with an academic login may like to try 01925 400290. accessing a paper at For more information about the full range of http://www.springerlink.com/content/ Place Profiles reports go to: k23hr1k19565x841/fulltext.pdf, which explores the http://tinyurl.com/Place-Profiles or email results of the index using mapping software and case [email protected]. studies. The strengths and weaknesses of the index are discussed, and suggestions are made for improvements in further iterations. Social Policy Research Unit (SPRU), University of York For further information on this project, or to request to join the SPRU email alert list, please contact [email protected] Developing a local index of child well-being National initiatives to tackle child poverty and social exclusion have become increasingly concentrated at small area level. At the same time, mainstream services at local level are being scrutinised on the extent to which their services are being directed to children most in need. There is a great hunger for information about the status of children, so that local authorities and Children’s Trusts can plan and evaluate their work.
Page 39 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria R & I News cont...
Warwickshire Observatory • identifying the priority locations for a child poverty reduction scheme in North Warwickshire; Here are some of the topics the Observatory is • profiling the catchment area of one of our rural currently working on… libraries to understand what further services might be delivered from this outlet; In response to the recent elections, we have • supporting the delivery of our Country Parks developed profiles for all of our Electoral Divisions, Marketing Plan; bringing together a wide range of demographic, • informing a review of day care service provision. social and economic datasets to help new (and existing!) councillors develop a better understanding We have been completing our programme of analysis of their constituencies. Our Divisions often bear little of the Place Survey. Our approach has been to resemblance to existing statistical geographies such deliver bespoke pieces of research to specific as wards and SOAs, so the process involved a degree customers rather than just produce a single overview of reapportionment of existing data. We will also be report. For example, reports are being produced to delivering a workshop to new members to help set support particular LAA theme groups, directorates the context for policy making in the authority, and partner agencies. Examples include: identifying some of the key challenges members will • Locality-based analysis (we have 23 Localities); face in the coming years. • Theme-based analysis (such as community cohesion, community priorities, perceptions of local The Warwickshire Observatory is co-ordinating and public services, engagement & decision-making); leading on the implementation of an Assault • Benchmarking analysis (putting local figures in Database across the County. Previous research from context by examining results from other Coventry has suggested that almost half of all appropriate areas); assaults presenting at A&E departments were not • Mosaic-based analysis (to examine non- reported to the Police and 77% of these victims had geographical issues and develop an understanding no intention of reporting the assault to Police at a of what responses might be most effective). later time. The Assault Database is a tool designed to be installed at A&E departments that captures The Warwickshire Observatory has secured the information on all deliberate assaults. Its aim is to contract to deliver the Nuneaton & Bedworth record assaults that are not being reported to the People’s Panel and is now undertaking a review and Police and it is completely anonymous. Staff can refresh exercise, along with developing the next wave record details of the assault whilst having a on the Borough’s Core Strategy. conversation with the injured party, and it helps to build up a picture of what happened and where The Observatory is developing a Cohesion Index in without going into sensitive areas. The database has support of a Leader project in some of the rural areas already been successfully implemented at University of the County. LEADER (Liaison entre actions de Hospital Coventry & Warwickshire Trust, covering développement de l'économie rurale) is a major Coventry and Rugby Hospitals. The project team are initiative for rural development across Europe funded currently working on implementation at George Eliot through structural funds, intended to enable rural Hospital (Nuneaton) and Warwick Hospital over the communities to play an active role in shaping their next few months. We will report on progress in a own future. The Index models levels of community future edition of LariaNews. cohesion based on a combination of Place Survey, Census and practitioner data, and identifies what Our customer insight project is gaining momentum, socio-economic characteristics explain variations in with progress being made on a combination of long cohesion. This will help the Leader project identify term and short term objectives. Long term aspirations priority communities for delivering capacity-building include a single customer view with partners, initiatives, particularly focusing on community-based personalised service provision and robust customer horticulture and arts projects. segmentation. In the meantime, we are helping to demonstrate the value of utilising customer data For further information on any of these areas, alongside Mosaic to help individual services deliver please contact the Warwickshire Observatory at business plan objectives. Examples include: [email protected]
Page 40 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria LARIA People
Balancing the books - meet the new two-man In this new role, Ian will be providing financial team in charge of LARIA’s finances: support to the Treasurer and the association as a whole. This includes the preparation of the end of Ian Coldicott – LARIA Treasurer year financial statements, financial and budgetary Ian Coldicott took over as Treasurer from Emma forecasting and reporting, and advice on financial Burnett in January 2009, having been a member of planning and development. the LARIA Events Group for around the last five years. He will be supported by Ian Riley of Warwickshire County Council in regard to financial administration.
As Demographic Analyst for Norfolk County Council, a post he has held (in one form or another) since joining the Authority in October 1989, Ian is responsible for a range of demographic research and analysis including population estimates and projections, deprivation, electoral and vital statistics. He is the Ian Riley Council’s contact person on matters concerning the 2011 Census and is a member of the CLIP Census Sub Group. In previous posts he worked on economic, Marie Curie Cancer Care – Swimathon 2009 labour market and demographic statistics for local authorities in Nottingham, Glasgow and Coventry. Erin R. Murray Scottish Borders Council On Saturday 18 April 2009 I swam 5 km or 200 lengths of the Kelso pool or 3.1 miles in 2 hours 22 minutes and 45 seconds. This was within my goal of 21/2 hours. For those of you who like to know the pacing, it was about 7.13 minutes for every ten lengths. I want to thank all those at the LARIA conference at Loughborough University who donated; it was all for a good cause – see www.swimathon.org . I was able to raise just over £210.00. Ian Coldicott Outside work, Ian is a keen amateur photographer Rest assured I was pretty tired that evening, and did who enjoys foreign rail travel, learning languages very little, if anything, on Sunday, but now I can say and listening to jazz. “Been there, got the T-shirt” - and a wee medal too.
As LARIA continues to change and grow, the new appointment of Accountant to LARIA is designed to assist in ensuring the association develops in a positive and financially sustainable manner, thus securing its long term future.
Ian Riley – Accountant to LARIA Ian graduated with a BA Hons in Finance and Business Administration from Keele University in 2003, after which he joined Warwickshire County Council as a Finance Officer. During his time at Warwickshire, Ian has continued to study and has recently qualified with CIPFA as a Chartered Public Finance Accountant. Erin Murray
Page 41 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria Guide for Contributors
The LARIA Newsletter Group actively encourages all relevant contributions – articles, news items and reports – about the work of Research and Intelligence units and other organisations involved in research and policy analysis. Details of relevant courses, conferences and services are also welcomed.
The aim is to produce an interesting and informative newsletter which appeals to as wide a range of research practitioners as possible, from statisticians to social researchers. Contributions should be as user-friendly and jargon-free as possible. Explanation of acronyms used is particularly important.
The Group meets shortly after the deadline for each edition to discuss contributions received. We need to ensure the content is suitable for our readership. Articles tailored to LariaNews stand a greater chance of making the final edition than general press releases. We also welcome cartoons, graphics and pictures which illustrate the text and offer additional insights.
As a guide, please try not to exceed about 300 words for a news item, and 1000 words for a feature article. And remember that’s an upper limit, not a lower one! We’re always happy to receive short snippets of news, or staffing announcements for LARIA People.
We occasionally receive longer academic articles which are less suitable for a newsletter. If the content is relevant to LARIA members we will publish an abstract in the newsletter and a link to the full article on www.laria.gov.uk
Please send any comments about LariaNews to the Editor. We appreciate your feedback and will discuss any material received. Articles may be edited. The Editor’s decisions are final.
Next Issue Just the Job
Copy should be sent or emailed in Word format Just a reminder that advertising research jobs on to the Editor (address on back page) to arrive by www.laria.gov.uk is free to corporate members of 7th August 2009. LARIA. And with corporate membership costing only £60, it could soon pay for itself. Look under ‘Job Any graphs, tables, photographs or adverts Vacancies’ and ‘Membership’ on the website. need to be supplied in jpeg or bmp format.
The views expressed in this newsletter are those of the contributors and not necessarily of their employing organisation or of LARIA. Readers are advised to ascertain for themselves that courses, conferences or services advertised are appropriate for their needs.
Page 42 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION News Laria Notes
Page 43 LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION
LOCAL AUTHORITIES RESEARCH + INTELLIGENCE ASSOCIATION www.laria.gov.uk
LARIA was established in 1974 to promote the role and EVENTS ORGANISER: Sarah Byrne practice of research within the field of local government Mosaic Events and provide a supportive network for those conducting Email: [email protected] or commissioning research. Tel: 0845 6434 812 Fax: 0845 6434 513
There are three forms of LARIA membership - full PROMOTION CO-ORDINATOR: Bob Cuthill membership and associate membership for individuals Email: [email protected] and corporate membership for organisations. LARIA is Tel: 01792 208907 managed by a Council, mainly elected by the full members. LariaNews EDITOR: Anne Cunningham Level 3 Town Hall, Blackburn BB1 7DY LARIA is registered as a Specially Authorised Society Email: [email protected] under the Friendly Societies Act 1974. Its activities are of Tel: 01254 585637 interest to all people working on Research and Intelligence activities for Local Authorities or allied CHAIR OF WEBSITE GROUP: fields, and depend upon active participation of such Neil Wholey, Westminster Council people to promote, maintain and develop professional Email: [email protected] practices. Tel: 020 7641 3317 Fax: 020 7641 2958 LARIA in Scotland (LiS) has its own steering group, whose chair is also on the LARIA Council. It plans CHAIR OF EVENTS GROUP: Gerallt Evans-Hughes workshops, and other events, and is developing Email: [email protected] networking at a Scottish level. CHAIR OF NEWSLETTER GROUP: Joy Thompson ALGIS in LARIA is an activity group of LARIA. It New East Manchester represents the interests and concerns of information Email: [email protected] specialists within local government. The group organises Tel: 0161 223 1155 Fax: 0161 231 7125 events and visits, publishes a Newsletter and undertakes other activities designed to raise awareness of the CHAIR OF ALGIS in LARIA: Jane Inman potential and actual benefits of the work of information Warwickshire County Council specialists within local government. Email: [email protected] Tel: 01926 418633 LARIA OTHER MEMBERS OF LARIA COUNCIL CHAIR: Andy Davis Warwickshire County Council Debbie Lee Chan – Ipsos MORI Email: [email protected] Jane Inman – Warwickshire CC Tel: 01926 412511 Fax: 01926 491665 Paul Noble – Independent Researcher Paul Davison – Stirling Council VICE CHAIR AND CHAIR OF MEMBER DEVELOPMENT Michael Soper – Cambridgeshire CC GROUP: Tim Allen – Local Government Analysis & Research Mike Walker Roger Sykes – Audit Commission Lancashire County Council Jeremy Vincent - Communities and Local Government Email: [email protected] Jill Tuffnell - SQW Consulting Tel: 01772 533445 Fax: 01772 533353 Knud Moller - KVM Research HON. TREASURER: Tony Todd - Wakefield & District Housing Ian Coldicott, Norfolk County Council Andrew Pomfret - Cheshire East Council Email: [email protected] Graham Smith Tel: 01603 222732 Fax: 01603 223128 LARIA IN SCOTLAND (LiS)
HON. SECRETARY: Christine Collingwood CHAIR: Paul Davison, Stirling Council Derby City Council Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Tel: 01786 443327 Tel: 01332 258406
ADMINISTRATOR: Doris Besford 1 Henderson Close, Great Sankey, Warrington WA5 3JJ Email: [email protected] Tel: 01925 723539 Fax: 01925 721548
ADVERTISING LARIA welcomes copy for the Newsletter from advertisers, subject to the material not being in conflict with the interests of LARIA’s members.
EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES LARIA wishes to encourage participation in its Activity Groups, its events, its newsletter and its other activities. It aims to remove barriers to participation associated with race, gender, age, faith, disability and sexuality. It expects its members, delegates and speakers at its events, and contributors to its newsletter to help in achieving that aim.