Last week Jack Smith and I attended the Local Area Research and Intelligence Association (LARIA) conference in London, kindly hosted by the Local Government Association (LGA).
The conference brought together local authority research and intelligence teams from across the UK to discuss challenges and share learnings from across the government landscape.
It was brilliant to meet so many individuals and organisations who are working on providing intelligence to their local area policymakers to enable real change and improve the lives of people in their areas. Subject matters being analysed ranged from childhood development indicators to events taking place in local libraries as well as transport and embedding research within organisations.
Throughout the day it was noticeably clear that the need for strong, consistent, data-led evidence has never been greater.
A Changing Landscape
Dr Martin Reeves, CEO of Oxfordshire County Council started off the day setting out the realities facing councils today. He highlighted how the current political and social context means local authorities are ever more resource-stretched with a higher demand and increased complexity for individuals, organisations, and systems.
Organisations are clearly navigating the changes being brought about by the government’s devolution plan with organisation restructures and new geographical boundaries being needed going forward.
We heard from ONS Local on the challenges for data in this environment and look forward to hearing more as they detail how they are exploring options for more detailed statistical geographies in the wake of new boundaries at their webinar in May.
The Importance of Place-Based Understanding
Another strong theme running through the day was just how closely inequality deprivation and need are tied to place. The team from Oxfordshire explained how as new housing developments have been built those with support needs move further from the existing services, creating new pockets of need that current services were not designed to reach. Amongst the insight from Sheffield City Council, we saw that inequalities in childhood development indicators were dependent on where you lived across the city.
It was clear from presentations that although data often exists, being able to use it is a different story. Presenters highlighted challenges with historically siloed data, access issues, varying interpretations of data and a lack of consistency across departments, projects, and providers. Manchester City Council shared how they had difficulty getting consistent, actionable data from across services in the city.
Learning, Evaluation and Real-world Practice
There was discussion on how to strike the balance between in depth longitudinal analysis and short term, more scrappy evaluation and how it is important to understand from year one how your intervention is working and therefore what needs to change. Good evaluation is not just an end of project exercise; it needs to be built in from the start.
Despite the complexity of the landscape the conference showcased some of the thoughtful work happening across the country. Initiatives are ongoing to improve the lives of the communities in which these teams sit and it was clear how important data and evidence are in an increasingly fractured world.
The day also highlighted the LARIA Research Impact Awards, which celebrated standout work from across local government. The full list of winners is available here. We were pleased to see our colleagues from the Geographic Data Service recognised for their work on a composite spatial indicator framework measuring compound inequality across transport accessibility, deprivation, economic development, and housing opportunities, working with the Liverpool Combined Authority.
Essex County Council demonstrated how they are using demographic and inequality data in their smoking and smoke-free needs assessment, whilst highlighting the gaps in data on e-cigarettes and vapes.
Warwickshire Libraries spoke about how collaborating with their council business intelligence team helped them better understand the impact of their funding on their local communities.
Robyn Brass from Department of Transport introduced their new Data Action Plan which aims to lessen barriers for access to transport data and strengthen their engagement with local authorities to produce a coherent commitment. Manchester City Council showed how data collection had shaped their intervention to prevent youth violence, through ongoing evaluation of targeted mentoring schemes in schools, to refine approaches in real time.
There was also discussion about not thinking in single issues any longer. Data goes out of date very quickly, and it can be difficult to understand how long term interventions are performing. Responsibility for research has historically sat across different teams. Oxfordshire shared how they are developing their organisation wide research strategy and changing culture.
Opportunities and Recommendations
The day was full of opportunities for maximising how evidence is generated and used. Several practical recommendations emerged with many speakers stressing the value of pragmatic project management, especially as work is often politically charged and fast paced.
Consistently throughout the day the importance of communicating findings was emphasised. Although dashboards were acknowledged as important, stories and other types of data visualisation are also needed to reach different audiences. The idea of preparing evidence ahead of policy windows, such as upcoming white papers was also covered.
The conference made clear that while the challenges facing local government are significant, so is the determination to address them. Clear data and stronger evidence will be essential. The examples shared at LARIA showed the practical progress already being made and highlighted clear opportunities to go further.
If you want to find out more how HASP data could help drive decision making in your local area get in touch with Lizzy, or take a look at our data catalogue, tools and resources.
