Session 1: 1.00pm-1.30pm
Turning Data into Action: Community Insight Profiles for Local Impact
This session showcases how Community Insight Profiles and an interactive dashboard are transforming the way we understand and respond to local needs. National strategies often set the direction, but they can miss the nuances that define individual communities. Our work bridges this gap by using localised research and data to create practical insights that shape priorities and deliver targeted interventions.
The Community Insight Profiles programme brings a deeper understanding of the factors influencing health and wellbeing in Oxfordshire’s most disadvantaged areas. The community voices in the profiles bring local data to life, along with mapping community assets, identifying challenges and opportunities, and setting out recommendations for action. These profiles are not just descriptive; they include tailored action plans designed to respond to the priorities identified by local people. Community Health Development Officers and grant schemes are helping to implement the recommendations and we are working with the University of Oxford to assess their community impact.
The interactive dashboard builds on this by offering a dynamic platform where users can visualise trends, compare neighbourhoods, and drill down into specific indicators—making complex data practical and usable.
In this session, we will share the journey of developing these tools, including the methodologies, stakeholder engagement, and lessons learned along the way. We will also present practical examples of how the Community Insight Profiles have influenced local action, from health improvement initiatives to community projects, as well as the scalable findings from the programme evaluation.
Participants will explore the dashboard, engage in discussions about innovative approaches to local data analysis, and consider how similar tools can be adapted to their own contexts. This session offers practical insights into using evidence as the foundation for meaningful, sustainable change.
Reece Remedios, Kate Austin & Fiona Ruck, Oxfordshire County Council
Session 2: 1.30pm-2.00pm
Understanding and modelling loneliness among older adults at the neighbourhood level in England
Loneliness and social isolation have been recognised as critical health concerns by the World Health Organisation (WHO). In 2023, the WHO launched a Commission to help tackle social (dis)connection and in June 2025 published its first report. The report outlines the impact chronic loneliness and social isolation can have on human health, including on older population groups, with conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, depression and anxiety regularly referred to as implications, plus increased stoke risk and potential for early death. Research also suggests that loneliness is one of several lifestyle factors associated with dementia onset.
This session will present a prototype composite index and dashboard which seek to quantify, model and map loneliness risk amongst older adults at the small-area (neighbourhood) level, incorporating all of England. The index, known as the Loneliness Risk Composite Index (LRCI), fuses a series of known determinants of loneliness and infers the level of risk per neighbourhood unit. The tool is designed to aid the targeting of resources and interventions designed to tackle loneliness.
More specifically, this session will discuss the difference between loneliness and social isolation, their associations with health among older populations, and the risk factors (including modifiable risk factors) which are deemed to increase the risk of loneliness. The prototype composite index / dashboard will also be presented and demonstrated.
Dr Luke Burns, University of Leeds
Session 3: 2.00pm-2.30pm
Evaluating place-based and person-centred interventions – Balancing number crunching with local peoples’ experiences
The Horden Together Partnership is a place-based and person-centred intervention designed to improve the lives of residents in Horden, a former coal mining village in County Durham. It is currently being evaluated by the PHIRST Elevate research team based at the University of Edinburgh (more info here). Estimated completion is April 2026.
The evaluation has drawn on various data sources, many of them quantitative in nature. However, we recognise that people are not numbers. How do you make sure that the “human element” of the intervention is not lost through the evaluation, whilst maintaining objectivity and rigour?
Learning will be based around a case study of the evaluation. This session will explore how bringing together data from different local sources can help us tell the story of an intervention while keeping people at the heart of it. The evaluation method used machine learning as the technique to create “personas” by combining quantitative data sets. This helped us identify patterns of multiple needs without focusing on a single individual—a crucial approach in a small community like Horden.
The evaluation has also placed importance on gathering local “data” from a “public involvement group” made up of 12 Horden residents. This group has helped guide the evaluation by providing context and insights, commenting on emerging findings and will support knowledge mobilisation.
Julie Englund & Sarah Janac, Durham County Council & University of Edinburgh
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