We first heard from Dr Mandy Cheetham and Samantha Redgate on the topic ‘A new way forward for local authority research; the LACOR project’. They discussed how Newcastle City Council and the FUSE centre had worked together to develop an embedded culture of research in a local authority. For more information please contact Dr Cheetham here: M.Cheetham@tees.ac.uk

Next, Gary Murphy from Newcastle City Council discussed how the Python software and machine learning can help to map the private rented sector in a local authority area. For more information about this please contact Gary here: gary.murphy@newcastle.gov.uk LARIA North East members had mentioned at earlier networking events that they wanted more time to get to know each other, so we had a tea and coffee breaks after each presentation for people to discuss their projects and explore opportunities to work together.

Louise Reeve from Newcastle City Council and Simon Taylor from QSR International talked about how qualitative analysis software, such as Interpris, can be used to speed up analysis of consultation and survey responses. For more information, contact Louise Reeve at: louise.reeve@newcastle.gov.uk   Finally, Louise Reeve, the LARIA North East Regional Organiser, presented on ‘What’s happening with LARIA nationally?’, including the online forum, the recent LARIA Awayday strategic planning meeting, and the upcoming LARIA One Day Conference in November 2019.

Feedback on the event was generally positive and included comments such as:

‘It is really interesting to see how others do things, and ideas I can take back into my workplace for the analysis I carry out, in particular Interpris [qualitative analysis software] and the survey analysis techniques.’

‘It felt informal enough to be able to have good honest discussions.’

Topics suggested for future events were:

‘Health and Wellbeing’

‘Talk through R’

‘Data visualisation, and career progression within the research and analysis field.’

‘Possibly something around data sourcing? We spend a lot of time trying to source data and it may be interesting to find out how others do it to help us to use our time more efficiently and effectively.’

Thanks to everyone who attended for making it such an amazing event. The next one will be in Spring 2020. Watch this space! Louise Reeve Email: louise.reeve@newcastle.gov.uk

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We first heard from Andy Davis from Warwick University on the topic “Better Together: Councils and universities working to improve local areas”. Andy discussed new opportunities for councils and universities to pool their resources for better information, such as the LGA Leading Places programme. For more information please contact Andy here: A.Davis.4@warwick.ac.uk.

Andy Davis presenting.

Next, John Mitchell from Durham County Council discussed how Durham County Council’s new Durham Insight platform provides better information to the council and their partners.  For more information about Durham Insight please contact John Mitchell here: John.Mitchell@durham.gov.uk

LARIA North East members had mentioned at earlier networking events that they wanted more time to get to know each other, so we had a long tea and coffee break for people to discuss their projects and opportunities to work together.

Following the networking time, Richard Potter from Analytics Cambridge Ltd. presented on the LGA’s “Intelligent Council Project”. This aimed to explore what helps and what is needed for a Council to improve its intelligence, and to promote good practice and evidence-based decision-making.

Finally, Louise Reeve, the LARIA North East Regional Organiser presented on “What’s happening with LARIA nationally?”, including the online forum, the results of a recent project about what’s going on in local government research project, and the upcoming LARIA Annual Conference in May 2019. Feedback on the event was generally positive and included comments such as:

“It was useful to network and find out what others were working on. It would be helpful to know in advance who was attending, what their role is and what they’re currently working on.”

Topics that people wanted future events to cover included:

• Brexit
• How people have used research and intelligence to change service delivery or make savings.
• How people have justified their role within their organisation by demonstrating the real impact and value of their work.
• Health analytics.
• Power BI and other systems used to manage data.
• “It would be useful to keep the Intelligent Council initiative on the agenda given that some authorities are supposed to piloting a framework or similar this spring.”

Thanks to everyone who attended for making it such an amazing event. The next one will be in Autumn 2019. Watch this space!

Louise Reeve

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LARIA NE event attendees in 2018

The first LARIA North East networking event of 2019 will take place on Thursday 21st March, 1-4pm at North Yorkshire County Council in Northallerton. There’ll be plenty of chances to network, and we have speakers discussing: Intelligent Council project, Durham Insight, how local authorities and universities can work together more effectively. Free to attend – reserve your place here!

If you have questions, contact me at: louise.reeve@newcastle.gov.uk I look forward to seeing you!

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Laria NE October 2018 Event

It’s been a busy year! We’ve held three North East networking events in Durham, Newcastle and Darlington. At the end of 2018, there were 48 LARIA members in the North East region compared to 31 in 2017, from 16 different organisations across the public, academic and voluntary sectors. We held the first LARIA North East 2018 networking event at Newcastle City Library in January. Bad weather prevented several people attending, but the nine attendees and two presenters enjoyed a session led by two LARIA Research Award winners on understanding complex anti-social behaviour cases, and creating a blueprint for future intelligence provision.

The second LARIA North East Networking event in May 2018 was well-attended, with 18 attendees and three presenters. Held on a sunny day at Durham County Hall, we enjoyed a mixture of presentations on information management and local research networks, and the chance to meet other North East researchers. Our final LARIA North East networking event happened at Darlington Borough Council in October, where 11 attendees listened to presentations on homelessness prevention, public health intelligence and behaviour change.

What’s happening next?

In future, we’ll be looking at how to design LARIA NE events to give people more time networking with each other. I’ll continue to move them around the region to give everyone a chance to attend. My thanks to everyone who has helped to put on the networking events, especially those who have provided venues and given up their time to speak. It would also be great to have volunteers to help run the LARIA NE network – if you’re interested in finding out more, do get in touch. Merry Christmas!

Louise Reeve

LARIA North East Regional Organiser

Email: louise.reeve@newcastle.gov.uk

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Laria NE October 2018 Event

The third LARIA North East Networking event was well-attended, with 15 attendees and four presenters. Held at Darlington Town Hall (thanks to Zoe Foster and Darlington Borough Council for providing the venue), we enjoyed a mixture of presentations on information management and networking, and the chance to meet other North East researchers.

We first heard from Dr Christopher Parker at Newcastle City Council on the topic “Preventing homelessness in the context of welfare reform: Newcastle upon Tyne’s Homelessness Prevention Trailblazer”. Newcastle is one of only three national early adopters for the Homelessness Prevention Trailblazer, a public service transformation programme focused on preventing homelessness at an earlier stage by working with a wider group of residents at risk to help them before they reach crisis point.

Next, Andrew Billett (Public Health England) gave a talk on “Measuring health inequalities: investigating a rise in early mortality due to heart disease in Teesside”, and how PHE were able to use public health surveillance techniques to reach conclusions, such as learning that the flattening of the trend in the early mortality rate due to chronic heart disease in Middlesbrough since 2010 was caused by an increase in the number of deaths due to chronic ischaemic heart disease.

Following a tea and coffee break, Warren Hatter from With The Grain and Stuart Cuthbertson from Sunderland City Council presented on “Using behavioural insight in local government: lessons from Sunderland”. They discussed how behavioural insights can help public sector organisations reduce demand, improve outcomes and increase resilience, looking at case examples from increasing benefits applications in Sutton, and encouraging the take-up of stop smoking services in pregnancy in Sunderland.

In the final part of the event, we moved onto networking and the “Three things I’m working on…” forms. These aim to capture information three projects each of us is working on, three issues we think will be important in the future, and three things we are interested in learning more about in future. Everyone took the chance to network and discuss these issues with fellow researchers, and the information on the forms will be used to plan future LARIA North East networking events. Finally, Louise Reeve, the LARIA North East Regional Organiser (me!) presented on “What’s happening with LARIA nationally?” This included feedback from the recent LARIA Awayday to plan the future of the organisation, the option for members to host an ONS Census Economic Forum, and feedback from the recent Public Affairs Committee Annual Conference. There was also some cake!

Thanks to everyone who attended for making it such an amazing event. The next one will be in Spring 2019. Watch this space, and contact me if you have any ideas for what you’d like us to cover: louise.reeve@newcastle.gov.uk.

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LARIA NE event attendees

The second LARIA North East Networking event was well-attended, with 18 attendees and three presenters. Held on a sunny day at Durham County Hall (thanks to Matthew Peart, Dawn Barron and Durham County Council for providing the venue), we enjoyed a mixture of presentations on information management and networking, and the chance to meet other North East researchers. Here’s a full write-up: May 2018 LARIA North East Event.

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