Congratulations go to:

• Lancashire County Council for winning ‘Best use of community safety or policing research’ with ‘Understanding of complex anti-social behaviour cases including cases presented at partner riot assessment conference (ASBRAC)’;
• Manchester City Council for winning ‘Best use of local area research’ with ‘Troubled Families evaluation 2017’.

The awards were presented at the annual LARIA conference in Sheffield.

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New researcher of the year (highly commended) – Haydn Brown, Manchester City Council – Light rail and the Manchester property market – part 1; Light rail and the Manchester property market – part 2; Light rail and the Manchester property market – part 3 

Most engaging presentation of local area research (shortlisted) – Steven Hibbert, Manchester City Council – PSR Outcomes Framework      

Best use of local area research 1 (highly commended) – Gemma Jones, Lancashire County Council – Breaking the boundaries_service planning based on need not construct 

Best use of local area research 2 – (shortlisted) – Tim Robinson, Manchester City Council – Neighbourhood intelligence (confidential)

Best use of social care or health research 1 – (highly commended) – Farhat Abbas, Lancashire County Council – Saving the children – making infant deaths everybody’s business 

Best use of social care or health research 2 – (highly commended) – Charlotte Harris, Revealing Reality/Wirral Council – Barriers of binary thinking_tackling health related worklessness on the Wirral

Best use of social care or health research 3 – (shortlisted) – Leo Wall, Manchester City Council and Manchester CCGs Business Intelligence – Understanding health demands in Manchester

Further information from: l.frost@manchester.gov.uk

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• A map of how public services feel from a citizen perspective
• A timeline of national attempts to join up public services (1997-2015)
• A short paper on the perennial barriers to joining up and insights on how to tackle them
• A blog summarising the project and key findings

In the next phase of work, they will be conducting several  visits to local areas  to provide practical support and challenge to as they implement new approaches to joining up in employment and skills and health and social care. The Institute for Government will also work with local partners to find effective models for sharing learning, ideas and evidence. For more updates, or to get involved keep an eye on our project page or get in touch with Dr Jo Casebourne, Programme Director.

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Manchester Town Hall

LARIA NW welcomed around 60 delegates to its event in Manchester, chaired by Linda Frost, to hear from a range of speakers.  The event began with discussions in groups, covering data harmonisation, the Index of Multiple Deprivation and working with the voluntary sector.

Research into skills needs of voluntary,community and social enterprise organisations in Greater Manchester – Susanne Martikke, Greater Manchester Centre for Voluntary Organisation and Dr Noemi Sinkovics, Manchester Business School

This session shared findings from a collaborative research project into the skills needs of the voluntary sector and social enterprise organisations (VCSE) in Greater Manchester. After some the background to VCSE skills and the methodology used, the speakers explored some of the quantitative and qualitative findings to highlight the need to focus attention not only on skills, but also on capabilities.

Susanne Martikke is the research officer at the Greater Manchester Centre for Voluntary Organisation (GMCVO). She has managed and conducted a wide range of qualitative research projects on various aspects of the VCS and volunteering in Greater Manchester Susanne is also the co-founder and the coordinator for the Greater Manchester Third Sector Research Network, which brings together academics with a research interest in the voluntary sector and voluntary sector staff with a research remit for peer support and learning. Susanne is one of three associates of the UK Community Partner Network initiative, which aims to raise awareness of the mutual benefits of equal and fair partnerships between voluntary sector organisations, their communities and university researchers. She is currently working on her PhD as part of an ESRC-funded collaborative CASE Studentship between GMCVO and the Morgan Centre at the University of Manchester.

Dr. Noemi Sinkovics is Lecturer in International Business and Management at Alliance Manchester Business School. She holds a PhD in International Business and has a track record of peer-reviewed publications in a number of internationally recognised journals such as International Business Review, International Marketing Review, Journal of Business Research, etc. Her research and teaching is focused on responsible business, social value creation, as well as theoretical and practical aspects of entrepreneurship (commercial, social, and international).

 Presentation 1: Session 1 Susanne Martikke and Noemi Sinkovics

Using Open Data to map the city – Chris Pope, New Economy

The wealth of public sector open data – and open source products to analyse these – provide local authorities with a range of new and unique opportunities to better understand the local area, and improve people’s lives. To this end, Greater Manchester sought to utilise open data to better understand our social and physical infrastructure, to better support pre-planning decisions. This session explored some of the wider opportunities available for local authorities from using open data, some of our learning along the way, and the creation of our open data infrastructure map – mappinggm.org.uk.

Chris Pope has been a senior analyst for over 6 years at New Economy. He has worked in areas as wide as mental health support, skills and employment services, public service reform and planning and housing. For the past 8 months, Chris has project managed the Greater Manchester Open Data Infrastructure Map, working with colleagues in the LEP, AGMA and Salford City Council, who built the map.

Presentation 2: Session 2 Chris Pope

NVivo – Diane Armstrong, QSR International Ltd

Diane talked about a collaborative project between QSR International and Cheshire East Council in which data from a public consultation project was analysed in NVivo against the more traditional analytic methods and approaches (Man ‘V’ Machine). The aim of the project is to demonstrate the potential time and cost savings the software could bring to teams in similar local authorities.

Diane Armstrong is employed as a Business Development Manager at QSR International Ltd who are the developers of NVivo, an award winning qualitative research software. However, her background is in public sector, working for 23 years in NHS around the North West. In later years, Diane was employed as a Stakeholder Engagement Manager at Liverpool Primary Care Trust and was responsible for successfully project managing a number of large-scale public consultation projects resulting in the creation of 10 new neighbourhood health and wellbeing centres across the city and the development of the new Royal Liverpool and Alder Hey Hospitals.

Presentation 3: Session 3 Diane Armstrong

Efficient frontline service planning using RouteSmart and OS ITN data – the Newcastle-upon-Tyne perspective – Clive Melleney, Ordnance Survey and Mark Mohun, Newcastle City Council

This session heard about the possible savings to Local Authorities through the use of PSMA data in support, not only of savings in Waste Management, but many other areas of the business, as shown on the OS Case Study finder.

Clive Melleney is a GI Consultant with the Ordnance Survey.  He supports over 100 PSMA customers within the North West and West Midlands Regions.  He also works with energy and infrastructure companies across GB.

Mark Mohun is a Business Analyst with Newcastle City Council.

Presentations 4a and 4:
Session 4a Clive Melleney
Session 4 Mark Mohun

DemograFire – creating a national geo-demographic profile of fire and rescue incidents – Philip Usher, Cheshire Fire and Rescue

This session heard about the DemograFire project, which aims to produce a robust, geo-demographic profile of fire and rescue incident data to assist in the creation of social marketing campaigns.

Philip Usher has worked in analytical roles within the emergency services for 12 years and he is currently Business Intelligence Manager at Cheshire Fire & Rescue Service. In 2015 Philip took on the role of lead for Social marketing and Analysis in the Chief Fire Officer’s Association (CFOA) Integrated Data Group which led him to create DemograFire.  Philip is also in the final stages of an MSc in GIS at University of Leeds where he is modelling a regional approach to Fire & Rescue in the North-West.

Presentation 5: Session 5 Philip Usher

Projecting populations by ethnic group for local authorities, 2001 to 2051 – Dr Paul Norman, Leeds University

Data on future populations by ethnic group are needed for a variety of purposes. This presentation showed: how population projections are constructed, how choices made affect outputs and why differences in observed population change (what actually happened) and expected (what has been projected) might (will!) occur.

Paul Norman is a population and health geographer with wide experience of estimating and projecting populations.

Presentation 6:  Session 6 Paul Norman

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• Support for the idea of university tuition fees has remained consistent over the past decade: the proportion of respondents believing that all university students should pay fees was recorded as 11% in both 2004 and 2013, while the proportion who feel that some students should pay has risen by just one percentage point (from 66% to 67%).
• At 69%, satisfaction with the NHS remains almost identical to that recorded in 2009.
• The  proportion of respondents who believe that taxes should be increased in order to finance more spending on health, education and welfare has risen by just five percentage points over the course of the coalition’s tenure (from 32% in 2010 to 37% in 2014).

These figures seem to conflict with the ‘thermostatic’ model of public opinion put forward by the political scientist Christopher Wlezien, in which it is argued that public opinion responds to changes in government spending. According to this theory, the electorate has an ideal level of spending in mind for certain issues, meaning that when the government spends a reduced amount of money, support for additional spending increases, and when the government spends more, support for increased spending reduces. This model has been tested against British public opinion data from the late twentieth and very early twenty-first centuries: however, the data shown above indicates that this link may, at present, be weakening. However, the report reveals that there is one issue that has engendered a much more significant shift in opinion during the current government’s tenure: support for the concept of a coalition government has declined substantially. The notion of coalition government is unusual in British politics: the current coalition is the first to govern Britain since 1945. In 2007, 45% of respondents to the British Social Attitudes survey stated that they would prefer a coalition government over a single-party administration: however, this proportion has now fallen to just 29%.

The report also predicts several areas that are likely to be of concern to the next government, whatever its eventual composition. These include:

• Funding of the NHS. Almost the entirety of the general public (92%) believe that the NHS is facing a funding problem, with almost three quarters believing that this problem is either “major” or “severe.” However, the various methods of increasing NHS funding which were put forward by the researchers were not particularly well received. Approximately one third (32%) of respondents supported the idea of restricting free healthcare to those on lower incomes, while a quarter (24%) supported the idea of a tax dedicated solely to providing funding for the NHS. Still less popular were the ideas of paying more tax through the current system (17%), introducing charges for visits to GPs and A&E departments (14%) or charging people to cover their food and laundry costs while in hospital (12%).

• The UK’s relationship with Europe. Since 1996, the majority of the British public have either felt that the UK should seek to reduce the EU’s powers or that it should leave the EU altogether. In the most recent British Social Attitudes survey report, respondents were asked to choose from a range of options for the UK’s future relationship with the EU. Of these options, the most popular was to remain a member but renegotiate terms (38%), followed by leaving the EU (24%) and leaving the relationship as it is (18%). The least popular options were to remain in the EU and increase its powers (10%) and to work towards the formation of a single European government (4%). While this euroscepticism is, according to the researchers, a continuation of a longer-term trend rather than a new development, they conclude that the next government is likely to be expected to, as a minimum, retain the UK’s status as a relatively unenthusiastic EU member. Moreover, the report also discusses the rise of UKIP, concluding that this does not, in fact, stem from a surge in euroscepticism among the British public. It states that other key characteristics of UKIP supporters are their social conservatism, their distrust of politics and concern with regard to the uneven distribution of wealth.

• Spending on welfare. With the exception of pensions and support for the disabled, spending on welfare is broadly unpopular among the electorate. The proportion who feel that the government should spend more on welfare has declined consistently over the past few decades: in 1989, the proportion of the electorate who felt this way stood at 69%, compared to just 30% in 2014. While Labour supporters tend to be more sympathetic towards welfare claimants than Conservative supporters, 50% of the former group still agreed with the statement that “around here, most unemployed people could find a job if they wanted to.” The researchers therefore conclude that it would be difficult for the next government to make any substantive changes to the welfare policies imposed in recent years without risking significant public discontent. They also suggest that it may be difficult for the incoming government to continue to meet the expectations of the public with regard to protecting pensions from spending cuts.

For further information about the British Social Attitudes survey, please see http://www.bsa.natcen.ac.uk/.

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We all know that councils face huge pressures to make savings. As budgets are reduced, the need to explore new ways of delivering services while still protecting the most vulnerable residents is more important than ever.

In this environment, research and consultation may seem like a ‘nice to have’, but the need for high quality research has never been more vital and should be at the heart of local decision making.

Increasingly we find that it is, and its role in driving and balancing change where difficult decisions have to be made can be vital to policy as local authorities respond to the changing funding landscape.

Local area research comes of age

So, councils have a greater need than ever for high quality, targeted local area research to provide genuinely insightful and informed evidence.

Over the last few years at Qa Research, we’ve seen the positive response amongst our clients and we’ve seen the importance and value of research grow significantly. And here are three reasons why this has happened.

Reason 1: Taking local people with you

At a time when local authorities must make savings on a scale unprecedented in modern times, then changes to the way local services are delivered are inevitable.

In many cases these are real, tangible and sometimes dramatic changes that will be experienced by local residents. In some instances that could mean unhappy, even angry, people and this is made worse if residents feel they are excluded from the decision making process and unable to have any real influence.

The work we’ve done to understand how residents wish to be consulted highlights that above all else, they want to be treated as adults (assuming they are!).

People want to know the facts. Successful consultation acknowledges that residents are knowledgeable and rational, able to understand the challenges facing local authorities and to form balanced opinions as to how limited resources should be used.

People are very aware that their council faces major challenges. They know difficult decisions have to be made.

They want to have their say on the decisions that affect them. But more than that, they want their views to be heard and taken into account when decisions are taken.

Reason 2. Answering tough questions

So, who’s more vulnerable a young, single mum or an elderly widow? What should a local market provide, gourmet food for the discerning ‘foodie’ or low cost goods and services for those who’ve always relied on it?

How can services be delivered for two-thirds of last year’s budget?

Questions like these and many other equally challenging ones can be informed, or even answered in full, by well deisgned, ambituous and honest research – and we increasingly see local authorities prepared to tackle exactly these types of questions.

This is a change and a welcome one and we’ve seen really inspired, honest and exploratory research used to inform the following:

• Remodeling Children’s Centre provision
• Determining how to deliver leisure services to meet the needs of a geographically dispersed population
• Minimising the impact of council tax benefit reduction on the most vulnerable residents
• Redeveloping and relocating local markets
• Involving local people in the delivery of library services.

Reason 3. To demonstrate value for money

Our own experience of working with LAs throughout the UK in the last few years has demonstrated a fundamental shift in attitudes towards consultation.

Straitened times have focused local authorities towards commissioning research and consultation that is genuinely required, highly valued by end users and provides robust evidence to support tough decisions.

The days of the tick-box exercise have largely passed and we see Research and Consultation Officers more and more empowered and invigorated to explore options that challenge the old way of doing things to get the most from their research spend.

This means more challenging projects for agencies like Qa Research and we welcome it. The fruits of all our endeavours are now often highly prized by decision makers and we all benefit from this.

Looking to the future…

Residents understand that their councils are faced with making difficult decisions. They rightly expect that these decisions will be informed by sound data, the needs of their community and informed decision making.

This can’t take place without the expertise and dedication of local area researchers, whose work is essential to the future of local services and at the heart of local democracy itself.

(Photo credit: San Jose Library)

—

• Michael Fountain is research director at Qa Research: michael.fountain@qaresearch.co.uk
• Find out more about Qa Research by visiting qaresearch.co.uk
• This post also appears on the Qa website here

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Welcome from Gerallt Evans-Hughes

‘What’s new in LG Inform?’ – Juliet Whitworth, Local Government Association
Delegates heard about LG Inform, with an update on the LGA’s data benchmarking service for local authorities and the public. The session covered the developments that are currently underway to the tool, which will help users, both in councils and more widely, to access performance and other information about their areas.  We heard about an update of indicators to the free benchmarking tool underway using LG Inform and saw a short demonstration of the product.  Delegates were asked to indicate if training in LG Inform (perhaps locally in the North West) would be of interest.

LARIA NW Taster presentation Juliet Whitworth

Juliet Whitworth talks about LG Inform

‘Working together to support resilience in disadvantaged neighbourhoods’ – Helen Bromley, Cheshire West and Chester Council and Sarah Mosedale, University of Lancaster
The aim of the presentation was to introduce colleagues to the National Institute of Health Research Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care, North West Coast (NIHR CLAHRC NWC). The collaboration brings universities, local authorities, NHS organisations and the public together – working to accelerate the translation of research findings into health service improvements and changes that will reduce health inequalities and improve population health. The presentation outlined the Public Health work stream within the CLAHRC, and commented on the experience of one local authority (Cheshire West and Chester) taking part in this research programme.

LARIA NW Taster presentation Helen Bromley and Sarah Mosedale

Sarah Mosedale

Helen Bromley

‘New ways of modelling’ – Alasdair Robertson, i-three
This session looked at the use of simulation technology to support evidence based approaches to decision making and stakeholder engagement. The focus was on application of local data to support complex decisions in vital questions of public policy. This approach allows for deeper understanding of the complex and sometimes counter intuitive nature of how issues play out in real world systems, but tested in the safety of the lab before risking implementations. It also discussed how well conceived simulation models can bring together stakeholders in the decision making process.

LARIA NW Taster presentation Alasdair Robertson

Alasdair Robertson

‘Using MOOCs’ – Anne Cunningham, Blackburn with Darwen Council
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have come from nowhere in the past four years to have millions of students worldwide, transforming the opportunity to participate in free or almost-free learning. The session introduced some of the leading platforms for MOOC study, and the ever-expanding list of providers and courses on offer. It described the speaker’s own experience of this form of education, and reflected on some of the typical processes, challenges and rewards of Massive Open Online Courses. Finally, it presented a selection of just some of the forthcoming MOOCs which may be of interest to LARIA members.

LARIA NW Taster presentation Anne Cunningham

Anne Cunningham

‘Social Network Analysis in Little Harwood’ – Ken Barnsley, Blackburn with Darwen Council (BwD)
The study looked at the social networks in Little Harwood in Blackburn that create and sustain health and wellbeing. It used a Social Network Analysis approach, training local researchers and co-designing a questionnaire recording tool. This enabled researchers to understand aspects of social neworks in Little Harwood and to begin to map them along with being able to identify nodes in terms of people and places.
Austerity and its public spending cuts do not easily support demands for improved outcomes from services. This is true if we continue to think of public services solely as the social and economic support provided by the state through one to one, transactional relationships with the citizen in order to ‘deliver’ solutions to problems. But if we start to think about ‘services’ not just as things provided by the state, but also as wider social attitudes and support; and if we blur the boundaries between state and civil society so that well-designed public services encourage and support rather than crowd out the efforts of families, friends and communities to support (vulnerable) people, then we move to a more co-productive model in which the latent assets in communities to provide social and economic support are better used.
Social networks, however, do not restrict themselves to purely social or economic domains. More broadly, this work explored the question of how can we better understand, configure and mobilise the total set of assets in networks to achieve outcomes. This led towards trying to understand networks as production systems for social (and economic) value. For BwD, networks are comprised of individuals, groups, places and institutions connected through a variety of dimensions, be they geography, interest, practice, activity, or chance. BwD are interested in what makes networks more socially and economically productive for both the individuals and institutions within them, and for society as a whole. This kind of approach tries to work with how the world is, in all its complexity, rather than how we might idealise or simplify it for the sake of designing policy and practice.

LARIA NW Taster presentation Ken Barnsley

Ken Barnsley

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The latest Cities Outlook (January 2015) explores how cities have grown over the last 10 years and how policy has sought to support them.

Now in its eight year, Cities Outlook provides the authoritative economic index of the 64 largest cities and towns in the UK.

To explore the data behind the report, visit the data tool (beta).

Source: Centre for Cities

Photo credit: www.tecmark.co.uk

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Lancs CC and Lancs Constabulary: Winners of Best use of local area research

Lancashire County Council: Winner of Best use of health research

Manchester City Council: Winner of Best use of public data

Heather Walmsley, Lancs CC: Winner of New researcher of the year

Linda Frost, Manchester City Council (LARIA NW Region): Winner of Volunteer of the year

 Photos: Gerallt Evans Hughes and Linda Frost

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