News and publications

I’ve blogged earlier today that effective research and information is needed in order to meet the tough spending challenges - leaders and decision-makers, commissioners and providers more than ever need the right intelligence to prioritise and reshape services, identify over and under-performance, and highlight where early preventative investment can save significant resources [...]

The Comprehensive Spending Review has confirmed that local government is going to be making a lot of very tough decisions in the coming months, with local government funding from the centre reduced by 26% over 4 years (very close to the 25% cuts predicted by IFS in May based on the Conservative manifesto plans) and [...]

The Comprehensive Spending Review has confirmed that local government are firmly in the era of “less cash, more freedom”, with 26% cut in central funding over the next 4 years, but the end of ring-fencing for revenue grants.
The critical details will continue to emerge over the coming months, but the main points from Eric Pickles’ [...]

Local information systems (also known as data observatories) can save you and your users significant amounts of money, not to mention the benefits of better intelligence for decision-making (and not just in your organisation - interviews with local information systems managers also highlight their role in “empowering the local community to challenge the local partners [...]

The OCSI Data and Report Packs support organisations manage and deliver their Local Information Systems more effectively and efficiently, freeing up local analysts to do real research by reducing the time spent on routine data formatting and inputting. Our analysis of the costs and benefits of the Packs identifies that [...]

We have been working with rural communities on understanding the available data, to get a clearer picture of rural needs and deprivation than is provided from a single source such as the Index of Multiple Deprivation. We recently launched the “Evidencing rural need” project and website resource, commissioned by Action with Communities in Rural England [...]

Revisions to the standard mid-year population estimates have a significant impact on some local authority resident populations, particularly in London and other large cities. The effect on calculated population data such as benefit claimant rates is also significant, and could lead to changes in how initiatives to tackle worklessness and other issues are targeted

OCSI and Care Equation have recently launched the Planning4care Mental Health (MH)  and Learning Disability (LD) tools providing the intelligence that MH and LD service commissioners and providers need to improve service planning and delivery.
The tools and methodology have been piloted with six Planning4care users – Essex, Derbyshire, North [...]

OCSI have been working with researchers from our ‘parent’ group at Oxford University on a study of the Barton area in Oxford, a small housing estate on the outskirts of the city. Commissioned by the University of Oita in Japan, the project explores a range of evidence to identify the impact of [...]

The OCSI “Evidencing rural need” website went live this week, providing the information needed to effectively represent rural issues. The project was commissioned by Action with Communities in Rural England (ACRE), to support Rural Community Councils across the country.
Building on a series of OCSI projects on rural deprivation, ACRE commissioned OCSI to develop a [...]