Planning4care 2.0 has now launched, providing a range of powerful future planning scenarios, the latest demographic projections and social care data from the National Adult Social Care Intelligence System (NASCIS), and a new easy-to-use web interface. The major changes to the tool for version 2.0 include:

• New futures scenarios including impact of successful local preventative initiatives, shift from residential to community care, increases in Healthy Life Expectancy, and varying future population projection scenarios
• Improved visualisation for scenarios and comparator area data
• Incorporating the new NASCIS annual return data on local provision and costs
• Revised summary report including impact of the latest data, and analysis of the different scenarios for your area

To find out more details, including how to subscribe to Planning4care, visit the Planning4care website, read the Blog, download an information pack, or email/ telephone us on info@planning4care.org.uk / 01273 201 316.

£20-25k + performance-related bonus

Interested in using your research skills to make a difference in the real world? We are looking for a quantitative researcher to join our expanding consultancy, helping public sector organisations effectively plan, target and evaluate programmes.

OCSI works with public sector agencies to improve their evidence-base for decision-making. In current projects we’re identifying rural deprivation issues; highlighting the impact of the recession in local areas; and improving data on cities. See www.ocsi.co.uk for more information about us and our work.

How to apply

Closing date for applications is Feb 28^th 2010. Please email a CV and covering letter (not more than 600 words) to Graham Lally, Graham.Lally@ocsi.co.uk.

Job description

• Job title: Quantitative researcher / analyst (full time)
• Salary: £20-25k + performance-related bonus
• Location: Central Brighton, with occasional travel to client meetings
• Responsible to: Tom Smith, OCSI Director
• Start date: ASAP

You will carry out quantitative research work for OCSI, working on internal and external projects:

• Developing, analysing and interpreting indicators on the economy and social exclusion
• Working with the OCSI team on external consultancy projects

About you

Essential and specific skills:

• Excellent quantitative research skills, and be comfortable analysing data in STATA, SPSS, Microsoft Excel and/ or other standard packages
• BSc (or higher) in subject with substantial quantitative research element
• Good knowledge of statistics, including regression techniques
• Keen contributor to team-work meetings, and also be able to work alone when required
• Good written skills, and be able to communicate confidently with clients as well as the OCSI team
• Well organised to meet tight deadlines, and be able to learn fast on challenging projects.
• Adept at using standard PC and internet applications

Desirable skills and experience:

• Relevant research or work experience relating to the public sector
• Experience with large-scale survey datasets, and understanding of sampling and missing data issues
• Experience using administrative datasets to understand economic and social issues, and measure change over time
• Software: SQL, Access, Powerpoint

Additional information

• Probationary period: All appointments are subject to a 6-month probationary period
• Hours: OCSI researchers work a standard 37.5 hour week (excluding lunch). We embrace flexible working practices.
• Leave: 30 days annual leave plus bank holidays
• Notice period: You are required to give two months notice. We will give you two months notice.

OCSI is an Equal Opportunities employer - we will employ the best person for the job regardless of gender, age, disability, ethnicity or religion.

Applicants must have the legal right to work in Britain. Smoking in OCSI is not permitted.

Other benefits:

• Employer matched contribution pension
• Flexible working hours
• Annual performance-related bonus
• Season ticket and bicycle purchase loans
• Staff development fund

• Unemployment claimant data for September 2009: The figures include data on the number and proportion of people claiming Jobseekers Allowance, the ratio of claimants to available jobs, and the 12-monthly changes in the number and proportion of people claiming Jobseekers Allowance
• Job Centre vacancies for September 2009
• House sales data for 2nd quarter of 2009: Median house prices and number of property transactions.

For full statistics, see the Local Economic Monitor (you can sign-in or register here), and there’s analysis of the most recent economic data on our Blog.

Good data visualisation can help users explore and understand the patterns and trends in data, and also communicate that understanding to others to help them make robust decisions based on the data being presented. This project supports public sector researchers improve the way that they visualise data, by providing good practice examples and case studies, practical and step-by-step guides on how to visualise data, and links to more detailed resources.

The website is www.improving-visualisation.org/ , with a gallery of visualisation examples (currently 220 examples) at http://www.improving-visualisation.org/visuals, and case studies and guides at www.improving-visualisation.org/case-studies/.

We’ll keep updating the project site with examples and case studies over time, so please get in touch with any comments.

“The majority of nationally provided data sets for local development are signposted on data4nr.net (data for neighbourhoods and regeneration) and these are updated as new sources become available”

Local economic assessments Draft statutory guidance, page 13
http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/communities/localeconomicassessmentduty

Data4nr identifies and signposts the datasets available for targeting, monitoring, priority setting and performance management at neighbourhood and local authority level, and is updated fortnightly with new and revised datasets. See www.data4nr.net for details, and sign-up for email updates at www.data4nr.net/register/.

Our work assesses indicators of social exclusion for older people in rural areas, including outputs from the Planning4care Social Care Commissioning tool. Key findings include:

• Rural areas have an older age profile and are ageing faster than other areas of the country: It is well known that rural areas are typically older than the average, with rural residents on average 6 years older than in urban areas. However, the population aged 65 and over is also projected to increase significantly faster than in urban areas - increasing the pressure on services such as social care for older people in rural areas.
• Although deprivation levels on average in rural areas are low, there is a great deal of ‘hidden’ deprivation:  Based on the government’s Index of Multiple Deprivation, only 1% of all deprived areas are rural. But based on individual-level data, the ‘rural share’ of deprivation is much greater - for example, of all people of working-age receiving DWP benefits 16% (or 280,000 people) live in rural areas. In other words, the ‘rural share’ of deprivation in terms of people (16% of all working-age people receiving benefits in England live in rural areas), is substantially larger than might be expected from analysis of the most deprived small areas (where only 1% of deprived areas in England are rural).
• Social care needs in rural areas are significant, and projected to grow faster than the average across England: Based on Planning4care analysis, more than 550,000 older people in rural areas have some level of social care need, with 125,000 of these having very high levels of need. Based on population projections and future Healthy Life Expectancy scenarios, this may grow to as much as 930,000 by 2029 - an increase of 70%, well above increases in urban areas. This in turn will place increased pressure on service costs and provision, again well above likely increases in urban areas. For example, based on current typical care packages, the total costs of providing publicly funded social care provision to older people in rural areas would be expected to increase by two-thirds, to £50M per week (in today’s money).
• Areas in East Midlands and the East of England show the greatest expected increases in older people over the next 20 years: At local level, the over-65 population is projected to nearly double over the next 20 years in some areas, with much greater increases in the oldest age-groups. Local Authorities with the largest growth in numbers of older people are likely to face a very significant increase in demand for social care provision and other services for older people.

See the full OCSI Mapping the level of need: Assessing the social exclusion of older people in rural areas report for more detail.

Follow these links for more information on our analysis of deprivation in rural areas, and the Planning4care social care strategic commissioning tool.

Public organisations increasingly need to understand local-level economic trends and drivers. To address this need, OCSI in partnership with GeoWise have developed the Local Economic Monitor (www.local-economic-monitor.org) to:

• monitor key economic indicators for all English local authorities, showing the impact of recent trends;
• visualise time series data, including change over recent periods;
• present fully updated datasets, showing the latest available information from a range of government sources.

Get a closer look

Interested in micro-level trends below the level of districts? Please contact us to discuss obtaining a similar interactive report presenting key economic indicators at a more detailed neighbourhood level, updated monthly. We can host this report for you or, if you prefer, we can email it to you, to host on your intranet or public website.

We can also supply data in ready-to-use packs, including an Economic Monitor Pack, and an Economic Assessment Duty Pack aimed at supporting Local Authorities to develop local economic assessments. Please see our web-page on Data and Report packs for more details.

]]> http://www.ocsi.co.uk/news/2009/07/28/local-economic-monitor-helps-understand-local-level-economic-trends-and-drivers/feed/ http://www.ocsi.co.uk/news/2009/02/12/visualising-data-for-decision-makers-and-researchers/ http://www.ocsi.co.uk/news/2009/02/12/visualising-data-for-decision-makers-and-researchers/#comments Thu, 12 Feb 2009 18:03:21 +0000 graham.lally@ocsi.co.uk http://www.ocsi.co.uk/news/?p=230 OCSI have been commissioned by the Department of Communities and Local Government to carry out a review of the many approaches to visualising data. The project will seek to understand the potential for visualisations in the analysis and communication of data, and provide guidance for national and local analysts on making best use of visualisation.

Work on the project will explore questions including:

• What visualisations are being used by the public sector? What can we learn from elsewhere?
• Is there a useful typology (classification) of visualisation techniques for public sector users?
• How effective are particular types of visualisation in supporting public sector research and decision-making?
• What are the most appropriate visualisation techniques for particular purposes?

The primary output from the project will be a web application, to help users identify strengths and weaknesses of visualisations for particular purposes, also linking to examples and supporting material.

The project/website will be an excellent opportunity to show case your own examples of good visualisation, and help contribute to common standards of good practice in the research community. If you have any examples, we would love to hear from you! Please email us on visualisation@ocsi.co.uk, or 01273 201 345.

• Identifying rural exclusion: We are working with national, regional and local partners to improve the quantitative evidence-base on rural deprivation. There is more information on our analysis for the Commission for Rural Communities, and our rural deprivation programme of work
• Understanding levels of social care need for older people: Our Planning4care tool for social care commissioners provides analysis on changing needs, service requirements and costs for local areas, linked to demographic projections and scenario planning.

The “Services to older people in rural areas” report is intended for launch in March 2009, and we’ll post details on our news pages.

In follow-up sessions, findings from the project have been disseminated at a series of workshops and presentations at national conferences. Early feedback from local partners has identified that the work is already helping strengthen local research functions to meet Local Area Agreement and Comprehensive Area Assessment needs.

The full report “Supporting Local Information and Research”  is available here.