'Customer Insight, LAAs and CAA' was a workshop faciliated by Derrick Johnstone for East Midlands Improvement and Efficiency Partnership on 9 June 2009. It was designed to explore how customer and citizen intelligence help tackle local priorities, with the emphasis very much on partnership dimensions. Sessions focused on customer-focused strategy and service improvement, the use of customer segmentation tools, 'circles of need' and customer journey analysis.

Derrick's slides can be downloaded here (pdf - large file 1539KB). These include several sides which capture feedback from discussion groups.

Presentations from Zoe Butler and Ameila Soos from Ashfield District Council and Jo Herlihy from Nottinghamshire Councy Council can be found on the EMIEP website.

The event built on a previous briefing on 'Customer Insight and LAAs' prepared by Educe for Improvement and Efficiency West Midlands.

The Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) was established by Communities and Local Government and the Department for Work and Pensions in 2008. It replaced the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund and the DWP Deprived Areas Fund in allocating to 65 local authorities to help them and their partners tackle concentrations of worklessness.

We are members of a team led by the Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge, alongside Cambridge Econometrics and the University's Centre for Housing and Planning Research. The scoping study to provide a baseline and interim evaluation consists of three parts: (a) a top line analysis of current conditions in WNF areas; (b) an early assessment of how strategies and approaches to tackle worklessness are being developed in WNF areas; and (c) recommendations for future evaluation of WNF. The research has involved a literature review, an online survey of all WNF areas, and depth interviews in 20.

Local Authorities in the East Midlands are spending considerable time collating datasets for strategic assessment and service improvement. Responsibility for collation is spread across a range of services in councils (and partners) creating the risk of duplication. Data managers and their teams are carrying out large amounts of work to repackage nationally available data for local needs.

Analytical capacity is stretched by current demands and available data are not always used to the full. Research and intelligence is not always joined up where and when it matters – within local authorities and across partners.  CAA, LAAs and the recession place these issues in sharp perspective.

Derrick Johnstone was commissioned by the East Midlands Improvement and Efficiency Partnership as a Local Improvement Advisor. The purpose of the scoping project was to:

The report provided the basis for regional consultation, primarily through an event on 16 July. This provided an opportunity for participants across the region to consider priorities for action and for use of a budget allocation. The report and the accompanying presentation can be downloaded from the EMIEP website.

We were invited by Dudley Community Partnership in the Black Country to facilitate a 'Recession Summit' which drew together local partners to discuss the impact of the recession on the borough and appropriate responses, both short term and longer term. This led to the setting up of a task group, an action plan, and a subsequent request to Educe to faciliate a meeting between the local authority and bank representatives to explore the scope for collaboration.