Local Information Systems (LIS) in LSPs and Local Authorities

We are the market leader in off-the-shelf solutions for Local Information Systems, Data Observatories and Neighbourhood Information Systems. Currently we have more than 35 LIS customers across the UK in Local Authorities, PCTs and Local Strategic Partnerships - examples include:

• London: Greater London Authority, Newham, Lewisham, Barking & Dagenham, Tower Hamlets
• South East: Brighton & Hove, East Sussex
• South West: Bristol, South Gloucestershire
• W Midlands: Coventry, Worcestershire, Solihull, Telford
• E Midlands: Nottingham City, Leicestershire
• East: Norfolk, Hertfordshire
• Yorkshire & Humber: Bradford, Wakefield, NE Lincolnshire
• North West: Wigan, Tameside, Stockport, Rochdale
• Wales: Local Government Data Unit Wales
• Scotland: Fife, West Lothian

Atlas of Deprivation - Bournemouth Borough Council

"InstantAtlas has proved its usefulness in the presentation of this complex dataset. There are eight indicators available for each Lower Layer Super Output Area (LSOA). For each indicator, there is also comparison available with the previous release of the same dataset (2004). The report has proved flexible enough to display the rank and score of all indicators for 2007, the rank of the corresponding indicator for 2004 (as a "target bar") and eye-catching symbols to highlight areas that have changed by "one" or "two or more" quintiles (in terms of national rank) from 2004 to 2007."

Like Bournemouth, Blackpool Council have also created their own local deprivation atlases

Cornwall Crime Explorer, Amethyst CDRP, Cornwall

Cornwall CDRP Information Hub, Amethyst, take quarterly recorded crime figures from Devon & Cornwall Police and publish it at Ward level to their community safety partners and external users of the Amethyst web site. The report seeks to adopt best practice in the presentation of statistics online.

Phil Davies, Project Coordinator, explains "we wanted to demonstrate best practice by following guidance on data sharing, data dissemination and community engagement. We also felt our annual Strategic Assessment report to the Home Office was limited - it doesn't allow people to explore the data on their terms. We wanted to create an interactive report that presents much of the evidence in the form of visual pictures to make it easier to explore and interpret. We have produced a report on one interactive page that delivers much of the static graphics in the Assessment. We have also embedded text from the report into the application to help people interpret what they're looking at. We hope this sort of tool will lead to greater community empowerment through more effective engagement - an area which CDRPs are being strongly encouraged to address." Read more in the case study on the Amethyst site.

Local Statistics Explorer, Tyne and Wear Research & Information (TWRI) Unit

Tyne and Wear Research and Information (TWRI), the sub regional-organisation responsible for providing a range of specialist research and intelligence services on behalf of 5 local authorities in the North East of England. The Tyne and Wear Local Statistics Explorer now supports Ward level data presented as a single map or side-by-side comparison map across range of themes including Demographics, Crime and Employment.

"We have been using InstantAtlas on our web site for many years as a local statistics explorer tool. InstantAtlas is an ideal tool for publishing small area statistics."
Kadhem Jallab, Head of TWRI View reports

Progress in the Region, Yorkshire Futures

"We have used InstantAtlas to create online maps called Progress in the Region Live, which show how our region is performing against a suite of high level indicators including economic, environmental, educational and social data. InstantAtlas has allowed us to provide an easy to use mapping feature on our website which is quick to update, as and when new data are released, and which provides added value to our published documents and reports. We have received very positive feedback from our users about PiR Live who say it saves them time by collating data in a single location and which provides an engaging way of looking at information about our region."
Amanda Crossfield, Data & Development Exec. View reports

West Midlands Regional Observatory (WMRO)

"InstantAtlas enables us to present data geographically in interactive maps to make it more accessible to our users. It helps to compare and contrast different areas within the region to determine priorities. In particular, we have found InstantAtlas to be a useful tool in helping us to highlight key regional issues and challenges emerging from our State of the Region work. Other regional partners have also found the tool to be very useful."
Naomi Winchurch, Researcher WMRO

Sandwell Primary Care Trust and the WMRO have jointly been addressing the area of excess winter deaths to inform the reducing excess winter deaths programme, an NHS West Midlands Investing for Health project. This examines the relationship between excess winter deaths and fuel poverty. We helped to share this information by presenting data on excess winter deaths and the fuel poverty indicator through InstantAtlas.

View the atlases:

Excess winter deaths PCT | Local Authority

Fuel poverty indicator at LSOA

Insight East - East of England Development Agency (EEDA)

"We need a solution that is easy for our website users to access and manipulate, and for EEDA to maintain. InstantAtlas fulfils these criteria and is proving straightforward to update and expand."

Tom Morrison, Knowledge and Information Team, East of England Development Agency

Regional Spatial Strategy - East of England Regional Assembly (EERA)

"InstantAtlas has allowed EERA to transform access to the data contained within our Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) annual monitoring report. Whereas previously data were held in static tables and graphs they are now presented in a format that helps dynamically and clearly display progress towards RSS targets and aids comparison over time and between authorities in the region."

James Perry, Regional Analyst, EERA

Data Explorers, Government Office London

GOL has published a set of performance views called Data Explorers at a range of geographies for the Greater London area. They contain the currently available indicators that comprise the National Indicator Set (NIS).

James Jervis at GOL comments, "We have been using InstantAtlas for several years as a means to disseminate data to members of staff and, more recently, to external stakeholders via our external web site. The Data Explorer has proven to be an invaluable tool as part of the Local Area Agreements (LAA) process by providing staff with a single, consistent source of comprehensive data, covering the National Indicator Set (NIS) as well as other key indicators. The success of the tool lies in the fact that it allows easy access to over 180 datasets and presents this information in a clear and easy to understand format. Staff across our organisation, from senior managers to support staff, have commented on how useful and simple the tool is to use"

NHS Community Health Profiles

The Association of Public Health Observatories was commissioned by the Department of Health in 2005 to produce Health Profiles. Health Profiles provide a snapshot of health for each local council in England using key health indicators, which enables comparison locally, regionally and over time.

The aims of the profiles are:

1. To provide a consistent, concise, comparable and balanced overview of the population’s health that informs local needs assessment, policy, planning, performance management, surveillance and practice.
   
2. To be a distillate of the absolutely key, most useful (currently available) indicators (with a reference to new data/indicators and unavailable data/indicators).
   
3. To be primarily of use to joint efforts between local government and the health service to improve health and reduce health inequalities, but ultimately to empower the wider community.

Health Profiles Interactive is a new service introduced in 2008 to allow users to select indicators and areas for comparison through a map or list in an intuitive visual interface. The interactive reports have been produced at several different geography levels to allow indicator comparisons over these geographies.

National Health Episode Statistics

Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) are record level patient data collected by the Department of Health from every NHS hospital in England and Wales. HES data provides a comprehensive picture of inpatient care that can support public health analysis, planning and resource allocation, benchmarking, clinical audit, monitoring and performance management and research.* Presenting HES data using InstantAtlas makes the data more accessible. As Steve Morgan, Senior Public Health Analyst at SEPHO says: " “I’ve demonstrated the software to a number of senior public health specialists and received a great deal of positive feedback – complex data previously once displayed in tedious two dimensional spreadsheets and charts is now transformed in an exciting and more meaningful manner

The new HES e-Atlas produced by SEPHO on behalf of APHO shows HES data from 2003/4 by Local Authority.

National recorded crime atlas, Home Office

The Home Office use InstantAtlas to provide an annual snapshot of recorded crime patterns and an indication of trends. They publish the data for a standard set of crime types at the local authority district level. The application is publicly accessible and widely used.

Teenage Pregnancy reports, East Midlands Public Health Observatory (EMPHO)

EMPHO has produced interactive maps of under 18 conception data, for all Local Authorities in England. Maps are now available with the latest data, along with comparators including deprivation data. The tool allows users to view the data in a number of different ways, including Significance mapping, Funnel Plots and Area Profiles.

View EMPHO Reports:

Single Map Double Map Funnel Plot Area Profile

The Progress Map, Centre for Excellence and Outcomes in Children and Young People's Services

C4EO has used InstantAtlas as a core component of the interactive, web-based Progress Maps to help professionals access and apply the ‘what works’ evidence collected by the Centre to improve outcomes for children, young people and families.

"Using InstantAtlas (with excellent technical support from Geowise) has allowed us to develop and launch complex, interactive tools in a very short period of time. Though it is still early days, feedback so far has been overwhelming positive."

Jez MacDonald, Web Development Manager, Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE)