InstantAtlas Case Study
Norfolk improves decisions with InstantAtlas neighbourhood data visualization
The Norfolk Data Observatory provides access to a wide range of definitive, high quality statistics and indicators at multiple geographic levels across the county. This includes key information on population, crime, deprivation, the Census, education, health and economic activity. InstantAtlas is enabling data visualization at local levels, improving neighbourhood intelligence and decision making.
Norfolk Data Observatory (NDO), a Local Intelligence System, has existed since 1998, its scope being extended significantly in 2007 in line with the objectives of the Government Local Area Agreement (LAA) and to provide stronger support for Local Area Partnerships. Today NDO has become a primary source of local information and intelligence; a centralised web-repository for neighbourhood statistics and indicators. It is an essential tool supporting evidence-based decision making, targeting of resources and better service delivery. NDO partners, the main users, include Norfolk County Council (NCC), district councils, Norfolk Constabulary, local health organisations, Norfolk Connexions, the Learning Skills Council and voluntary organisations. The general public regularly access the site too.
The resource provides a central information repository on key matters of local interest such as education, the economy and the environment as well as health and social care, policing, public safety, local government, transport and streets.
NDO uses the InstantAtlas platform to provide local intelligence through highly visual and interactive graphical reports, maps, atlases, comparisons and other analyses. Links to related and supporting information are also provided.
A brief history
When in 2006, Norfolk’s County Strategic Partnership (CSP) undertook a scoping exercise of the requirements of its Local Information System (LIS), it recognised a strong business case for re-design and investment.
“Our earlier system was founded on providing data; it was a collection of datasets,” said Wendy Pontin, principal information analyst and head of the demography and information team at Norfolk County Council. “What Norfolk’s partners really needed was a source of clear, in context intelligence to support evidence-based local-level decisions.”
The existing data presentation system used application software custom built in the late 1990’s by GeoWise. A solution was now required which would present intelligence visually. It was thought that users would best glean intelligence via an iterative approach and so needed a solution enabling interaction with the data. And it needed to give users the freedom to view results at the administrative levels most relevant to them, such as their own service planning areas and very localised neighbourhoods which do not necessarily comply with statutory/local government geographies such as wards.
“As a rural authority, our needs differ a little from inner-city authorities because we exhibit many different local area profiles across the county and need to target support precisely,” said Pontin. “We need a way to allow users to explore information right down to local levels, for local decision making, rather than view at the macro-level. Social exclusion and deprivation can be more isolated and harder to identify in rural areas.”
InstantAtlas
Following an independent study commissioned by the CSP into suitable off-the-shelf packages, InstantAtlas Data Server from GeoWise was recommended and selected; a move which continued the almost five-year trusted relationship between the organisations. GeoWise undertook the data migration and configuration work and the upgraded NDO, now on InstantAtlas, went live in October 2007.
“With InstantAtlas, Norfolk now has a very versatile web based, data visualization tool,” said Pontin. “We can serve the local area intelligence needs of our partners so much better than before.”
With NDO on InstantAtlas, NCC and its partners can now:-
- Bring together and share a wide range of both local (partnership sourced) and national data sets for Norfolk at multiple geography levels.
- Give access to comprehensive profiling of individual areas and groups of areas
- Offer interactive interrogation, mapping and comparison of data across the county, users being able to drill right down into neighbourhoods.
- Give access to related documents/ reports/ research and the like.
“Some GIS and LIS solutions come packaged with national data sets at fixed area levels and present it in rigid formats, “ said Pontin. “InstantAtlas gives us the freedom to choose data sources, locally and nationally and our users the flexibility to visualize data as they want to see it.”
There are benefits to the county council as data administrators too. “We find InstantAtlas Data Server easy to load, maintain and manage,” said Pontin. “Data needs loading only once for use at multiple geographic levels and for displaying via customised profiles, tables, maps and graphical charts.”
Performance management
Like all UK local authorities, NCC is encouraged by central government to prove best value best practice. PerformancePlus™ from Inphase is used to help NCC guide service deployments and monitor performance against county targets.
Rather than manage performance purely at the county level though, NCC seeks more granular control. To support this finer approach, InstantAtlas provides local views of performance against targets. Inphase and GeoWise are working to integrate their solutions so that local performance data and performance analysis can be exchanged seamlessly between applications.
Better for Norfolk
Just three months from going live, NDO is getting more than 2,000 page hits and over 800 unique visitors per month and plenty of positive feedback from partners.
Deprivation data has been used to help target where to set up Children’s Centres. Community groups have used the new site to define the neighbourhoods they support and graphically present evidence of the issues for which they seek funding. Norfolk Constabulary has been able to quickly access a range of information, defined within their neighbourhood boundaries in support of their Safer Neighbourhoods Teams.
In the near future, Pontin expects to give partners greater ownership of NDO data, for example by enabling federated data entry. InstantAtlas XML schemas make this easy. It is also intended to set up more automated ’backend’ data links to improve efficiencies and ensure intelligence is always based on the very latest data. NDO will become part of a broader intelligence resource bringing together and giving access to the full range of information and intelligence created across the Partnership.
Pontin is certain of the overall value of NDO on InstantAtlas. “It’s early days and more promotion to partners is needed” she says, “but the importance of the resource is undeniable. It is fast becoming the primary source for a core set of information and intelligence which will be used by all partners across Norfolk to inform our service delivery.”
“By presenting data visually at local levels, enabling trending and comparisons and giving access to supporting information, we are meeting obligations in our Local Area Agreement,” said Pontin. “Most importantly, by supporting the council and its partners with evidence to make good decisions and deliver best value, we are helping make Norfolk a better county - for everyone.”
Local Information Systems - Showcase
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Case Study Keywords - local information systems, data visualization tools, monitor performance, neighbourhood boundaries, local area agreement, election results, presenting data visually, performance analysis, visualize data, neighbourhood statistics, performance data