I’ve written a lot of blogs here, but I’m particularly honoured to write this one to celebrate winning the Sir Ian Diamond Award for Excellence in Government Analytics only yesterday. Sir Ian Diamond is the National Statistician for the UK …
This week our team visited a high school in Essex to talk to sixth formers about their experiences of Covid-19 in terms of the impact to their mental health, relationships, education and future opportunities. Updated guidance meant that all pupils were now expected to wear face masks in classrooms, so this went for us researchers too...
We commissioned Oxford Consultants for Social Inclusion (OCSI) to undertake a review of community need and ‘left behind’ areas in Essex. The review sought to help us understand how Essex compares to other areas in terms of its levels of community need, and which factors are more significant than others in contributing to areas having high levels of need.
So, what is a Gini, and can it grant me three wishes..? A Gini coefficient is an economic measure used to describe how a resource is distributed among a population. It allows us to see when a resource is not …
Last month we were busy preparing some evidence for a leaders’ session on climate action in Essex. The Cabinet asked us to gather insight from data because climate is really important to Everyone’s Essex priorities and they want full picture …
“How hard can it be?” That is my thought process when I come to approaching new challenges. If I’m able to see others excelling at one thing, I know that with enough time and practice I’ll be able to replicate what they can do. So, when I was asked to create a Power BI dashboard to enable ECC to share the residents’ survey data, “how hard can it be?”, came straight into my head.
Over the last year or so our team has carried out research around Covid-19, mental health, financial struggles, women’s safety and domestic abuse among other things. This has involved participants discussing past traumas and difficult periods they have experienced, which can leave us as researchers often dwelling on those conversations long after they have taken place...
So, first you’re probably thinking, what is Dineq? Well let’s deal with that first. Dineq is a package in R that enables you to run Gini functions. Gini coefficients are traditionally used to look at inequality across income in populations, …
Elizabeth Wiley shares her experience of participating in the Data Science Accelerator Programme
Through research with employees we found that there are many working parents within ECC who are feeling the pressures of juggling work and home life, and would benefit from some extra support. Our insights informed the development of a group coaching pilot. Evaluating well was key, and we were keen to learn as we go.
Our new demand and resource scenario planning tool is a similar idea to a 'Choose Your Own Adventure' for Adult Social Care!