The last few years of hard work by Essex Partners this week culminated in the official launch of the Essex Centre for Data Analytics (ECDA) at NESTA’s City Data Conference and the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioners conference.
ECDA is a partnership venture seeking to “create an analytics engine” that will build capacity & capability across all our organisations to develop insight that supports our approach to prevention.
Our logo has three symbolic components. It represents everything that ecda is built on, and the three things that matter most to us; data + people + action. This is our partnership formula for success and we invite you to be part of the equation!
ECDA will bring together data and intelligence to help Essex Partners generate new insight & inform our thinking, whilst ensuring people are at the heart of the decision making process. Ultimately we want action that improves outcomes for people, place and public services.
Earlier this year saw the release of Avengers: End Game (stay with me here…)
This was the crowning moment of (what felt like) seven thousand marvel superhero movies. Each of these movies contributed to the ‘end game’ in some way. Mostly through design, but possibly sometimes through chance, everything came together nicely to create a film that both celebrates all that came before it – before promising to begin a new and better wave. And I am sure the chaps and chapettes at Disney allowed themselves 5 minutes to enjoy their achievements (before dictator Mickey Mouse started cracking the whip again).
I have talked before about some of the Essex Data Projects that our extended analytics team have delivered over the last 2 years. The projects themselves have the same values discussed above – sharing data and intelligence to improve the lives of local communities. If you want to read more about these specific projects please visit: Essex Innovates or; "How we learned to stop worrying and love analytics...... Part 1"
All these projects have helped us arrive at this weeks’ launch. They have shaped the governance and ethical framework, helped us build our data science skillsets, and created a cross-organisational network of enthused analysts. Needless to say we are proud of the fruits of our labours, and are excited about the next phase of partnership analytics that this kicks off. Reaching this point is a fantastic milestone and reflects a lot of hard work from many people across ourselves here at Essex County Council, our colleagues at Essex Police, and the University of Essex (not to mention the various organisations that contributed to our Essex Data projects that have helped shape the ECDA vision).
But like the merciless Disney engine that will make seven thousand more films in the superhero franchise, our work doesn’t stop here. We will continue with our big data projects under the ECDA umbrella and engage with more and more partners. In fact we have taken our 5 minutes to enjoy our achievements, and are already pressing ahead with a new wave of projects exploring; homelessness; mental health crisis; physical inactivity; and A&E admissions
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