Goodbye 2023, hello 2024.
I’m not a fan of heralding in the New Year, nor committing to new resolutions! However, I do use the occasion as an opportunity to reflect on what we have delivered over the year and start planning key activities for …
Data
Data Talks: Save the dates
4 to 6 March 2024 – Save the dates! Data Talks is a new virtual conference for the public sector, bringing together a diverse array of expertise all with a shared passion for turning data into insight to achieve real …
Our cloud has many silver linings
As we move closer to wrapping up 2023, I find myself in a reflective mood! If you read last week’s blog you’ll have heard from my colleague Lee Burton that we have recently concluded the migration of 800GB of ECC …
Migration to the cloud: A painful journey to a better place.
In what feels like a long time ago now I wrote a blog around how excited I was about the planned migration of our on-premise data environment to the cloud. I was full of hope and dreams, and then we …
From a trickle to a flood
The exponential growth of data in the world, from a few spots of datum to a deep, expansive ocean of 1s and 0s, shows no sign of slowing and is expected to shape the world in ways we are still …
Changes to our JSNA interactive dashboards!
It has been some time since we launched our Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) reports and interactive dashboards, but as the time goes by, things change. Read on to find out what’s new! This includes a new ICBs filter to our dashboards, new measures added, and data updates.
NLP promoting a proactive approach to Open Data
The situation The volume of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests the Council receives is huge. In the 43 months from December 2019 to July 2023, Essex County Council (ECC) received more than 6,000 FOI requests. This meant that on average, …
Every day is a school day
What happens when the one person who has all the knowledge on a certain process leaves your team? Panic? That “this is fine” meme (you all know the one)? Or take a breath and look for any opportunities to review …
Steering a course for open data
Essex County Council is massive. There are around 12,000 employees. It’s the second biggest local authority in the country, geographically, and it’s the second largest spending authority (which makes sense, given the size thing I just mentioned). There are hundreds …
Council tax and the cost-of-living crisis
Council tax is inherently ‘unsexy’. It doesn’t hit the headlines all too often, let alone national news. In the media it’s an oft-neglected, much-maligned thing. In fact, you’re probably already thinking of closing this blog. Why on Earth would I …