Data: A New Hope

On 26th June colleagues from Essex County Council, Essex Police, and University of Essex took ecda to the Catalyst Conference. This event reflected on the work of the Catalyst Project, showcasing the progress of the collaborative initiatives and highlighting the future potential for analytics in local government.

LARIA: we came, we saw, we learned

As a team we place a great deal of focus of learning. We are always looking for opportunities to learn, and one such chance comes from the LARIA annual conference. Our last blog post talked about the awards we won at the conference. But what else happened there and what did we learn?

Demystifying evaluation

Broadly speaking, evaluation is measuring the worth or value of something. This could be a programme of work, policy or service. There is no ‘magic formula’ to evaluation. We all make daily judgements about the worth or value of something; only evaluation requires greater critical thinking and a structured approach.