Issues for the Observatory to take forward…

The quarter four 2008 (PDF, 685KB) edition of the Observatory’s new-look The Oracle newsletter, is now available.

This edition reviews our 2008 annual conference, “Better Evidence, Better Policy” with reports on all of the talks and workshops from the day, as well as the main issues that we will be taking forward in 2009.

Podcasts of the day are still available (view in iTunes or another RSS reader).

We welcome your comments on the issues that we’re planning to progress from the day.

Local migration statistics resource guide

Anne Green, David Owen and Duncan Adam from the Warwick Institute for Employment Research have prepared a resource guide on local migration statistics (PDF, 2.7MB) on behalf of Local Government Association analysis and research.

The guide should assist local authorities and their partners in developing local population and migration estimates and trends.

The guide focuses on the strategic importance of international migration and associated issues at local and sub-regional levels.

The guide also outlines the strengths and weaknesses of available data sources and provides a guide to sources of intelligence on migration at local level.

Graduate recruitment and the ‘credit crunch’

According to a student briefing recently issued by the University of Birmingham’s Careers and Employability Centre, prospects for graduates seeking employment remain positive in the downturn.

Graduate recruiters and employers who actively recruit University of Birmingham students within a range of sectors and professions report that they intend to continue to recruit graduates at the same level as previous years.

This is due to recognition that recruiting fresh talent ensures business competitiveness now and after the recession.

LSC publish 2008 Regional Strategic Analysis

The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) has published its 2008 Regional Strategic Analysis Report (PDF, 1.63mb).

The report forms a key part of the Learning and Skills Council’s annual business cycle. Its purpose is to underpin the Regional Commissioning Statement for 2009/10 by providing the evidence to inform decisions about strategic priorities and the learning provision to be commissioned from providers in the West Midlands.

The Strategic Analysis is intended to provide a comprehensive picture of the needs of learners, employers and communities in the West Midlands, and to assess the extent to which the mix and quality of the region’s LSC-funded learning provision meets these needs.

The intended audience are teams within the LSC and key regional stakeholders, as well as colleges, providers and Local Authorities.

Recognising regeneration excellence in the West Midlands

The RegenWM Prizes 2008 showcase good practice and recognise excellence in regeneration projects in the West Midlands across a range of categories:

• Creating outstanding places
• Successful community engagement
• Best regeneration team
• Most transferable good practice
• Environment and people
• Good practice in equality and diversity

RegenWM provide a range of case studies on regeneration excellence from across the region, including the Prizes 2008 Winners:

Census white paper sets out plans for 2011

The government has published a White Paper, Helping to shape tomorrow, setting out plans for the 2011 Census. The Census will take place on Sunday 27 March 2011 and will be the first undertaken by the new UK Statistics Authority.

Unlike previous Censuses, most of the forms will be posted out this time, with only around 5% being hand delivered. There will also be an opportunity to complete the forms on-line for the first time. Despite these changes, the estimated cost will still be nearly £500 million.

The questionnaire for 2011 will be slightly longer than in 2001.

Latest health survey for England published

The latest findings and trends identified from the Health Survey for England has been released by National Health Service Information Centre.

The Survey is a series of annual surveys designed to measure health and health-related behaviours in adults and children living in private households in England.

The latest trends report shows that obesity has increased among adults over the period from 13 per cent for men and 16 per cent for women in 1993 to 24 per cent for both men and women in 2007.

Similarly, the proportion of children who were obese increased from 11 per cent in 1995 to 17 per cent in 2007 among boys, and from 12 per cent in 1995 to 16 per cent in 2007 among girls.

The economic downturn – impact on skills and the labour market

Our November 2008 briefing paper on the Economic Downturn, produced by WMRO’s Skills team, examines how the current economic climate is affecting the West Midlands in terms of skills and the labour market as a whole.

Here are the key headlines for quarter 3 of 2008:

West Midlands produced 3rd strongest regional growth in England, according to latest GVA per head figures

The 2007 Regional and 2006 Sub-Regional Gross Value Added (GVA) data are released today by the Office for National Statistics. Indexed GVA per head (where UK=100) for the West Midlands in 2007 was 86.0, a marginal decrease from the revised 2006 index value of 86.1. GVA per head in the West Midlands rose from £16,300 in 2006 to £17,200 in 2007, an increase of 5.3% compared to a 5.3% increase in GVA per head across the UK, and a 5.4% increase in England.

In the latest data for 2007 the West Midlands in regards to GVA per head is ranked seventh amongst the nine English regions, where London is the strongest performer at £30,400 and the North East is the least strong at £15,700. In total, regional GVA for the West Midlands in 2007 was £92.4bn, an increase of £4.9bn on the revised figures for 2006.

2008 Black Country education barometer published

The Black Country Observatory has published the Black Country Education Barometer 2008 today.

The report indicates that Black Country schools are starting to close the gap with the national average GCSE performance.

There was a 6.6% increase in the percentage of Black Country pupils achieving 5+ A*-C GCSEs (compared to 4.2% nationally) and an 8% rise in pupils achieving 5+ A*-C GCSEs including English and Maths (compared to 2.6% nationally).

The Black Country must grow by 9.2% each year to reach the national average (in GCSE inc. Eng & Maths) by 2011.

West Midlands population projected to grow by near 3% between 2007 and 2012

The National Statistician’s annual article on the population has been published by the Office for National Statistics, covering the theme of aging and mortality, investigating the underlying demographic trends contributing to the UK’s population growth. The report also highlights key sub-national demographic statistics.

The UK’s population is projected to increase from 61 million in 2007 to 63.2 million in 2012 (3.7% growth), whereas over the same period in the West Midlands region the population is projected to increase from 5.4 million to 5.5 million (2.9% growth), the third lowest percentage increase of the nine English regions. The North East and North West are the only regions projected to record slower growth, whilst the East Midlands is forecast to experience the fastest with a population increase of 5.4%.

Sharing intelligence from Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire

Yesterday, I attended the Coventry, Solihull and Wawickshire Researchers’ Forum to demonstrate the Observatory’s Resource Catalogue and show how the data and intelligence in the catalogue might support the work that they’re engaged in, and also to encourage further contributions to the catalogue from members of the forum to help share their data and intelligence across the region and sub-region.

The Resource Catalogue is available through the Observatory’s website and collects research, data and policy documents from across the West Midlands to create a fully searchable database for policy makers, decision makers, researchers and anyone else to access. There are contributions from organisations across the public, private and third sectors and what is particularly useful is that almost all are free and available immediately via a web-link.

Heart of enterprise: West Midlands feature in the Guardian

Wednesday’s Guardian newspaper included a special supplement to the Society Guardian all about the West Midlands, Heart of enterprise. If you missed it, all of the articles are available online.

The supplement includes commentary by Ian Austin MP, who re-iterated points made during his inaugural speech as Regional Minister for the West Midlands at the Observatory’s annual conference back in October 2008.

There are also articles looking at how the region is being affected by the current economic situation and what steps are being taken to address the current challenges. Regeneration schemes in the Black Country, Birmingham and North Staffordshire are featured.

Investment in skills critical to survive the downturn

Continued investment in training and skills is key for business survival in the current economic downturn, according to new research released by the West Midlands Regional Observatory .

The Regional Skills Assessment for 2008 reports that in the five year period from 2003 to 2007, increased investment in skills and training significantly reduced skills shortages in the region. This meant that employers could more easily access the skills they needed to develop and grow.

Historically, the West Midlands has lagged behind the rest of England in terms of skills performance, but statistics show that from 2003 to 2007 the performance gap reduced from six percentage points to less than one per-cent.

Much of this improvement was due to a strong upturn in the number of employers investing in staff training, through apprenticeship programmes and initiatives such as the Learning & Skills Council’s Train to Gain service.