Speed dating: bringing the Regional Data & Intelligence Network together

Last Friday, for the first time in its history, we brought together all the groups associated with the Regional Data and Intelligence Network. Members of the Economy & Labour Force, Population & Society, Environment and Geographical Information groups met, with the aim of drawing the network closer together and identifying common areas of work.

Observatory economic inclusion team update: May 2010

Here’s a roundup of recently published work from the Observatory’s economic inclusion team and upcoming research to look out for over the next month.

Skillset launch Creative Media Workforce Survey 2010

Skillset, the sector skills council for the creative industries, have launched the national Creative Media Workforce Survey 2010:

Whether you are an employer, an employee or a freelancer, what you tell us about your skills needs, experience of training and recruitment, future plans and working patterns will help us produce the most comprehensive profile of working life in the UK’s Creative Media Industries.

D’log highlights why this survey is especially important this year.

For more details about the survey, visit www.skillset.org/playyourpart.

Observatory enterprise and innovation team update: May 2010

This is the second post in a new series of weekly Observatory research updates; there will be one post from a different research team each week. We’re doing this in response to feedback we received in our recent website user survey. Please do get in touch with any feedback.

It’s rather a brief update from the Enterprise and Innovation team this month as during April and May we’ve been busy researching and compiling two interesting reports on different aspects of enterprise and employment in the West Midlands.

Aspirations of businesses in West Midlands

Our first piece of research is focused on uncovering emerging trends and issues related to aspirations of the region’s businesses and what is constraining their growth ambitions.

Our initial analysis is drawn from existing data following a scoping exercise to uncover what information sources were available on the topic. This proved particularly challenging; information regarding aspirations and barriers to growth is rather scarce. However, the report will outline a number of findings that we hope partners will find interesting.

Employment trends from Annual Business Inquiry data

Our second piece of research looks at trends in employment in the West Midlands using the latest Annual Business Inquiry data.

Initially reviewing the performance at a broad sector level, our report compares the trends of the West Midlands against the UK average and other regions.

The report also looks at the underlying drivers behind notable headline sector trends, providing in-depth analysis using the most detailed to Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes to fully examine what has been driving growth. Using predefined SIC groupings, the research looks at the recent trends in employment, the research looks at the recent trends in employment of high tech and knowledge intensive industries and Advantage West Midlands’ clusters. We also explore the breakdown of employment demographics.

We’ll publish these reports on the Observatory’s enterprise and innovation research pages in the coming weeks.

John Polychronakis on opportunities in the low carbon economy for the City Region

On Monday 17th May 2010 the Observatory published a series of reports analysing the opportunities for growth into the low carbon economy in the West Midlands City Region. Each of the local authorities within the City Region had an individual profile produced for them.

John Polychronakis, Chief Executive of Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council, gives his reaction to the report and discusses how it will help Dudley MBC develop their local economic assessment:

Watch video on viddler.com | Transcript

Slidecast: impact of West Midlands Culture Programme for London 2012 so far

Here’s a slidecast by Lauren Amery, Cultural Research Analyst at the Observatory, summarising her research to monitor and evaluate the impact of the West Midlands Culture Programme for London 2012.

Get the PowerPoint slides (ppt, 860kb)

The first of a series of reports, West Midlands Culture Programme for London 2012: An evaluation of impact (2008–2010) (pdf, 1.54mb) published 13th April 2010, presents evidence associated with:

• The social and economic impact of the programme to date
• The extent and value of media coverage that for the programme
• The programme’s impact on the capacity of the West Midlands cultural sector
• Changes in peoples’ perception of the region and its cultural offer (having taking part in programme activities and events)

For more information about the research contact Lauren Amery (lauren.amery@wmro.org / 0121 202 3249).

ONS release revised local authority population estimates for 2002 to 2008

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has released revised mid-2002 to mid-2008 population estimates for local authorities in England and Wales. The revisions have been produced as a result of improvements to ONS  methodology, introduced as part of the cross-government Migration Statistics Improvement Programme.

The new population estimates use an enhanced method for apportioning migrants to local authorities incorporating modelling using up-to-date survey and administrative data. Higher Education Statistics Agency data is utilised to improve estimates of student internal migration.

ONS have produced a population estimates analysis tool to help users understand the main patterns and trends in the population estimates. Users can select specific areas of interest and compare local estimates across time and with estimates at higher levels of geography.

Data users are also able to select specific age groups and view the components of population change for the chosen area.

Mid-2009 population estimates will be published on 24th June 2010, and will be based upon the new methodology.

Visit the ONS website for more information.

Observatory skills research team update: April 2010

This post is the first in a new series of weekly Observatory research updates; there will be one post from a different research team each week. We’re doing this in response to feedback we received in our recent website user survey. Please do get in touch with any feedback.

April was a very busy month for the Observatory’s Skills Team as we completed existing work and started new projects. This post rounds up recently published research and current projects.

Interactive maps – beyond election results

Media coverage of yesterday’s general elections has included many interactive online maps. Voters have been able to explore the election votes in different ways, seeing who won what where, and how close the contests were.

Here at the Observatory, we use InstantAtlas software to produce this kind of map. We’ve produced a map of yesterday’s election results as an example, but in fact we have many other maps available covering a wide range of topics. For example, Jobseeker’s Allowance claims by ward or the results of the place survey, which asked residents how they felt about their local government.

Looking at these kinds of data geographically can often be illuminating; maps can often reveal patterns that the raw data alone wouldn’t reveal. At the Observatory, the spatial dimension is something we’re always considering – maps aren’t just for election time!

Local Economic Assessments: resource guide for the West Midlands

It became compulsory for Strategic Local Authorities to produce Local Economic Assessments (LEAs) on 1^st April 2010. LEAs are intended to bring together economic intelligence to inform a range of local and regional strategies.

One of these is the new Regional Integrated Strategy for the West Midlands.

The West Midlands Joint Strategy and Investment Board steering the regional strategy has agreed with Chief Executives that LEA input will be on a sub-regional basis.

The LEA summaries will be structured around a series of questions relating to regional issues set out in a sub-regional framework document (doc, 578kb) drafted by Advantage West Midlands and the West Midlands Leaders Board.

West Midlanders more likely to rate their last arts experience as ‘high quality’

A detailed review (pdf, 3.5mb) of the arts-related Taking Part Survey (2008/09) results published by Arts Council England has found that arts attendees in the West Midlands are more likely to describe their last arts experience as ‘high quality’ compared to other regions.

When statistical differences are taken into account, the proportion of residents reporting high quality arts experiences in the West Midlands (66%) was higher than proportions in four other regions.

In line with national trends, compared to the previous year, the proportion of West Midlands residents participating in at least one annual arts activity took a statistically significant drop from 47.2% to 42.7%. Also, there was no (statistical) change in the proportion of residents attending at least one art event per year (62.1%) compared to the previous year (64.7%).

Given the evidence (documented in our quarterly recession monitoring papers) that certain sections of the arts sector saw audiences decrease during the 2008/09 economic downturn, it can be speculated that the fall in participation rates may be related to consumer patterns during the recession.

Download the report: Arts engagement in England 2008/2009 (pdf, 3.46mb)

Photo by Gabriela Camerotti

New ‘two million’ sports participation indicator developed to measure Olympic legacy

A new sports participation indicator (pdf, 313kb) has been developed to measure progress towards the government target of getting two million more adults physically active in England by 2012/13 (as part of the legacy of the London 2012 Olympic & Paralympic Games).

The two million indicator (pdf, 313kb), measured through the Active People Survey, gives the percentage of adults (aged 16+) that do three or more sessions (lasting 30 minutes or more) of moderate intensity activity per week.

The indicator differs from the three other Active People participation variables (KPI 1, NI 8, 1 Million) as it incorporates everyday activities such as gardening.

Each region will play a part in the achievement of the target. Broadly speaking, and if all regions play an equal role, a quota of 220,000 more West Midlanders will need to fulfil the ‘two million’ criteria by 2013 (compared to 2008).

The positive regional results of Active People Survey 3 (2008/09) bodes well for achieving this new target. Compared to the previous year’s results, the West Midlands saw a statistically significant increase in levels of participation in sport and active recreation for all participation indicators (KPI 1, NI 8 , 1 Million). Using KPI 1 as an example, the increase in participation seen in the region equated to an increase of 49,000 residents.

Related links

• Department of Health report showing initial ‘two million’ indicator results (pdf, 313kb)
• London 2012 Olympic Legacy Action Plan (pdf, 1.64mb)
• Active People Survey 3 results by geographic area

Photo by GregDaly