Producing local data is crucial for helping local governments make informed decisions. Since the Government Statistical Service’s Subnational Data Strategy’s release in December 2021, ONS has been addressing the need for timely and detailed local data. In this blog, Becky Tinsley reflects on a Subnational Data Conference she hosted with Emma Hickman in November, highlighting ONS’ work and future plans for local data.
The aim of the conference was to “think local”, to raise awareness of Subnational Statistics and the ONS Local Data service. This event also gave us a chance to celebrate our achievements over the past year. The Subnational Conference attracted 204 attendees in person and online from both central and local government as well as academia.
Success Stories
Mike Keoghan, Deputy National Statistician and Director General, Economic, Social and Environmental Statistics Group, opened the conference with some local data successes.
One of these was the work that ONS has done in collaboration with Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) developing new local statistics, which Mike described. “We have tried and tested and built prototypes for new statistics, bought the idea of flexible, user defined geographies to life and exploited newer and more frequent and granular data sources to complement survey data and deliver new insights.”
Mike also highlighted the launch and development of two fantastic new services, Explore Local Statistics (ESS) and the ONS Local Service
Explore Local Statistics (ESS)
The award-winning Explore Local Statistics is currently in its beta phase and on track to being a fully live service by spring 2025. The service enables users to find around 70 datasets about their local area in a single place, compare themselves to other parts of the UK and see what has happened over time.
ONS Local Service
Our team based across all the regions and countries of the UK bring the human touch to all the evidence that ONS publishes. ONS Local is our analytical advisory service for local government, and we are making a big difference in how ONS understands our local users’ needs and what is needed to meet them with ad hoc analysis and new statistical outputs.
More recently ONS local has been increasingly identifying evidence gaps and working across ONS and the GSS to prioritise work to fill those gaps.
At the conference, attendees shared their key local policy areas of interest which included local economic growth, health, housing, deprivation, and net zero.
Let’s discuss!
Over the course of the day, two panel sessions were held to address questions on how devolution can benefit national policy making, and what the statistical system needs to do to support devolution and local growth.
Panel members were a mixture of ONS staff, think tanks, central and local government representatives.
Emma Hickman reflects on her role as chair on one of the panels:
“I really valued the opportunity to have a two-way conversation about how and where the different policy levers to deliver local growth sit between central and local government and how the evidence base needs to be available to support decision making. The dial on local economic growth is hard to shift and it will take different things to kickstart local growth in different types of places. My panel had a very lively discussion, which just shows how passionate the different members are in supporting government at all levels to make decisions that really matter. I learnt that whilst evidence is crucial, there is also a huge amount to be said for devolving decision making to the right level and that ‘vibes’ really matter too. The data and insights that ONS produces are only one part of the ‘patchwork’ of evidence that is needed and days like this where we come together are essential for building the picture into a full ‘quilt’.”
Bringing people together
The opportunity to network was an important reason delegates gave for attending the conference, with the chance to meet academics, others from local and central government and the ONS.
“The event highlighted to me both the high value analysis and support for policymaking the subnational programme has already provided and the challenges and opportunities that still exist in this area.” – Thomas Pope, Deputy Chief Economist, Institute for Government
Networking was also a positive reflection a lot of our attendees mentioned in their feedback from the event.
“The conference was a fabulous networking opportunity for local analysts using ONS data to evidence key programmes for change in their communities, while also offering promise on the potential for excellent subnational statistics in the era of mayoral combined authorities and single settlements.” – Lewis Adams, Senior Skills Analyst, South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority.
“I had a fantastic time at the event and found it incredibly valuable I made some great contacts who will help with future inquiries and learned a lot about upcoming plans at the Data Science Campus. Despite closely following ONS subnational data, I discovered new insights and appreciated the comprehensive presentations.” – Tom Forth, CTO and co-Founder of The Data City and Head of Data at Open Innovation
What’s next?
The success of the conference has encouraged us to start thinking about repeating it next year so that we can continue to explore the increased need for timely granular local data. We will also be reviewing our GSS subnational data strategy to ensure its ambitions continue to support local level decision making.
We are also conducting an evaluation of our local and subnational statistics and services. If you would like to share your views and experiences, then please sign up to be considered for a short evaluation interview. evaluation interview.
If you would like to hear more about the ONS local service or to access the wider ONS subnational data offering, please contact ons.local@ons.gov.uk
Becky Tinsley is Deputy Director, ONS Local