COMMUNITY PROFILING

We have experience of producing comprehensive community profiles for community planning and of undertaking community consultation exercises. Recent examples include:

Project: Planning4care strategic needs assessment tool
Partners: Care Equation, Oxford Consultants for Social Inclusion, City of Brighton & Hove (pilot)
Dates: 2007

The aim of this development project was to build a web-based strategic needs assessment tool to support commissioning of care for older people. The development of the tool built on the PSSRU/Wanless national projection methodology in adopting a set of clearly defined levels of need for social care support, and then estimating the current and projected numbers of the total over-65 population expected to fall into each of those groups. An innovation developed by the project team is the use of local needs-related risk factors to derive estimates and projections that reflect the profiles of individual localities as closely as possible. The estimates were then linked to "typical" types of service packages and costs, enabling future costs and service requirements to be projected.

The pilot work highlighted the importance of being able to examine different care scenarios. Two standard scenarios were included in the tool, the first projecting continuation of current patterns of care and the second an outcome based scenario. Facilities to explore locally defined service patterns and to project potential consequences of changes to informal care and unit costs were also included.

Plannning4care was launched in October 2007 and is set up to provide analysis for all local authorities in England up to 2027. The tool provides essential analysis for the social care element of Joint Strategic Needs Assessment for older people. For more information visit www.planning4care.com

Pilot feedback:

It's going to give us a more sophisticated model for planning demand, and the need for different types of services, in the long term – as well as getting a sense of the costs of those services.

Project: East Sussex in Figures – data definition for Community Data Observatory
Client: East Sussex County Council
Dates: March, October 2004

This work was carried out in two phases for East Sussex Council in support of their bid to set up a Community Data Observatory to be accessible to a range of partners and to the general public and to serve as a basis inter alia for monitoring progress on community plans at county and borough/district levels.

Care Equation was engaged initially in the Feasibility Study stage, to identify outline data requirements based on the content of the Community Plans and comparison with other local and national initiatives of this type, making recommendations regarding the thematic structuring of the dataset and the specific variables/indicators within this framework which it might be appropriate for the Observatory to hold.

The second stage involved building on the Feasibility Study to refine the details of the indicator requirements – in terms on the one hand of what was available, appropriate and updatable (with sourcing details), and on the other the perceived preferences and priorities of a range of stakeholders. We also explored preferences regarding the format and mode of presentation of the data. This then formed the basis for the detailed specification of requirements subsequently presented to potential suppliers.

Client feedback:
We have found Care Equation to offer a very professional and efficient service and would look to employ their services again for similar assignments.

Project: West Sussex Community Profiles
Client: West Sussex County Council and District Councils
Dates: 2002, 2003

Undertaken in partnership with Health and Social Policy Research Centre (HSPRC), University of Brighton

The Local Government Act 2000 requires local authorities to develop community plans through Local Strategic Partnerships. LSPs across West Sussex identified a need for shared information or "evidence" on which to base joint decision making and prioritise initiatives within districts and across the councils.

The team developed, firstly, an electronic Database in Excel format, which provided an updatable framework for structuring and collating local data across a range of topics pertinent to community profiling. The Database contained a major compilation of recent statistics against ten topic areas – Demography, Deprivation, The Local Economy, Education, Housing, Social Care, Health, Crime & Community Safety, The Environment, and Lifestyle & Leisure. The data was organised by appropriate geographical units from national level down to postcode areas, and supported by an index with detailed explanatory information (metadata). Secondly, for each district analysis and interpretation of this information was brought together in a written commentary, identifying key local themes and emerging issues of relevance to the community planning agenda.

The Community Profiles database can be updated on a regular basis and are currently available on CD and on the County Council intranet.

Client feedback:

- Most interesting and valuable work that the council has commissioned
- Independent expertise to interpret the data was the most important aspect of the commission
- Helped refocus the priorities of the LSP

See also Training and Workshops

Project: Wealden Community Planning Consultation
Client: Wealden District Council
Dates: 2002

Undertaken in partnership with Health and Social Policy Research Centre (HSPRC), University of Brighton

This project was the result of an innovative approach by Wealden District Council to the statutory requirement for local authorities to produce a community strategy aimed at promoting and improving the well-being of their local communities. Following a consultation process with key local organisations and stakeholders which identified eight key "themes", the Council commissioned the production of a survey instrument to elicit views from a sample of the wider local community on priorities for action under the eight themes. Most innovatively, the decision was made by the District Council that this survey should be administered by its own elected members. Care Equation, together with the University of Brighton Health and Social Policy Research Centre, were commissioned to develop the survey instrument, train councillors in its administration, and analyse the results. The process was extremely effective, and resulted in a community strategy which was thoroughly "owned" by elected members and local people alike.

Client feedback:

Impressed by enthusiasm at nature of project and willingness to follow through

Project: Rother Community Profile
Client: Rother District Council
Dates: 2001-02

Undertaken in partnership with Health and Social Policy Research Centre (HSPRC), University of Brighton

The team developed an electronic Database in Excel format, which provided an updatable framework for structuring and collating local data across a range of topics pertinent to community profiling. The Database contained a major compilation of recent statistics against ten topic areas – Demography, Deprivation, The Local Economy, Education, Housing, Social are, Health, Crime & Community Safety, The Environment and Lifestyle & Leisure. The data was organised by appropriate geographical units from national level down to postcode areas, and supported by an index with detailed explanatory information (metadata). The database provided a model which was subsequently developed in more extensive work on community profiling in West Sussex