The ingredients, resources and skills you need to use this method
Step by step desciption of the method
| Checklist |
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BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY PLANNING TOOLKIT METHOD SHEET This sheet may be reproduced in paper or electromic or any other form but please mention it was made by Chamberlain Forum Limited for Birmingham City Council supported by Department for Communities and Local Government.
| created: 2016-07-25 16:07:23 | by: admin | status: a outlined |
The ingredients, resources and skills you need to use this method
Step by step desciption of the method
| Checklist |
|---|
BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY PLANNING TOOLKIT METHOD SHEET This sheet may be reproduced in paper or electromic or any other form but please mention it was made by Chamberlain Forum Limited for Birmingham City Council supported by Department for Communities and Local Government.
| created: 2016-07-25 16:05:12 | by: admin | status: a outlined |
If you can’t get the information you need from a public authority, you may want to consider making a Freedom of Information request…
Most of the information you need from government, the local council and other public bodies is likely to either already be published or available by talking to officials about what you need and why. If you have been unable to get hold of information held by public authorities, a Freedom of Information (FOI) request may help.
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 is based on the principle that people have a right to know about the activities of public authorities unless there is a good reason for them not to. The Act applies to any ‘recorded information’ that is held by a public authority in England. That includes: government departments, local councils, the NHS, state schools and the police. The Act does not necessarily apply to every publicly-funded organisation that receives public money. You cannot request personal information using the FOI Act. (You are entitled to see personal information that is held about you under a separate law - the Data Protection Act). See the link for more detailed background of what is and isn't covered by the Freedom of Information Act.
You need a clear idea of what it is you want to find out.
You need some means of communicating with the public authority you believe can help. You can use email or a letter, but Freedom of Information requests should be made in writing.
To make a freedom of information request, you should:
Before you make a request, however, you might want to do the following:
You can look at examples of FOI requests and associated documentation online, for example:
on the mySociety Freedom of Information request portal WhatDoTheyKnow.com. This website has been up and running since 2008. About 350,000 FOI requests have been made using the site. That is about 1 in 5, or 1 in 6, of all FOI requests made in the UK.
| Checklist
Do Your Research - check what information you really need including how you need it broken down and for what years etc. and check that it is not published somewhere already. Remember the FOI Act applies to 'recorded information'. Organisation - you should send your request to the right public authority. It doesn't matter if you don't know the name of the person within the authority to write to. Remember, the FOI Act only applies to public authorities and to certain organisations carrying out work on their behalf. Request in writing - if you send your request as a letter, keep a copy. You can make requests via websites such as What Do They Know which will ensure copies of correspondence are kept. Name - you should give your real name. If you use an obvious pseudonym, the authority may ignore your request and you will then have difficulties following your request up (because it will be hard to prove you are the 'Mickey Mouse' or 'Doctor Who' in question). You can give a version of your name (a previous surname if you have one, for example) or use the name of an organisation, or get someone else to submit the request for you in their name. Address - you need to include an address, otherwise the authority will not be able to reply to you. 'Address' includes an email address: you do not need to give your physical street address. If the document you have asked for is very long and only available as a hard copy (that is, in paper form), then it is probably reasonable for the authority to request a physical address to send it to. You can, however, still give an address 'care of' someone else, if you would really rather not give your own personal information. |
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BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY PLANNING TOOLKIT METHOD SHEET This sheet may be reproduced in paper or electromic or any other form but please mention it was made by Chamberlain Forum Limited for Birmingham City Council supported by Department for Communities and Local Government.
| created: 2016-07-25 16:04:31 | by: admin | status: f published |
The ingredients, resources and skills you need to use this method
Step by step desciption of the method
| Checklist |
|---|
BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY PLANNING TOOLKIT METHOD SHEET This sheet may be reproduced in paper or electromic or any other form but please mention it was made by Chamberlain Forum Limited for Birmingham City Council supported by Department for Communities and Local Government.
| created: 2016-07-25 16:01:43 | by: admin | status: a outlined |
Postcodes, census districts, wards and constituencies – neighbourhoods don’t necessarily follow the units of area that are used by public agencies to collect and present data…
In more detail
The most common way we have of saying where something is the postcode. Most neighbourhood statistics are, however, collected and made available on the basis of areas which are not directly related to postcodes but to census districts. Other bits of information are only available based on areas made up of multiple OAs – lower super output areas and middle super output areas. Some locally gathered statistics are collected for local authority wards and Parliamentary constituencies. Although these different areas are not directly related, you should be able to use the government’s neighbourhood statistics website and your local council data to put together many different statistics for your neighbourhood.
Postcodes
Postcodes are made up of letters and numbers in four parts:
| Title:
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Represented in the code by: | Example: |
| POSTCODE AREA
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First one or two letters | B is Birmingham |
| POSTCODE DISTRICT | Next one or two numbers (sometimes the second is a letter)
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B13 is the town of Moseley in Birmingham |
| POSTCODE SECTOR | The following number | B13 8 – the part of Moseley to the west of the Cross City rail line including the main shopping area and Moor Green |
| POSTCODE UNIT | The final two letters | B13 8JP – the area around the Post Office and Moseley Community Development Trust in Moseley High Street |
Each postcode unit covers between 1 and 100 addresses (households and businesses). On average a postcode unit applies to 15 addresses. There are over a million postcode units in use in England. They do not share the same boundaries as the output areas used in government statistical geography.
Although postcodes are very widely used (in SatNav applications for example) and understood by the general public, they are not a suitable basis for data collection and analysis because: they are very variable in terms of the number of residents in each unit; the units are changes and move around; and the lowest level (unit) is so small that data collected on this basis would not be anonymous.
Above all, postcodes are designed to ensure the efficient delivery of the mail – addresses which receive more than 500 pieces of mail a day get their own postcode unit, for example. They are not designed for collecting or representing data. They are, however, translatable into the geography which is used for this – output areas. You can find postcode to output area translators online.
Small Area Statistics
Government neighbourhood statistics are based not only postcodes but on output areas. The predecessor to output areas was the enumeration district. This is an area which is defined in terms of the mechanics of collecting censuses.
Enumeration District – this, now mainly out-of-date term, was the area covered by a census collector (each census collector might actually be allocated many EDs, but the ED was the basic unit for census collection and analysis up to 2001). On average, an ED covered 200 households (450 people) – more in urban areas, fewer in rural ones. At the 2001 census (the last time EDs were used) there were about 100,000 of them in England. Census information was only ever presented down to the level of the ED – reports were constructed based on statistics relating to EDs rather than individual households etc. Because they are no longer defined, in a sense EDs no longer matter – except that they help explain the idea of having a lowest block of data on which analysis was based. Nowadays, this block is the ‘output area’ which is roughly equivalent to the ED; and the ED was originally based on the patch covered by a census collector.
Output Area – this is the smallest area for which census information is made available. Output areas are the building blocks, not only for higher level census information, but for larger geographical areas (eg Super Output Areas) which are used to aggregate other non-census data – things like benefit claimant data etc. There are about 150,000 OAs in England – typically made up of about 150 households (350 people). Since the census in 2011, the boundaries of some OAs have changed and the total number of OAs has gone up as population has increased. When an OA exceeds more than 250 households or 650 residents, it is split up to make new OAs.
Super Output Areas – census information is available at the level of Output Areas (above), but most other government neighbourhood statistics are available at the level of Super Output Areas. These come in three sizes, only two of which are used in England:
Lower Super Output Areas (LSOAs) – these are made up of neighbouring OAs – usually 5 or 6 OAs make up an LSOA. The average population is about 1500 people but they vary a bit even though the aim is that they should be roughly equal in population. In urban areas, LSOAs are geographically small areas (because urban places are densely populated) and in country areas LSOAs are much bigger (in terms of area, but not population). The LSOA is the most common unit of neighbourhood area you will hear talked about by local councils. A typical neighbourhood might consist of 2 or 3 LSOAs, but LSOAs do not necessarily follow the borders of what local residents would consider to be neighbourhoods. There is an LSOA for each postcode.
Middle Super Output Areas (MSOAs) - are made up of LSOAs (and therefore of OAs). The average population of an MSOA is 7000 people. There are usually between 3 and 8 LSOAa in an MSOA. MSOAs are less often talked about by local councils and other service providers, but they are the lowest level on which some bits of neighbourhood information (like air quality data, VAT information, fire and rescue statistics and statistics relating to county court judgements on personal debt cases) is made available.
Upper Super Output Areas (USOAs) aren’t used in England.
Electoral and Administrative areas
Electoral areas are the areas we use to elect representatives – councillors who are elected by wards and MPs who are elected by constituencies. Administrative areas are the areas over which decisions about public services are taken – council areas, parish council areas etc. They are related but not the same. A council may choose to base decision making committees on the geography of wards and constituencies, but they don’t have to.
Some neighbourhood statistics are collected and presented on the basis of wards. They tend to be things which are collected by local councils and the agencies which work with them locally (the police, local NHS bodies and schools etc). So, you may find information on things like the number of empty properties, teenage pregnancies, enrolments in further and higher education etc are available for wards rather than MSOAs or LSOAs).
Although LSOAs often follow ward boundaries, they don’t exactly match up. Wards are, in any case, of variable size in different parts of the country – a few hundred people per ward in a village or small town and tens of thousands of people per ward in a large city.
| Key Facts:
Postcodes and wards are ways that are commonly used to describe where a neighbourhood is. Most (but not all) of the data about your neighbourhood and its people and businesses that you will want to look at when you are doing a community plan, however, is held on the basis of 'output areas'. You can find out what wards and postcodes are in terms of output areas and get hold of a lot of statistis about your patch, for free, from the government's neighbourhood statistics website. |
Page Links from here
See the Office for National Statistics Neighbourhood Statistics site
In the toolkit:
BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY PLANNING TOOLKIT DEFINITION SHEET This sheet may be reproduced in paper or electromic or any other form but please mention it was made by Chamberlain Forum Limited for Birmingham City Council supported by Department for Communities and Local Government.
| created: 2016-07-22 14:52:10 | by: admin | status: f published |
What happens if the people writing the news are part of the same community as those making it…
In more detail
Hyperlocal refers to information, exchange or business that is focused on a (small) well-defined community and that is directed to meeting the needs of that community. For example:
Hyperlocal Websites
Hyperlocal websites are neighbourhood websites. Which is to say that they are websites which are written by people in a neighbourhood about what happens in that neighbourhood for people who also live in the neighbourhood. The news is written by people who are also, in a sense, part of making the news. Which can make hyperlocal sites very absorbing: as well as reporting on news, they lead to more happening in the neighbourhood.
Secondary audiences
Although the primary audience for a hyperlocal site is the people who live in the place it relates to, there are important secondary audiences. They include: people who serve the neighbourhood from outside it; investors and potential investors in the neighbourhood; people who live in neighbouring places and people who might want to live in the neighbourhood. In all cases, a successful hyperlocal website can attract people and investment to the area.
Spread of hyperlocal sites
A Cardiff University survey listed about 400 hyperlocal sites. The main content covered is community activities, public services and the local council. A surprising 1 in 10 of internet users use hyperlocal sites at least once a week. About 1 in 8 sites generate more than £500 a week (mainly through advertising), but most are self-funded. Other surveys have found very many more sites with particular concentrations in London, Birmingham and Leeds. Some hyperlocal sites are well established, but all depend on the enthusiasm of local volunteers and some can be short-lived.
| Key Facts:
Hyperlocal means focused on a community and being of the same community. A hyperlocal website is written by the community about the community. It can increase the level of community activity and improve the local community network. Hyperlocal sites can also attract interest and investement in the neighbourhood from outside. |
Page Links from here
In this toolkit see
BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY PLANNING TOOLKIT DEFINITION SHEET This sheet may be reproduced in paper or electromic or any other form but please mention it was made by Chamberlain Forum Limited for Birmingham City Council supported by Department for Communities and Local Government.
| created: 2016-07-16 13:04:03 | by: admin | status: f published |
Focus groups help you to find the right questions to ask when you want to find out how a neighbourhood works…
Focus groups are groups of 6-12 people invited together so that you can find out information, views and what people think about a specific subject. They generally take longer to organise than 1-1 interviews and need good facilitation skills, but they can enable you to explore issues in depth and to really find out 'where people are coming from'. Depending on the participants, you can do mini-groups with only 4 or 5 participants, but you risk losing the interaction which is key to the process. (Interaction in a focus group means not just getting participants to answer the questions set by the group leader, but also dialogue between participants.)
It is important to understand that focus groups produce qualitative, not quantitative, information. They give you deep insights into how different strategies and priorities might work out in the neighbourhood, but they don't tell you which option is most popular. Focus groups can help you to ask the right questions or to make the right kind of proposal and to express ot so that people understand and support it.
Focus groups could be used to:
You can use focus groups at the start of an enquiry (to frame further surveys), during planning (to work out a strategy) or as part of the review of what you have come up with.
Focus groups can be used to find and contrast differences between communities or segments of the community in terms of how they think about a particular issue. For example, you could use focus groups of older people and younger people to look at the same local issue from different angles. You can present alternative views to a focus group by having two facilitators leading alternatives - in which case the focus group beciomes a very lively sort of interactive debate.
Focus groups can take a while to organise but they are a relatively cheap and quick way of engaging with people (because you are meeting with them in groups). You can use focus groups as a way of introducing people and building the local community network. Focus groups can develop to become part of the change you wish to create in the neighbourhood.
Group leader(s) - good interpersonal skill are required to lead a group successfully. Facilitation and observation are the two roles you need to consider. In the simplest form, a group leader can take on both roles - asking questions and steering discussion on one hand and noting the results on the other. This can be hard to do in practice. Variants include:
The issue - you need to be clear about what it is you want to find out about, otherwise the focus group will wander and you might not be able to make anything of the findings. It is better that the issue is too narrow (because you can extend it during the group session), than trying to cram too much in (because you are unlikely to get so much interaction, which is the object of using the method). Knowing what you want to find out about is, of course, not the same as knowing what you want the focus group findings to be: the method is open-ended; you can't predict what people will say.
Participants - 6-12 participants who can all communicate in the same language and are willing to take part for between 45 minutes and 2 hours. You will want a mixture of people inasmuch as that is relevant to the issue and the approach you want to take to it. Do not try and make the focus group 'representative' in terms of gender or ethnicity etc for the sake of it. What you are interested in is interaction - you need people to have some common ground to make that interaction fruitful.
The venue - is a significant factor. You need a neutral, but friendly place which feels secure. It needs to be accessible.; you probably want somewhere that is in the neighbourhood - but you could also consider somewhere outside the neighbourhood if going away from the place you are talking about will help the discussion.
Incentives - you need to consider how to thank participants and to compensate them for their time. In particular, you will want to help them overcome any problems that might face due to transport or care responsibilities etc
Refreshments - at least a hot/cold drink.
Preparation
Discuss and agree the issue or set of issues you want to use the focus group to find out about and how this fits in to the rest of the research you are doing.
Agree the kind of participants which it would be useful to involve and choose one or more people to act as group leader(s).
Find a venue that is appropriate and available for use at a reasonable time. You will need at least two weeks to recruit participants. The time of day and day of the week should be chosen so as to make it easy for the participants to attend. Book the venue for an hour (for a 45 minute focus group) or two hours (for a 90 minute focus group) - this means you can be in the room before participants arrive and leave it after the group has finished.
Recruit participants either by personal invitation or through general notices. If you do not know the participants, you will want to meet them beforehand. Focus groups need to be kept relatively small so that everyone has the opportunity to contribute and there is scope for discussions between participants.
In the Focus Group
Typically, the group leader(s) introduce themselves, explain why they have organised the group and ask the participants to idenify themselves so that everyone knows each others' names. It is really important to get everyone to the venue on time.
The facilitator asks a question and gets a response from each participant and then enables group discussion - sometimes asking supplementary questions - particularly 'what if..' type questions. The group environment feels less contrived than a 1-1 interview and there is scope for ambiguity, discussion, 'mulling things over' which doesn't really happen in most interviews.
The observer - if you have one - takes notes. They should focus on insights: ones they spot and anything indicated as an insight by the facilitator or one ofthe participants. The observer can ask questions to clarify or help them to make the record.
The process carries on until 10 minutes before the scheduled end time. The facilitator might then have a final go around of participants about the process; ask the observer for any questions; thank the participants and wind the session up.
Any claims for expenses and thank you cards with any incentives are dealt with after the session is concluded.
There are plenty examples of focus groups and how to do them available online. Most, however, apply to marketing or wider social research rather than to use of the tool in community planning. Some that are more useful include:
Community Toolbox at the University of Kansas - notes on Focus Groups and examples
The National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement - notes on using Focus Groups
Overseas Development Institute - notes and Focus Group Discussion toolkit
| Checklist
Key points to bear in mind: Language - you need to listen not just to what participants say, but also how they say it - what kind of language are they using; what is their body language; how sure do they appear; is there something else they really want to say? Bias - you need to take into account the bias which you bring to your observation of the results. There are plenty of examples of focus groups used in marketing which were effectively manipulated (consciously or sub-consciously) by the group leader to confirm whatever it is they already thought about an issue. False consensus - you need to beware of easy compromises. If they aren't challenged by the facilitator, focus groups can rapidly adopt unthreatening positions that no one really believes, but which participants will agree with so as not to offend each other. You don't want the focus group to become an argument in the sense of a slanging match, but you will need to make sure that participants feel it is OK to disagree. Self-moderation - bear in mind that when participants talk, they are not necessarily expressing purely their own views. They will tend to moderate what they say, according to the circumstances they find themselves in. You need to think about how you present the venue, the group leaders, the project and how you introduce participants to each other in order to guard as far as possible against people being influenced by external factors. Respect - you should ask participants to treat each other and each other's views with respect, but a focus group is not a confidential method. In practice, with participants drawn from the same neighbourhood, people will not behave as if everything they say will be forgotten when they leave. You should, at least, not identify participants as recognisable individuals (eg by using their name) in any write up you do of the foucs group findings. Facilitation - includes seeding the dialogue (with open ended questions); moving it on so that the issue you want discussed is heard properly; encouraging reality-checking and challenge; probing the details of what people say and making sure that it is intelligible to other participants. Facilitators may also need to act to ensure that participants can all take part meaningfully - though not necessarily exactly equally. The facilitator has to be objective and non-judgemental. |
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BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY PLANNING TOOLKIT METHOD SHEET This sheet may be reproduced in paper or electromic or any other form but please mention it was made by Chamberlain Forum Limited for Birmingham City Council supported by Department for Communities and Local Government.
| created: 2016-07-15 07:59:45 | by: admin | status: f published |
Freedom of information means that recorded infromation held by public authorities is generally presumed to be publicly available, but there are exceptions and limits…
In more detail
Anyone can make a freedom of information request of any public authority in England . About 120,000 requests are made each year – mostly by private citizens and community groups; but the law is also used extensively by businesses, charities and journalists and media organisations.
Freedom of Information Act 2000
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 is based on the principle that people have a right to know about the activities of public authorities unless there is a good reason for them not to. The law gives the public access to information held by public authorities through:
The Act applies to any ‘recorded information’ (in the form of documents, computer files, letters, emails, video and sound recordings and photographs, diagrams and maps etc) that is held by a public authority in England. That includes: government departments, local councils, the NHS, state schools and the police. The Act does not necessarily apply to every publicly-funded organisation that receives public money. Most organisations which receive grants from public bodies and businesses which do work on contract for public services are not subject to freedom of information (although they may have requirements to make information publicly available written into their grant agreements and contracts).
Principles
Public authorities have a duty to provide information, unless they can show there is a good reason not to, regardless of who you are (you don’t have to be a British citizen, have any special qualifications or be a taxpayer) or what you want it for. You do not have to say why you want the information when you ask for it. An authority must consider your request impersonally – that means they can’t turn your request down because of who you are; but they also can’t accept your request because of who you are or why you want the information.
Notes and Limitations
The law sets out a legal minimum. Authorities may disclose more information as they see fit. Which means, for example, that you might get two different responses to the same request to two different local councils.
The law is designed to provide openness about the work of the public sector, not the private sector. GPs and other health practitioners, for example, only have to give information about their NHS work.
Where local councils transfer responsibility for services to a company which is owned by the council (like an Arms Length Management Company in social housing), the company is subject to the terms of the law as if it was still part of the council.
MPs and councillors are not public authorities and are not covered by the act. Neither they, nor the public authorities who may store some of their recorded information (in email accounts etc) have to provide information that belongs to them. Authorities do not have to supply information they store on behalf of other individuals (like personnel records) or organisations (eg the files of a voluntary organisation which are held on the council server).
The law covers all documents held by a public authority. That includes, for example letters and emails sent to it and its officers by other members of the public – although the council might say there was a good reason for not releasing these. Information that is in the heads of officers is not recorded and so is not covered. Where the information is stored does not affect whether it is covered.
Public Interest and Exemptions
In general, an authority must consider whether releasing information under the Act is in the public interest and may withhold the information is it decides it is not. This is the ‘public interest test’ Certain types of information are exempted, however. There are 8 absolute exemptions, regardless of public interest:
Information may also be exempted, subject to a public interest test, if it:
Or would be likely to prejudice defence; international and diplomatic relations; the economic interests of the country; law enforcement; the auditing functions of any public authorities; or commercial interests – or endanger health and safety or the effective conduct of public affairs or free and frank provision of advice and debate.
Vexatious Requests
A public authority is not obliged to comply with a request for information if the request is vexatious. A vexatious request is one which is ‘obsessive or manifestly unreasonable’, harasses the authority or causes distress to its staff, imposes a significant burden, or if the request lacks any serious value.
Data Protection
The Data Protection Act 1998 set out rules for organisations to use in handling personal information. It gave people the right to see what personal information, organisations of all sorts hold about them. It also required businesses, public authorities and voluntary organisations to take steps to safeguard personal information and protect people’s privacy.
Data Protection and Freedom of Information can be in conflict. If, for example, the release of information held by a government agency relating to benefit claims could be used to identify who in a neighbourhood was claiming benefits, then it would be against the data protection law to release the information under freedom of information. In this case, the agency would take steps to anonymise the data before releasing it.
The same regulator - the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) – applies in regulating the terms of the Freedom of Information Act and the Data Protection Act.
| Key Facts:
Freedom of information applies to recorded information held by public agencies and some organisations acting on their behalf. Although there is a general preseumption in favour of disclosing information, public bodies have to apply a public interest test to the decision. There are specific exclusions and the council and other bodies can turn down a request that is 'vexatious'. Data protection laws mean that information derived from personal data must be made anaonymous before it is released. |
Page Links from here
Information Commissioner’s Office Guide to Freedom of Information is aimed at people who work in public agencies and are responsible for ensuring freedom of information
See in the toolkit:
Making a Freedom of Information Request
BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY PLANNING TOOLKIT DEFINITION SHEET This sheet may be reproduced in paper or electromic or any other form but please mention it was made by Chamberlain Forum Limited for Birmingham City Council supported by Department for Communities and Local Government.
| created: 2016-07-05 14:35:00 | by: admin | status: f published |
Could making data about your place enable people to become better informed about its potential…
In more detail
Data is small bits of information (could be words or numbers) that on its own looks quite meaningless. When put in a structure (like a table, spreadsheet or a graph, for example) or compared with other bits of data, however, it can be used to make useful information. ‘Open data’ is data that is stored and made available so that it is easy for anyone to get hold of, share and use to make new and useful information.
Open Data as a duty and an opportunity
Councils and other public bodies have a duty to make data available to others. In some cases they also have a commitment which stretches beyond their duties. These duties and commitments are important and communities need to be aware of them, but open data is really more of an opportunity. This is because you can use open data to build information about the areas, challenges and opportunities they face. As more open data becomes available, it becomes more possible for communities to use and combine it to make useful information about the places we live and work. Those communities that are able to inform themselves and others (including developers, for example) about their neighbourhood will be in a better position to thrive economically and socially.
| Key Facts:
Data is the raw material from which information is made. Open data is data which is stored and structured is such ways as to make it easier to get hold off and to use. Opening up data relating to your neighbourhood makes it easier for people to become informed about local opportunities and needs and to see how they might fit in constructively. |
Page Links from here
The Open Data Institute has devised a 5 Star grade system to show how open data is
BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY PLANNING TOOLKIT DEFINITION SHEET This sheet may be reproduced in paper or electromic or any other form but please mention it was made by Chamberlain Forum Limited for Birmingham City Council supported by Department for Communities and Local Government.
| created: 2016-06-29 12:13:03 | by: admin | status: f published |