Local Insight provides you with data and maps for the whole of England, which is very handy when it comes to benchmarking and comparisons.  However, we also want users to be able to easily focus attention to their core service area. And this is where our latest functionality comes in!

You can now add a fixed standard boundary onto your Local Insight Group. This can be a Local Authority, a number of Local Authorities, a collection of MSOAs or a collection of LSOAs. This new functionality has been designed to enable you to customise your Local Insight group more and focus attention to your key service area.

The red line shows the Local Authority boundary of Hounslow which has been selected to be the permanent boundary on display. The black boundary line is a custom area.

How to add a fixed standard boundary?

All you need to do is email support@ocsi.co.uk and just let us know which standard area you would like to see. We will then add that boundary line onto your group.

What can you do with this new functionality?

With this new functionality you will be able to select a Local Authority, a number of Local Authorities, a collection of MSOAs or a collection of LSOAs to permanently overlay onto your map page as standard on your group. You will then be able to view a custom area on the map page simultaneously to this boundary line.

Please note: This change will affect all users across your organisation. Also, if you have a public access site, this boundary will be visible to those public users.

Individual users can then toggle this boundary line on and off when they are using Local Insight. To do this click on Settings and then click Hide the boundary. The toggling on and off of the boundary will not affect other users on the site.

The group boundary can be hidden by the individual user, which will not affect any other users on the site.

Let us know

Any feedback on the process would be greatly appreciated. Do let us know at support if you have any questions.

ONS has made revisions to their mid-year population estimates for England and Wales from mid-2012 to mid-2016. For the vast majority of local authorities, these revisions have been very minor. However, for a small handful of authorities, the change is large enough to affect how decisions are made in the local area.

In order to take into account these changes, we have made revisions to all of the indicators in Local Insight which are derived from the ONS population estimates. This includes not just the population estimate figures themselves, but also any figure which uses the population estimates to calculate a rate e.g. Unemployment claimant count uses the working-age population from the ONS population estimates, combined with DWP data on counts of Universal Credit and Jobseekers Allowance claimants to calculate the unemployment rate. In total 196 of the 924 Indicators on Local Insight have been affected by the population revisions.

Click here for a full list of affected indicators.

Please note: there may be discrepancies between Local Authority and small area data

The revisions to the ONS population estimates have been released at Local Authority (LA) level only, with the population estimates for neighbourhood geographies (LSOAs, MSOAs, Output Areas etc.) still based on the unrevised estimates.

Revisions to the neighbourhood geographies are due to be published in Autumn 2018, but in the meantime, there will be inconsistencies between LA and MSOA/LSOA/Output Area data for the 196 indicators which are derived from ONS population estimates.

For example, the total population for all of the LSOAs in an LA will no longer add up to the total population of that LA as the LSOA data will be based on unrevised estimates and the LA data will be based on revised estimates. These inconsistencies could also potentially occur depending on whether your custom areas are built up from LSOA geographies or LA geographies.

Minimising the risk of misinterpretation

We have included health warnings for each of the affected indicators in the About the indicator pop-up and in the Introduction page of the report. These health warnings will remain in the metadata until the small area data is revised to be consistent with the LA data in Autumn 2018.

Out of 348 local authorities, only 28 have had their population estimate for mid-2016 revised by 1% or more; a minority of areas have seen notable changes to their overall population estimates. The population in one LA (Wandsworth) has been revised upwards by more than 5,000 people, while four LAs have been revised downwards by more than 5,000 people (Cambridge, Haringey, Oxford and Westminster).

Downward revisions have mostly resulted from higher emigration estimates for areas containing international students and lower immigration estimates for Inner London. For more details see ONS’ Revised population estimates for England and Wales: mid-2012 to mid-2016

Get in touch

If you require any further clarification, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at support@ocsi.co.uk or give us a call on 01273 810270.

A small number of updates this time, as there will be more coming at the end of the month.

Updated Indicators

ONS population estimate revisions

You may be aware that the ONS has revised their population estimates and published these at LA level. We are currently working on adding these revisions into Local Insight. There will be more information on this process and what it means for your data and areas over the next few weeks. We will mail out all users specifically about this.

Current indicators within Local Insight

To see a list of all of the current indicators available in Local Insight, check out this knowledge base article containing a list of all the datasets available in Local Insight

Want to see more indicators within Local Insight?

We are always looking to add new indicators to Local Insight. So if you have any ideas of particular indicators you would like to see then let us know. Provided that the data is open data and published at small area level, so below Local Authority level, we will load the data in for you.

Get in touch!

If you have any questions about the data updates, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us on support@ocsi.co.uk or give us a call on 01273 810270.