Newsletter, December 2016 No Images? Click here Hi there, It goes without saying that a lot has happened in the last year, and you'll no doubt be bombarded with round-ups over the holiday break, so instead let's look ahead. Here's your usual bulletin of recent changes and upcoming events. We hope you have a relaxing break and enjoy spending time with your nearest and dearest. Discoverability and dataWith 1,603 metric types at your disposal, there’s a wealth of data in LG Inform Plus. Until now, though, it’s not been simple to discover the data you need. We’re excited to bring you the new search facility with discoverability at the heart of its function, allowing you to dip in to datasets when you need and bringing to the fore any reports that may have been tricky to find. With the new Search tool in LG Inform Plus, it's now easier than ever to discover data and reports for your local authority and all sorts of areas across England. The search box allows you to search through metric types and reports using keywords. You can find data and reports on certain themes using the category buttons, and you can further limit these results using the secondary category buttons. It's also possible to view data and reports by circumstances: age, sex, ethnicity and employment. These buttons provide a quick way to view breakdowns of statistics on the demographics of any area. Once you’ve entered your keywords or clicked the buttons, relevant data and reports will show at the bottom of the page. You can either dive right into the data and take a look at metrics (as tables, charts or maps), or use the Reports tab to find associated reports. If data isn’t available for the area type you’ve selected, we’ll suggest other area types you might be interested in where data is available. We've also created a standard report for each metric, giving you a quick way to see average, minimum and maximum values rather than focusing solely on the raw values. They can help provide more details around a metric, which you might find useful to copy and include the components in your own reports. There's an example standard report here. The Reports tab will show you reports written by the LGA, others in your own organisation and people in other authorities relevant to your search results. If you’ve created a great report and want to share it with other users, update the report’s privacy settings and people will be able to see it in the Reports tab of the Search page. And finally, if you’re trying to get hold of a specific report but can’t quite find it, our advanced search operators will help you narrow down its location. You can search by title, author, organisation, creation date and its modification date. To get started using the new Search tool, have a play or read over our support articles. More data, and more updates!Over 70 metrics have been added to LG Inform Plus in the last month and, as you might have guessed, you can find these using the new search facility outlined above. Use the advanced search operators to find metric types created after 1 November 2016, or click here to see the search in action. New metrics include
We've also aggregated lots of data for any neighbourhood types you may have created, meaning you'll be able to see a wider range of data for your bespoke areas. We've made a few improvements to how maps display data too, meaning it's easier to read data in its local context. Proposed parliamentary constituenciesIt's been a big news item and point of local discussion in recent months. The Boundary Commission for England has published its initial proposals for revised constituencies in 2018 for England, and we've added them to LG Inform Plus should you wish to explore their make-up and the underlying data. Laying the proposed constituencies over the existing constituencies highlights the changes being proposed. Training and eventsWe've already lined up a few dates in the new year for our hugely popular training days, and we recommend securing your attendance as soon as possible. You can book your place using the links below.
Following a software trial, we are looking to book a series of short online sessions to guide you through sections of LG Inform and LG Inform Plus. In these you will be able to see our screen and listen along on the phone, with time to answer questions. We will share more details on the news section of LG Inform Plus and on Knowledge Hub. |