A BLOG WHEN IT WAS JUST ADAM AND PEARSON INSIGHT
I thought it would be worth running a survey aimed at people in research-related roles across local government.
‘Why?’, I hear you say. Good question. I’ve been asking that myself recently. I used to work in local government research and a few of my clients are local councils so it’s something that interests me. Certainly over the last couple of years I didn’t make enough time to understand what everyone else is up to.
Anyway, 3 months and 50 odd responses later, here are the results. Thanks to everyone who took the time to complete the survey.
It’s by no means a complete picture of local government research. It’s got a bit of a District and North West feel. But it is what it is. Hopefully there’s still some useful stuff in it.
For what it’s worth, a few things that emerged for me:
- Only 18 of 54 respondents had attended some training or accessed some learning relating to research during the last 12 months. Many of these examples were networks or conferences.
- When it comes to learning new things, a number of people are looking to develop skills and knowledge around data science and R (more than anything else).
- There also seems to be an appetite for research to have more impact through more storytelling, data vis and engaging departments, partners and the public.
- Capacity and resource was always going to be the biggest challenge flagged, but it’s also meaning some people are not developing the skills they feel they need.
- Research not being valued or prioritised in some organisations came out as a common challenge, but demonstrating this organisational value was also identified as the biggest opportunity over the next 12 months.
- Examples of successful research projects tended to be because of good team work and partnerships, or because the outcome made a real difference.
- The work of Essex Data seems to be interesting quite a few people. If you haven’t seen it, the Essex Analytics and Research teams have an Insight Blog which I’m really enjoying.
Anyway, I’ll leave you to it.