Catalyst Project

• Artificial intelligence and big data for the public sector:
  managing for collaborative success (.pdf)
• Young Colchester: life chances, assets and anti-social behaviour  (.pdf)
• Colchester Borough Homes: community plan analysis (.pdf)
• Essex Vision Evaluation Report (.pdf)

• Pilot Programme for Local Area Coordination (LAC) (.pdf)
• School Readiness in Essex (.pdf)
• Essex Data (ED) Programme (.pdf)
• Essex County Fire & Rescue Services pilot programme (.pdf)

• Suffolk Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) partnership (.pdf) 
• Evaluation Team Leaflet (.pdf)
• Risk Stratification Team Leaflet (.pdf)
• The Future of Predictive Analytics in Councils (.pdf)
• How to work collaboratively with the University of Essex (.pdf)
• Evaluating the ‘Accidental Dwelling Fires’ programme - presentation to Essex Country Fire and Rescue Services (November 2018) (.pptx)
• Essex County Council’s Challenge Dementia Prize –  interview with the Dementia Team (.PDF)

• The spotlight toolkit (.pdf) has been created to enable any organisation to create their own evaluation process to assess the impact and effectiveness of their programme or services.

• Channelling expertise at the University to support and enhance services provided by Essex County Council and Suffolk County Council that protect vulnerable individuals.
• Providing local charities and community based volunteering with increased numbers of volunteers.

• Developing tools using new technology and expertise to enable Suffolk County Council to use their data to greater effect.
• Providing Essex County Council with impartial assessment of automated decision making platforms purchased by the Council to achieve effective analysis of their data.
• Providing an evaluative led vision and approach to capacity building that will enable Essex County Council to meaningfully evaluate community services for vulnerable people in the county.

• Increasing our research profile externally through the dissemination of academic papers and policy briefs.
• Knowledge exchange through delivery of training to public service providers.
• The generation of research impact by influencing policy change for local authorities.

• Providing them with the opportunity to build on their strengths, gain valuable life skills, widen their horizons and make an invaluable contribution to their local community.

A presentation to illustrate the benefits and the risks of collaborations between universities and councils was delivered at the Local Area Research Intelligence Association (LARIA) Annual Conference on 14-15 May.

The session was conducted by a team of researchers based at the University of Essex who have been working with Suffolk County Council to assess risks for vulnerable members of the community. Their presentation provided insights into how and when working with universities is beneficial to councils.

This showcased the Resilience Policy Database and the Resilience Policy Proximity Index, developed by the Catalyst Project, which were designed to improve measures of resilience at national and local levels in the context of emergency planning and management.

The day involved presentations from academics working in the areas of resilience, disaster and emergency management in different contexts (environmental, governance, legislative and regulatory).

These were followed the a presentation of the Resilience Policy Database and the Resilience Policy Proximity Index as well as the model and data that the team developed, and a demonstration of the data tool and how it can be used.

Programme

10:00am Registration and coffee

10:30am - Welcome and opening to the day - Dr. Gina Yannitell Reinhardt, Department of Government.

10:45am - Incentivising Resilient, Sustainable Development: What can Computerised Text Analysis Reveal? - Dr. Gina Yannitell Reinhardt, Department of Government (with Dr. Kakia Chatsiou).

11:15am - Understanding the Ecological Impacts of Climate Change - Dr. Alex Dumbrell, School of Biological Sciences.

11:45am - Coffee break.

12:00pm - The double-edged sword of learning from disasters: Mortality in the Tohoku tsunami - Dr. Alejandro Flores Quiroz, Department of Government, (joint work with Professor Thomas Plümper and Professor Eric Neumayer).

12:30pm - Lunch.

13:30pm - Designing for Community Resilience using Social Networks - Dr. Jon Chamberlain, School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering.

14:00pm - Ensuring Collaborative Accountability and Governance in Disaster Recovery - Professor Kelum Jayasinghe, Director - Centre for Environment and Society (CES), Essex Business School (EBS).

14:30pm - Break.

14:45pm - The Resilience Policy Database and the Resilience Index - Rationale and Demonstration - Queal King, Department of Economics; Dr. Kakia Chatsiou, Department of Government (with Dr. Gina Yannitell Reinhardt).

15:30pm - Discussion and round up.

The Catalyst Project team were delighted to have welcomed 132 attendees from 34 organisations to our conference on 26 June 2019.

The Catalyst Conference hosted a lively panel debate on how digital innovation and system change can be implemented in public service organisations. A further panel discussed the legal and ethical considerations required for effective data sharing and fielded a range of challenging questions from the audience.

Seven workshops showcased the outputs from collaborative Catalyst Project initiatives. Our Conference album showcases the photos of the day, and you can find out more about the speakers and workshops.

Feedback received was very positive. The majority of attendees found the conference very informative and stated that they encountered specific areas of learning that could positively impact on their work or that of their organisation. 42% reported that the analysis techniques or tools presented at the Conference could be implemented in their work or that of their organisation. The topics of most interest were the workshops on impact evaluation, predictive data analysis and data sharing.

Conference Programme

9.30am - Registration

10am - Conference welcome by Professor Lorna Fox O'Mahony, Deputy Vice Chancellor, University of Essex

10.10am - Keynote 'Using digital Innovation to improve public services’ delivered by Stephen Kavanagh, Ex Chief Constable of Essex Police and National Lead for Digital Policing Portfolio

10.30am - Panel debate 'Digital innovation within local government implementing system change, and the importance of collaborative multi-agency partnerships” discussed by:

• Gavin Jones, Essex County Council Chief Executive
• Nicola Beach, Suffolk County Council Chief Executive Officer
• Ben-Julian Harrington, Essex Police Chief Constable
• Professor Maria Fasli, University of Essex, Director of Institute for Analytics and Data Science and the Business and Local Government Data Research Centre

11.45am - Catalyst initiatives breakout sessions:

• The Spotlight Toolkit: Helping you become a better evaluator
• Data Sharing: How to overcome organisational/behavioural issues to allow effective data sharing between organisations. A solution focused workshop
• Application of predictive analytics in social care: tools to support decision making

1pm - Lunch and networking

2pm - Catalyst initiatives breakout sessions:

• Data + People + Action = Essex Centre for Data Analytics
• Essex Police case study
• Evaluating community resilience: A new database can help strengthen resilience in your own community
• Stats Maps Chats: Using ethnographic research and asset mapping to explore perceptions of antisocial behaviour and domestic abuse

3pm - Panel debate 'The legal and ethical considerations required for effective data collection, sharing and analysis' discussed by:

• Suffolk Office of Data Analytics (SODA)
• Essex Centre for Data Analytics (ECDA)
• University of Essex
• Essex Police

3.45pm - Conference round-up from Professor Lorna Fox O'Mahony, Deputy Vice Chancellor, University of Essex

4pm - Conference close

Conference materials

• Workshop A: The Spotlight Toolkit (.pdf)
• Workshop B: Data sharing (.pdf)
• Workshop C: Data analysis in policing serious crime (.pdf)
• Workshop D: Essex Centre for Data Analytics (.pdf)
• Workshop E: Predictive analytics in social care (.pdf)
• Workshop F: Evaluating Community Resilience (.pdf)
• Workshop G: Stats Maps and Chats (.pdf)

The Catalyst Project launched the new Essex Volunteering Hub (EVHub), where students can find locally-based volunteering opportunities in one place. The EVHub hosts both University led volunteering activities and locally based volunteering organisations and provides an easy accessible portal to advertise their volunteering opportunities to students.

The launch was the culmination of the combined efforts of the Catalyst Project and the Students’ Union to streamline the University’s volunteering processes and to increase the capacity to enable more students to be able to volunteer.

The launch showcased a new software platform to current and new community based organisations who provide volunteer opportunities. The programme included presentations from student volunteers and time to make and build relationships with the Students’ Union and key representatives from University groups who work with external organisations.

Essex Volunteering Hub launch presentations

• Essex Abroad
• Essex Law Clinic
• Essex Sport
• Gradintelligence
• SU VTeam