Welcome to Issue #2 of the Information, Intelligence and Insight Newsletter

In this issue...

• What Information Can I Find On The iii Webpages?
• What Does Shropshire's Economy Look Like?
• Consultations And Calls For Evidence: What Happens Now That There Is A General Election?
• Quarter 4 Customer Feedback Reports
• Shropshire Voluntary and Community Sector Assembly AGM 2017
• Guides To Engaging With Communities
• Energy Impact Award Scheme - Closes 19th May 2017
• Heritage Lottery Fund - Landscape Partnerships - Stage One Applications By 1st June 2017
• Heritage Lottery Fund - Parks For People - Closes 1st September 2017
• Tesco Bags Of Help Programme - No Deadline
• Latest News From The Local Government Ombudsman (LGO)

Research Updates

What Information Can I Find On The iii Webpages?

1. Shropshire Snapshots: here you can find key facts and figures for Shropshire in the new and updated snapshots and could be useful when writing reports, doing research or preparing for a presentation. 

The snapshots include information about population, housing and households, employment and economy, education, transport, health and the environment.Click here to view.  

2. Ward profiles: these useful documents include key facts and figures for each electoral ward of Shropshire Council. Each profile contains maps of the locality and key amenities along with election results, population profiles, health conditions, housing, employment and skills profiles plus maps to show indices of deprivation. Ward profiles could be useful if you're doing work in the community, applying for funding or hosting an information session. Click here to find your ward.

3. Corporate performance: explore categories to see how Shropshire Council is performing against key performance indicators. Visit the Corporate Performance Portal to find out more. 

What Does Shropshire's Economy Look Like?

Economic Growth is one of Shropshire Council’s top priorities, and the Information, Intelligence and Insight team has produced a socio-economic evidence base to help inform important Council strategies and policies including the Economic Growth Strategy and the Local Plan Review. The evidence base includes information on key employment sectors in the County and the types of businesses that are located here as well as a profile of our labour force, analysing for example pay rates and skills levels. 

Click here to view the updated Economic Profile for Shropshire. You may find this information useful if working with businesses, delivering projects or scoping for a new idea or service. 

Policy News

Consultations And Calls For Evidence: What Happens Now That There Is A General Election?

By the time you read this, Parliament will have been formally dissolved, ahead of the General Election on 8th June.  But what actually happens at national level? How does it affect our responses to ongoing consultations and to calls for evidence by parliamentary select committees?

 To read the full article please click here.

Performance News

Quarter 4 Customer Feedback Reports

Shropshire Council dealt with 621 cases of more formal customer feedback during quarter 4 (January to March 2017). Of those, 106 were MP enquiries, 178 were compliments, 226 were complaints and the remainder were comments and other forms of enquiry. It is encouraging to see a high number of compliments were received during the quarter. Compliments for Adult Services remain strong but they were just topped this quarter by numbers of compliments for Waste and Recycling. Unfortunately a closer look at complaints highlighted that complaints for Adult Services were greater in number than usual and greater than numbers received from any other service. The type of complaints received remains unchanged. Most complaints are based on the underlying themes of concerns over service quality, failure to provide a service and the quality of communication (such as delays in communicating, failure to respond to enquiries).

Response time performance is within corporate timescales on average (however some customers are still waiting too long for their complaints to be investigated due to staffing pressures and other challenges). As a whole Shropshire Council upheld 26% of all stage 1 complaints closed within the quarter. The under reporting of learning and actions remains an issue and all officers are encouraged to report any learning and actions where possible to inform service planning and improvement.

Engagement News

Shropshire Voluntary and Community Sector Assembly AGM 2017

Shropshire VCS Assembly is due to hold its Annual Assembly on 17th May in the Council Chamber at Shirehall (9am to 1pm). Representatives from the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector (VCSE), public sector and private sector are invited to register.  The key note speaker will be Helen Rice, CEO of Advising Communities. Helen will be speaking on the topic of “The Changing Landscape – Finding Opportunities in a Difficult Funding Environment”.

Guides To Engaging With Communities

The LGA has launched a guide to engagement for Councillors and officers working to build a stronger dialogue between Councils and residents.Find out more here. 

For a more detailed guide on running your own engagement the Feedback and Insight Team have recently updated their own Community Engagement Toolkit. The toolkit has a ten step guide to engagement (handy if you’ve never done this before) as well as lots of templates, tips, and links to resources such as an engagement project plan and a guide to running focus groups and workshops. 

Funding News

Energy Impact Award Scheme - Closes 19th May 2017

Prize funding is available for third sector, public and statutory organisations for energy projects focused on fuel poverty which benefit vulnerable people in their local area. The scheme is organised by National Energy Action (NEA), a fuel poverty charity, in partnership with British Gas. The scheme aims to recognise innovation and best practice amongst agencies focused on tackling fuel poverty and benefiting vulnerable people. The maximum prize awarded is £10,000. Find out more here.

Heritage Lottery Fund - Landscape Partnerships - Stage One Applications By 1st June 2017

Grants are available for restoration and regeneration projects focussing on public parks and cemeteries in the UK. This Heritage Lottery Fund aims to revitalise historic public parks and cemeteries. Grants ranging from £100,000 to £5 million are available. Applicants must make a contribution towards the project, known as partnership funding, this can be made up of cash, volunteer time, non-cash contributions, or a combination of all of these. Some of the partnership funding must be from the organisation's own resources. For a grant of less than £ 1million, applicants must contribute at least 5% of the project costs. For a grant of £1 million or more, applicants must contribute at least 10% of the project costs. Find out more here. 

Heritage Lottery Fund - Parks For People - Closes 1st September 2017

Financial assistance is available from Heritage Lottery Fund to support integrated community projects throughout the UK for the conservation, enhancement and wider enjoyment of the landscape. The programme supports schemes led by partnerships of local, regional and national interests which aim to conserve areas of distinctive landscape character throughout the UK.Grants of between £100,000 and £3 million are available. Applicants must make a contribution to the project. This can be made up of cash, volunteer time, non-cash contributions, or a combination of all of these. Find out more here.

Tesco Bags Of Help Programme - No Deadline

Local Authorities are eligible to apply for the Bags of Help Programme funded by Tesco. The fund is the proceeds of the 5p charge for plastic carrier bags as a result of a Government carrier bag levy. The programme is managed by Groundwork in England and Wales, and with greenspace Scotland in Scotland. Each month, an in-store vote will determine which projects will be funded. Three local community projects will be voted on in Tesco stores each month across 200 regions throughout Great Britain. In each region, the project that received the most votes from all stores in their region will receive a grant of up to £4,000. The second placed project receives up to £2,000 and third placed up to £1000. Every year, over 7,000 projects will receive funding through this scheme. The fund's aim is to support projects that deliver physical environmental improvement and encourage the use and long term sustainability of outdoor spaces. Find out more here.

General Updates

Latest News From The Local Government Ombudsman (LGO)

The Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) has identified that changes to Councils’ transport policies are having an increasing effect on children trying to get to school. The Ombudsman is upholding more complaints from parents and carers who need to find alternative ways to get their children to school when councils change their policies, or the way they apply them In 2015/16 the LGO received 261 complaints and enquiries about school transport compared with just 160 in the previous year. In one case, a teenager with autism was affected when the council changed the way it applied its transport policy, and stopped providing him with a taxi to school. His family were told he should get to school using a route which involved walking for a mile down an often unlit area with no footpath, catching a train and then getting a bus.  This was proposed despite the fact the boy’s conditions means he has a significantly reduced awareness of danger and a problem with loud noises. Read the report here.