Essex County Council established the Caring Communities Commission as an independent body bringing together experts and elected members to consider how community-based approaches could improve health and social care outcomes. Its work was based on the principle that strong and resilient communities can improve residents’ wellbeing while helping to reduce pressure on services such as adult and children’s social care.
Earlier versions of the Community Needs Index had suggested that parts of Essex contained some of the least resilient communities in the country. The Community Needs Index measures social and community conditions that can affect a place’s ability to respond to challenges, including the strength of local civic life, community connections and access to services. The publication of the 2023 index gave the council an opportunity to develop a more detailed and up-to-date understanding of these patterns.
The council wanted to examine how Greater Essex, the Essex County Council area, individual district, city and borough council areas and urban areas compared with other parts of England. It also wanted to explore the relationship between community need and health outcomes through four themes: healthy communities, connected communities, inclusive communities and empowered communities. As the analysis was being led by the council’s in-house researchers and analysts, it needed access to the complete dataset alongside specialist advice to support robust interpretation and quality assurance.
We acted as an advisory partner to Essex County Council throughout the analysis. Rather than producing the final analysis ourselves, we provided the data and technical support needed to help the council’s researchers carry out the work consistently and interpret the findings appropriately.
We supplied the 2023 Community Needs Index data for every Lower-layer Super Output Area (LSOAs) in England. The data included overall index scores, scores for each of the index’s domains and the individual indicators underpinning them.
We also provided aggregated data and geographic lookups to support analysis at the different levels required by the council. This enabled the research team to compare urban areas, districts, the county council area and Greater Essex with relevant places elsewhere in the country, while also examining the more detailed factors contributing to community need.
Through a programme of consultancy support, we advised the council on its analytical approach, reviewed outputs and provided quality assurance. We helped the team consider how to interpret differences between places, how the overall Community Needs Index related to its domains and indicators and how conclusions could be presented without overstating what the evidence demonstrated.
We also supported the council’s exploration of the relationship between community need and health outcomes. This included advice on how the evidence could be structured around healthy, connected, inclusive and empowered communities and how patterns identified through the index could be considered alongside wider health and social care evidence.
We delivered a complete national Community Needs Index dataset, the supporting geographic aggregations and lookups and specialist consultancy covering analysis, interpretation and quality assurance. This gave Essex County Council’s in-house team the evidence and analytical support required to develop its work for the Caring Communities Commission.
Ensure you’re targeting the places with the greatest need
See how challenges vary between neighbourhoods, where they overlap and where hidden pockets of need may otherwise be missed
Use our analysis to support decision making, policy planning and improve funding bids
Identifying where limited community infrastructure overlaps with economic deprivation across Wales.
Empowering families to shape the future of local SEND services through the...