Know your numbers; the value of data

June Gomes

Providing professional support services to Third Sector organisations

What is Data?

Sometimes referred to as Big Data

Big data – using diverse sources of data sets, some of which might be very large and employing mathematical techniques to extract new information from them.

Open data - Datasets that are made accessible in non proprietary formats under licences that permit unrestricted re-use.

Open government data involves governments providing many of their datasets online in this way

Do we need to crunch numbers?

“Its is easy to keep on doing things you do because that’s what you’ve always done. Data allows you to see if its the right thing to do”, (Duncan Ross, Datakind UK)

Experience and data: shows what you are doing works Shows you how to do things more effectively Shows you how to do more with the resources you have

Private sector been analysing data for years. E.g. Tesco Clubcard initiative collects data on its customers spending habits and uses it to inform the business

Benefits of using data

Existing open government data can be used by

charities/VCS: to add value to their work, to target services better, to improve advocacy and fundraising to support knowledge sharing and collaboration

between different charities and public agencies to demonstrate impact

Types of data out there 2001 & 2011 Census Population estimates & future projections Ethnicity, spoken languages Number of households and housing projections Unemployment rates & benefit claimants Educational attainment Deprivation (including Free School Meals) Health, e.g. child obesity, teenage pregnancy, life

expectancy Waste, energy and climate change Transport

Types of big and open data sets

http://data.gov.uk/ - There are over 9,000 datasets available,from all central government departments and a number of otherpublic sector bodies and local authorities.

Councils have been asked to publish info on spending of morethan £500 in an open format online.

The Justice Data Lab has been launched by the Ministry of Justice, working with NPC to explore how charities can use data on re-offending to assess the outcomes of their programmes. http://www.justice.gov.uk/justice-data-lab

Useful places to look for data

The Lincolnshire Research Observatory website provides access to socio economic data fro and about Lincolnshire. http://www.research-lincs.org.uk/Home.aspx

Public Health England shares information and expertise with local authorities, industry and the NHS, to help them make improvements in the public’s health and research, collect and analyse data to improve understanding of health.https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/public-health-england

Health and Social Care Information Centre provides information about hospital and clinic carehttp://www.hscic.gov.uk/searchcatalogue

Useful places to look for data NCVO Almanac a directory of useful sources of data on the

voluntary sector http://data.ncvo.org.uk/category/almanac/

The Global Value Exchange - is an open source data resource that relies on contributions from real practitioners. This “bottom up” approach allows the real experiences of stakeholders and organisations to be heard by others. http://www.globalvaluexchange.org/

Data Unity is an open source web tool which lets you explore and visualise data then share discoveries with others. The tool promotes Open Data, where you can query and publish data from within your organisation and outside. http://dataunity.org/

Useful places to look for data

NICE Evidence Services are a suite of services that provide internet access to high quality authoritative evidence and best practice. The services cover health, social care and public health evidence.

https://www.evidence.nhs.uk/ The unit cost database brings together more

than 600 cost estimates in a single place, most of which are national costs derived from

government reports and academic studies.

http://data.gov.uk/sib_knowledge_box/toolkit

Case Study: Macmillan Cancer Support

Macmillan has been able to analyse NHS data sets, including cancer registration and mortality to create a desktop tool for commissioners to plan cancer care in advance in any area of the UK.

The model developed by the charity predicts how many people will be diagnosed with cancer, what types they will have, how many will die and what their needs will be in 1-3 years.

Case study: Barnsley Hospice

Barnsley Hospice provides an example of how datacan be used to improve fundraising.

By linking the postcodes from their donor database to local council information on the socio-economic profile of neighbourhoods, they are able to tailor their fundraising strategy for each area;

For example, by marketing small pledges for lower income areas and corporate giving where businesses are located

Barriers

Realistic about the sectors knowledge, skills and capacity to work with data

Understanding how and where to access big data sets.

Measuring impact can be hard and a if there is lack of human resources and capacity for some VCS organisations to do this.

Do the benefits outweigh the costs?

Where to get help and support

Datakind and the Open Knowledge Foundation offer various support to help people gain data skills and are helping charities to get to grips with their data.

Clinks and NPC's have a guide that introduces you to the increasing number of software tools that may help you to better collect and analyse data and raises some issues to consider. http://www.clinks.org/support/evaluation-and-effectiveness

Example

Example of an issue you are trying to address?

What data do you need to evidence the need for a project/intervention?

Where could you look to get the data? How do you, could you demonstrate your

impact?

Example Continued

Example of an issue you are trying to address? – reducing/minimising self harm and suicide in young people

What data do you need to evidence the need for a project/intervention?

– causes self harm and suicide in young people? – Number of young people affected each year – What types/ages of young people are more susceptible

What current provision of support is there? -review of current service providers – check with CVS’s forvoluntary sector providers check with health agencies forpublic/private sector providers.

-Carry out Google searches.

Example Continued Where could you look to get the data? – The power of the web : a systematic review of studies of theinfluence of the internet on self-harm and suicide in youngpeople, (public library or science 2013)

– Age specific suicide rates http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/search/index.html?pageSize=50&sortBy=none&sortDirection=none&newquery=age+specific+suicide+rates

– Talking self harm, (young minds 2012)

- feed in any data you may have collected your self

Example Continued

How do you, could you demonstrate your impact?

– Cost savings of hospital admissions/camhs

referrals/GP visits - CG133 Self-harm (longer

term management): full guideline (NICE 2011)

– Increased health and emotional wellbeing in to

adulthood – Increased attendance at school

/colleges

What are infographics

Infographics (a blend of information and graphics) are a visually attractive way of displaying (often complex) data.

An infographic can display a whole variety of data, from charts and graphs to timelines and flow diagrams.

Examples of Infographics

http://www.google.com/think/images/online-consumption-infographic_infographics_lg.jpg

https://www.delineo.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/481237-COTY-infographic-new-V2-630x630.jpg

http://theceword.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/20130828-192601.jpg

What type of infographic could you use?

If you want your infographic to be both effective and widely distributed, you need to create the

right type of infographic for your particular purpose. The major types are:

Data visualization is a visual representation of data or the practice of visualizing data. Data visualizations enable people to detect trends, patterns, and outliers and could include word clouds, maps, and bar graphs.

http://cdn2.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/The-Biggest-Shift-infographic-by-Derri-Hasmi.jpg

Narrative infographics guide the viewer through a series of information—often in a chronological order—that tells a story.  Infographics that explore the history of a discipline is a common example. http://milesbakerclarke.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/media_httpcachegawker_mxaar-scaled1000.jpg

Information design is a type of infographic that focuses on the display of information efficiently and effectively, communicating a message clearly and universally. Examples include flowcharts, organizational diagrams, and anatomical illustrations.http://lish-55.deviantart.com/art/Panda-Infographic-142628025

What are the benefits of creating infographics?

Just like any marketing asset, an infographic has its

time and place. They work well for the following:

Driving traffic

Increasing project/campaign/brand awareness

Communicating results/impact externally

Communicating results/impact internally

What if I Don’t Have Good Design Skills?

No problem! There are plenty of websites requiring little to no technical knowledge

that can generate infographics out of your data (FREE).

Piktochart: Billed as an infographics and presentation tool for non-designers, this software gives you access to themes, interactive charts, and customization tools.

 Visual.ly: This service’s free data visualization tools can help you create infographics from a handful of themes in a matter of seconds.

Infogr.am: With more than 30 chart types, this free tool allows you to edit data, customize images, and instantly download and share your infographic.

Easle.ly: Still in its public beta, this site boasts thousands of what it calls “vhemes” (short for visual themes) that can be used to create your own infographic.

For interactive timelines, try Timeline JS or Wordle if you’re interested in creating ‘word clouds’.

Using PowerPoint to create infographics

http://blog.gcflearnfree.org/2012/09/10/creating-graphics-with-powerpoint/

Example of Infographic created in PowerPoint

Thank you!!