John Denham - Putting power at people's fingertips

Published       21 December 2009       
A new Civic Health report that will take the pulse of modern England and allow people to see how voting patterns, social habits and feelings of belonging vary across the country is being developed by Government.

The report which will be published next year, will collate in one place a wealth of national, regional and local data offering a unique insight into gauging the health of modern democracy and the connections people have to their communities.

People will be able to easily find out more about their areas: making it much easier to push for change, see clearly the complex factors that contribute to how people feel about and engage with their community and map and track the strength of their community against factors such as deprivation or employment levels.

Active citizens, community groups, local and national leaders will be able to see at a glance how their area compares to others on issues such as levels of volunteering, feelings of empowerment and perceptions of community cohesion. The report will set these measures in the context of other factors, such as employment and deprivation to help people build an understanding of how those factors may be affecting the civic health of their area.

The Civic Health report is one part of wider Government plans to radically open up data and promote transparency set out in Putting the Frontline First: Smarter Government. That document committed government to improving access to data around public services where it can be re-used and by doing so increase accountability, help people scrutinise, challenge and drive up standards in their area.

Greater transparency is essential to better informing the public, increasing democratic engagement and driving improvement in public services. This work to put more data in the public domain is being taken forward at the Prime Ministers request by Sir Tim Berners - Lee and Professor Nigel Shadbolt. The new OnePlace website along with the plans to publish Ordnance Survey data online signal early steps in this direction.

Because the data held by local authorities and other public bodies is every bit as valuable as central government information, Communities Secretary John Denham has asked Professor Shadbolt to head up a panel of experts to oversee the release of local data. Over the coming weeks and months, the panel will look at how council information ranging from recycling data, street works, planning applications and parking fines can be made available to residents.

John Denham said:

"Improving access to information will shine a light on local areas, increase accountability, help people scrutinise and challenge when things fall short of the mark and spot where improvements can be made.

"Nowadays everyone expects to be able to access the information they need at the touch of a button. That is even more important when it's information about how their neighbourhood and town works.

"Information truly is power in this respect. We are opening up our files in a way which has the power to transform they way people participate in their local area and how they shape their lives."

This greater transparency will make it easier to look right across all the local services in an area and spot evidence of duplication or waste. It will help all local authorities to 'health check' whether public money going into the area is delivering value for money and delivering the very best services. It could also drive innovation and fresh thinking by providing entrepreneurs, businesses, customers, professionals and suppliers the data they need to identify problems and come up with solutions.

It will enable more councils to follow the lead of the thirteen local authorities currently involved in Total Place pilots. Total Place has the potential to not only improve services but lead to multi million pound savings The authorities involved are taking a fundamental look at all the money going into the area, where it is being spent, what it is delivering and how it could be spent differently.

The pilots have been supported with initial funding of around £5m. The bulk of this funding has been used to source and compile the spending figures and service reports. This time and cost could be massively reduced if that data was already at hand and would make it easier for other areas of the country to apply the same analysis to their own spend and delivery.

Notes to editors
1. The Civic Health report will provide national, regional and local data drawn from sources including the Citizenship Survey, the Audit of Political engagement, Office of National Statistics Social Trends, the National Survey of Third Sector Organisations and the Place Survey. It will identify and analyse key indicators of 'civic health', in particular examining how social habits and the role that local people play in communities is changing over time.

2. The first of these reports will be published in early next year and will subsequently be made available online. The report will enable anyone, at the touch of a button to find out about England as a whole or simply the area in which they live. In addition people will be able to compare different parts of the country and look at how engagement differs between men and women, young and old and different ethnic groups.

3. In the US, the annual America's Civic Health Index looks at the state of civic engagement in that country. The 2009 report offered a fascinating insight into the attitudes of Americans following President Obama's inauguration and the current recession.

4. The report being developed here will allow for similar assessments and analyses, but the breadth of information being included will mean the Civic Health report is much more comprehensive than the American version. That Index is based on a representative sample of around just 3500 people while the Citizenship survey alone surveys 15,000 people every year.

5. There are already a wide range of examples of how citizens have made use of public data to increase awareness, encourage people to engage or to improve their community. Citizen driven projects like They work for you and Fixmystreet.com has encouraged thousands of people to use public information to get action on issues that matter to them and hold those responsible for taking decisions to account.

6. The Local Data Public panel includes council chiefs and digital and community champions. They will work together to identify and put information into the public domain, ensure consistency across boroughs, link up various data sets and promote and share some of the innovative ways of data sharing already being pioneered by councils and other groups. Examples can be found below:

• Timely Information for Citizens Project - Good Practice
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