1. Building a Social Evidence Base for London
GLA Intelligence Unit presentation to London Funders
August 2018

2. Introduction - why a social evidence base?
GLA since formation
GLA Act: requirement to produce demographic projections to support London Plan
Analysis to support Boroughs e.g. poverty
Economic reporting / opinion research
Development of London Datastore
 But less coordination of wider social research
No strategic overview
Commissioned by individual policy areas / silos
Lacking in many areas, difficult for users to find
Current Mayoralty bought different focus and priorities
Found existing evidence lacking. Especially for London and key groups within the city
Needed conceptual development as well as collect data

3. Building the Social Evidence Base
The three aims of the social evidence base:
Filling gaps in the evidence base
Using evidence to monitor and inform policy
Dissemination of social evidence

4. Building the Social Evidence Base
Filling gaps in the evidence base
Using evidence to monitor and inform policy
Dissemination of social evidence

5. 1. Filling gaps in the evidence base
The issue: data on a range of social policy issues affecting Londoners is patchy
Issues with national surveys and administrative data
Emerging priorities not being captured or evaluated
Evaluation findings are not being synthesised
This results in gaps around Mayoral priorities, including:
Social integration
Food insecurity
Economic fairness
Welfare reform
Mental health

6. 1. Example – social integration
Qualitative: understanding identity, attitudes, relationships, networks, participation
Quantitative: quantifying potential measures of integration to produce a basket of London-wide indicators
Understand and model relationships: social integration and social mobility or regeneration
Identifying areas for policy intervention: who is most at risk, has greatest need
Evaluating what works: volunteering and integration, citizenship ceremonies

7. 1. Filling gaps in the evidence base
We aim to help fill these gaps by:
Synthesising the existing evidence
Conducting and commissioning research projects
Commissioning a Survey of Londoners
Making better use of administrative data
Developing innovative data sources on society in London

8. 1. Synthesising existing evidence
Role for the social evidence base to:
Bring together relevant research on social policy issues in London
Highlight examples of successful interventions – what works
Will focus on key areas such as social integration
Your input: we would love to hear from you if publishing research or evaluating impact

9. 1. Example – the equality, diversity and inclusion evidence base for London

10. 1. Research projects
Use our own research time or commission others to:
Understand an issue in detail
Generate new findings on priority issues
Your input: align our research plans with other research funders
Research projects underway include:
Educational and residential segregation in London
Social class and social mobility
The impact of insecure private rented accommodation on children
The drivers of neighbourhood voter registration rates

11. 1. Example – cumulative impact assessment of welfare reform in London

12. 1. The Survey of Londoners
Why we need a survey:
Monitor progress against Mayoral social policy priorities
Baseline evaluations of social integration interventions
Deepen our understanding of key issues such as social integration, food insecurity and economic fairness

13. 1. The Survey of Londoners
Method:

14. 1. The Survey of Londoners
What this method gives us:
A robust and representative London-wide sample of around 5,000 adults (estimated)
Sub-groups:
Ethnicity: White British, Asian, Black
Religion: Christian and Muslim
Disability
English not a main language
Poor and food insecure households
Groups of London boroughs

15. 1. The Survey of Londoners
Topics covered in the survey:
Relationships and social networks
Civic and cultural participation
Attitudes towards the economy and diversity
Material living standards
Food insecurity
In-depth demographic questions
Questionnaire:
Developed with NatCen and input from GLA policy teams
Cognitive testing of new/sensitive questions
Advice from expert Social Integration measurement group

16. 1. The Survey of Londoners
How the GLA will be using the survey:
As a baseline for evaluating policy interventions
Mayoral strategy monitoring
Analysis of survey results matched to other datasets
Follow-up research with key groups

17. 1. The Survey of Londoners
Your input:
Making use of the data
Adopting and adapting questions
Borough boosts available:
Boosts the sample in a particular borough by 400
Will provide headline data for the majority of questions at borough level
Finalising by Monday 3rd September

18. 1. Administrative data sources
Producers of administrative data:
GLA group: MOPAC, TfL and LFB
Central government
Boroughs
Funders and civil society organisation
Barriers: access, systems and quality
CityDatastore: a platform for sharing data securely
Your input: hear about the data you hold and opportunities for collaboration/data sharing

19. 1. Example: Citizens Advice data for London

20. 1. Innovative data sources
The innovative methods programme:
Exploring the creation of more sustainable datasets to measure social integration
Opportunities presented by digital data sources:
Social media usage / social media content
Online review sites
Data on location of places for social integration
Data on participation in different activities supporting social integration e.g. culture and sport, civic action and volunteering
Challenges: quality, access and ethical concerns
We are currently scoping potential sources of web data

21. 1. Example: CDRC small area ethnicity estimates

22. 1. Summary
Our work hopes to fill gaps in the social evidence base through a range of methods and sources
Your input:
Hearing about your research and evaluation priorities
Feedback on the Survey of Londoners
Your experience and challenges around administrative and innovative sources of data

23. Building the Social Evidence Base
Filling gaps in the evidence base
Using evidence to monitor and inform policy
Dissemination of social evidence

24. 2. Using evidence to monitor and inform policy
Our approach:
Evaluation of GLA social policy interventions
Monitoring Mayoral strategies
Informing policy and intervention design using the social evidence base

25. 2. Evaluating impact Evaluation helps us to:
Monitor interventions and assess their impact
Provide new data/evidence to better understand social policy issues
Inform future interventions by the GLA and others
We support evaluation at the GLA through:
Commissioning
Methods
Dissemination
Training
Delivery

26. 2. Example: Culture Seeds
£1m fund for grassroots and community-led arts, culture and heritage (ACH) projects
Individual grants of between £1,000-£5,000
Prioritises groups who are less likely to participate in cultural activity: low-income Londoners and communities under-represented in arts attendance
Outcomes the fund hopes to achieve:
Remove barriers to participation in ACH
Bring communities together through ACH
Showcase and support creative ideas from groups who don’t usually engage in ACH
Gives local communities chances to lead and join in ACH
Increase opportunities for volunteering in ACH

27. 2. Example: Culture Seeds
The evaluation:
A participant/audience survey will collect data on:
Demographics
Baseline participation pre-attendance
Travel method
Whether made any social connections
A provider survey will collect data on:
Whether organised events/obtained funding before
Experience of applying for Culture Seeds funding
Future plans
Location of venues

28. 2. Example: Culture Seeds
How evaluation can contribute to the social evidence base:
Monitoring: the characteristics of participants and whether they made social connections
Build the evidence base: understand what features of cultural events (such as type of provision and location) attract priority audiences and foster social connections
Inform social policy-making: these insights can inform future programmes

29. 2. Monitoring Mayoral strategies
Measuring London-wide progress against Mayoral objectives:
Baskets of measures chosen in collaboration with policy colleagues and with expert input
Updated annually where possible
Used to track progress a population level along the key dimensions of a given policy area
Also can be used as an approximate baseline against which impact can be measured
Acknowledge that most are beyond Mayoral control, involving a range of other stakeholders to achieve sustained change

30. 2. Example: Economic Fairness Measures

31. 2. Example: Social Integration Measures

32. 2. Using evidence to inform policy
How we are currently supporting the design of social policy interventions at the GLA:
Support to frame and define issues
Analysis to inform intervention targeting
Building tools to inform decision-making
As the evidence base grows and generates more insights, it will:
Be used to establish what interventions work in priority areas
Underpin the next round of Mayoral social policy strategies

33. 2. Example: the Workforce Integration Network

34. 2. Example: the programme selection tool

35. 2. Summary
Our aim is for key outcome measures to be evaluated, monitored and fed back into policy-making on a consistent basis
Your input:
Your work on evaluating impact
How we can incorporate your insights into our policy work at the GLA

36. Building the Social Evidence Base
Filling gaps in the evidence base
Using evidence to inform policy
Dissemination of social evidence

37. 3. Dissemination of social evidence
Our aims:
The Social Evidence Base aims to be a resource for other London-based organisations, particularly boroughs and the voluntary sector
Collating and publishing evidence in an accessible way will help other organisations to design and deliver interventions
Our approach:
Publication strategy on the London Datastore
Engagement with key users
Building capacity with smaller civil society organisations

38. 3. The London Datastore

39. 3. The London Datastore Coming soon:
Brings together the evidence into a single portal on the datastore
Links to how the evidence base is being used

40. 3. The London Datastore Coming soon:
Brings together the evidence into a single portal on the datastore
Links to how the evidence base is being used
In the future we will add:
Qualitative data
Evaluation findings
Evidence reviews

41. 3. The London Datastore Coming soon:
Brings together the evidence into a single portal on the datastore
Links to how the evidence base is being used
In the future we will add:
Qualitative data
Evaluation results
Evidence reviews
Key users:
GLA policy teams
London’s voluntary sector
London government

42. 3. Disseminating the value of social evidence
Work with key users to understand their social evidence needs:
Topics
Sub-regional data
Particular groups in the population
Presentation of evidence
Work with civil society to build capacity and demonstrate the value of their data:
Refugee data project
Data expeditions
Publish grants information to 360 giving

43. We would value your input into:
3. Summary
Our aim is for the social evidence base to be a widely-used resource on social policy issues in London
We would value your input into:
How we can best use the Datastore platform to make social evidence widely accessible
Opportunities for engagement with key user groups

44. Our details