By: Brian J Garner

Brian J Garner — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 12:54:49 +0000

At long last we have a name and top down commitment for something I looked at 10 years ago. In 1999 we ‘GeoCoded’ the entire 30,000+ population of our secondary schools to enable a deprivation analysis as part of an Excellence in Cities bid. As a follow on we looked at identifying the spend per pupil going into relatively small geographic areas to put together with data from other bodies to create a ‘Total Place’ picture. GIS was truly used as the ‘G’lue ‘I’nbetween ‘S’ystems. To this day I am still being asked “should we collect this data at Ward level or Neighbourhood Area level?” and my answer remains the same as then – “You do neither. Collect what happened, where it happened and when it happened”. This concept of ‘What, Where, When’ would not only support Total Place but also copes with those regular changes to Ward boundaries. Recasting say the last 5 years worth of data against newly defined Ward boundaries is much better than any proportional fudging.

Comments on: First meeting of the Total Place pilots

By: Brian J Garner