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News
From the Association of Regional Observatories
Wouldn’t it be great if there was alist of all staff in observatories?Somewhere to share future researchplans whilst still at the early stage? Away of saying that you’ve got exper-tise or expe-rience in aparticulararea, and thatyou can helpadvise col-leagues in other observatories? Oreven a way of working collabora-tively on documents or tenders? Thewiki is a website for everyone whoworks in a regional observatory, thatcan be edited and used by them inthe ways they want. If you haven’tsigned in already, the Coordinatorcan help you out, and coming soonwill be a point of contact in eachobservatory who can help you getthe most out of it.e
nalytical train-ing
Getting involved with AROMay 2009
12th: East Midlands IntelligenceNetwork event - Population andMigration, 10am, Nottingham SciencePark 13th: European Spatial ObservationNetwork workshop - Targetinganalysis on migration and economy,11.15am, London20th: Local Government Chronicleconference - Fundamentals of Infor-mation Management, 9am, London
 June 2009
2nd: RSS seminar - MeasuringChange over Time in Worklessnessand other small area statistics, 5pm,London3rd: South West Public HealthAnnual Scientific Conference,Weston-super-Mare14th: Burisa conference - Location,location, location - Whither geo-graphical information? 10am, London8th & 9th: NWRIU research confer-ence, Liverpool
 July 2009
7th: Data Visualisation day - giCentre,City University, London
 
Events coming soonMay 2009
The ARO wiki
This meeting is open to all thoseworking in an organisation that’s amember of ARO, and is much morethan a meeting - it’s a chance to meetyour colleagues and learn new skillsin an inspiring environment. Themorning will focus on area profiling; atopic which continues to develop,and will be of importance as LocalEconomic Assessments become apriority. The afternoon will be aninteractive workshop on the re-search and policy-making process.Add to that a chance to hear snap-shots from work in other observato-ries, and you get a really worthwhileday so make sure you’ve got this datein your diary!
All ARO Meeting: June 25th,The Studio, BirminghamSub-groups
to use their expertise to benefit thenetwork as a whole. Do you think there’s a way in which ARO can helpyou to network and learn fromcolleagues? If so, let the Coordina-tor know.The Association can be a good wayof working with your colleagues inother observatories who have similarprofessional interests to you. ARO issupporting GIS specialists to get intouch with one another, and isfunding their attendance at a relevantconference. The modelling specialistsamongst us are also considering how
Yorkshire Futures launch“Progress in the Region”Intelligence East Midlandssupport sub-regional climatechange research
This quarterly newsletter is designedto regularly update the Associationof Regional Observatories andstakeholders with current events andnews of note. Please feel free tocirculate this to those who might beinterested. Submissions for the nextnewsletter should be made by theend of July.
Spotlight on... the WestMidlandsNorth East RegionalInformation Partnershipintroduces “About the Region”North West RegionalIntelligence Unit supports thedevelopment of the regionalstrategy evidence baseThe launch of a newregional observatory: InsightEastSouth West Observatoryconference examines thechallenges faced by the regionLondon’s DMAG BoroughStat-pack 2009 now availableSouth East England IntelligenceNetwork boasts refreshedwebsite
 
 www.regionalobservatories.org.uk 
News
from the Association of Regional Observatories
Preparatory discussions are nowunder way with the project starting inOctober 2009. If you would like tofind out more about the project,please contact Warren or read theproject summary:
http://bit.ly/XCRe1
Throughout the duration of theproject, briefings papers and seminarswill be used to disseminate researchfindings to a wider policy/practiceaudience; in particular, outputs fromthe literature review, survey andinterviews.Warren Pearce has been selected asthe research student for this project.Warren holds an MA in Public Policy,specialising in climate change policy,and has been Programme Assistant atRegeneration East Midlands sinceSeptember 2007.This innovative research project willfocus on the delivery of climate changepolicy at the sub-national level,principally within the East Midlands, andexamine ways in which sub-nationalpolicy contributes to achieving nationalclimate change policy goals.The project will also investigatetensions between national and sub-national climate change policy andbetween proposals to reducegreenhouse gas emissions and otherpolicies at the national and sub-nationallevel.
Intelligence East Midlandssupporting research intoclimate change policy atsub-national level
Yorkshire’s Progress Report - an improvingperformance in difficult times
Hilary Benn, Minister of State forEnvironment Food and RuralAffairs,joined over 200 delegatesattending the launch of the ‘Progress inthe Region’ report. The report,produced by Yorkshire Futures, assessesprogress in key areas like transport, jobs,housing, crime and the environment.Good news that stands out includes:The report also points to ‘Landmark Issues’ where the region is workingto tackle problematic long termtrends such as:•Transport - the trend to moretraffic, longer journeys and a higherproportion by car and lorry, withconsequences for congestion andemissions
“We must not lose sight of thewider issues that affect people’swellbeing. I congratulate every-one who has not only helped tobring about significant improve-ments but has worked to ensurethat we are better informed thanever before about the state of our region and that we act onthe evidence.” Hilary Benn MP 
IEM and the Economic and SocialResearch Council (ESRC) are sup-porting a full-time PhD studentshipbased at the University of Notting-ham.For the full report, and the four“Progress in the City Region” reports,see
http://bit.ly/4D0lb
•Climate change - greenhouse gasemissions are not yet reducing in linewith targets and ‘adaptation’ issuessuch as flood risk are also key•Productivity and Innovation – innovation and the need to raisebusiness R&D investment remains akey issue.•A 48% increase in the region’s Index of Sustainable Economic Wellbeing (anindicator that adjusts GVA to takeaccount of social and environmentalaspects of growth)•Income (median weekly pay) is thesecond highest annual growth in thecountry at 3.5%•Total recorded crime has decreasedsince 2002•The number of adults doing regularsport and active recreation hasincreased and is above the nationalaverage.Speaking at the launch, Bea Jefferson,Programme Manager at YorkshireFutures said “In such uncertaineconomic times, it is important toremind ourselves of the steadyprogress we have made in the regionover the past 10 years. Progress inthe Region highlights theseimprovements, but recognises thatthere are still areas where we needto do considerably more if we are tomove towards fully sustainabledevelopment. The economy isundoubtedly important, butmaintaining improvements in ourenvironment, health and quality of life,and reducing inequality have toremain a central goal for regionalpolicy makers”.
Nottingham’s Jubilee Campus library The number of adults in the region doing regular sport is above the national average
 
News
from the Association of Regional Observatories www.regionalobservatories.org.uk Spotlight on...
The West Midlands Regional Observatory
 What might the West Midlandslook like post-recession?
The recession: short- and long-term responses
The West Midlands RegionalObservatory is currently exploringwhat the West Midlands region mightlook like post-recession, throughcommissioning a series of “think pieces” that explore how the regioncan prepare itself for the end of thedownturn.The ultimate aim of the report will beto stimulate debate, promotediscussion and influence policy on thefuture growth of the region. The focuswill be on the future of the WestMidlands, rather than on the effects of the recession, and will explore theregion’s ability to maximise post-recession potential.We are currently commissioning anumber of authors, who will each writea chapter for the report. Some of thethemes we hope to cover include:lessons that can be learnt from pastrecessions about how the regionadapted to change; how changes willaffect the workforce, what skills will beneeded, where the skill gaps will be andhow people’s work patterns willchange; and whether this is this a goodtime to address environmentalconcerns and what opportunities areavailable.We hope to have the report availablefor launch in July, and it will inform thediscussion at the Observatory’s annualconference on 20
th
October.
An intelligent response to therecession
Alongside the Observatory’s continuingwork on the medium to long termeconomic prospects of the region, thecurrent economic downturn hashighlighted the importance of regularup-to-date analysis of short termleading indicators.Since the middle of 2008, theObservatory has provided monthlybriefings on emerging economicconditions. Through regular contactwith regional Chambers of Commerce,Engineering Employers Federation,Confederation of British Industry,Office for National Statistics andregional agents from the Bank of England, we are able to collate thelatest evidence and provide updates topartners.Looking ahead at the potential impactof the downturn on the region, as wellas individual local authority areas, is acritical part of identifying the key areasfor intervention. As new informationbecomes available, economists arebeing forced to review theirapproaches to forecast the prospectsfor 2009 and beyond.The Observatory has been leadingresearch in advancing regional modelsto examine structural economicchange. We have highlighted theweaknesses in traditional economicmodels, most notably where thesemodels rely on the continuation of statistical relationships as the basis of projecting forward.Evidence from emerging economic datahighlights that these relationships havebeen significantly strained. This is morepronounced at local levels where theimportance of key employers is moremarked. For example, if an employerexits a local economy, the impact is feltand noticed more at a local level thanit is when viewing the sector as awhole at a regional level. Therequirement therefore is for a flexibleThe Observatory’s Integrated PolicyModel (IPM) provides an importanttool for examining the potentialimplications of the recession for localauthorities in the region. The modelhas the flexibility to incorporaterevisions to economic conditions andhow they may impact acrossneighbouring local areas. The modeldraws on national and regionalforecasts, enabling the Observatoryto incorporate international andnational impacts on certain sectorssuch as motor manufacturing. Theseare combined with the impacts, directand indirect, of localised economicchange on sectors such as retail orconsumer services.In a rapidly changing economicclimate, it is essential to have a modelflexible enough to examine emergingimplications of the downturn. TheIPM will allow the Observatory andits partners to look at a range of scenarios at different geographicallevels, including the potential depthand duration of the recession. Thishas the strength of enabling a rangeof potential impacts to be considered,rather than reliance on a singleforecast reflecting national impacts.
What skills will be needed in the future? The impact of employers’ decisions ismore marked at local level 
andadaptivemodel thatenablesanalysts toexplore arange of potentialimpacts of employment change onlocal economies within a singleframework.Read more on the Integrated PolicyModel:
http://bit.ly/qNltl
Read more on the recession monitor-ing:
http://bit.ly/61YJy
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