The OxCam Unit at MHCLG recently kicked-off an alpha project with their supplier FutureGov, as part of the team’s commitment to use data, evidence and digital technology to support the development of the Spatial Framework for the Oxford-Cambridge Arc – the area formed of: Oxfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire and Cambridgeshire.
The team intends to work with local partners to create an open source, accessible digital platform for data and evidence in the Arc to support collaboration between government, businesses, local councils and communities in decision-making.
Over the past few weeks, a blended team of MHCLG and FutureGov experts has been formed and established ways of working and agile ceremonies. Through regular stand-ups and deep dive sessions with MHCLG planners, Digital Land Team, planning consultants, academics and local authority officials, the project team has been working to establish ‘as-is journeys’ for the production of evidence base studies, map assumptions, and develop clear hypotheses to test.
The focus of this alpha, building upon the discovery research that was carried out in 2020, is improving parts of the evidence base production journey, including the design, commission and consumption stages of evidence and data for planning in the Arc. Infrastructure Delivery Plans have been selected as a ‘pilot’ for showcasing new, improved ways of producing evidence base studies. While the use of data to support policy decisions is nothing new, we’ve seen that the challenge comes in ensuring that the data collected is standardised, structured and accessible. But how can this be done in an effective way?
Over our next two sprints, we’ll be diving deep into user research and establishing a clear understanding of how data is collected, stored and published from a regulatory, service and technical point of view. As always, the user need is key to this process and will sit at the heart of our human-centred design process; helping us to prototype and design the evidence base process and its foundational data.
As an alpha, the scope of this work is to define and test different solutions to the problem. As we continue to map existing user journeys and consider new alternatives, we’ll be exploring how data can be used efficiently and effectively across the Arc.
Watch this space to see the progression of this work and please get in touch with Nick or Sam, should you wish to chat about any of this work!
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