esd

Simple and consistent ways through the mass of information that describes your locality

The next generation of esd's toolset is here!

Analyse, predict and improve service outcomes.

There are consistent public definitions of performance, budgets and demography with the data behind them.

Roam around or download the standards by which LGA, GOV.UK and local authorities index information.

Simpler intuitive ways of looking at the communities that make up your local authority area.

Go to toolkit

News, events, guidance and tools that aficionados of esd-toolkit have grown to love

Watch out for upgrades of the most popular features

Find out what it really costs to deliver a service by different means.

Activity based costing (ABC).

Improve productivity and apply a disciplined approach to innovation.

Productivity and innovation tools from the Digital Inclusion team.

Assess the social and business case for innovations.

Tools to and lots of case studies.

Go to standards

Open public lists for indexing everything we do in the public sector

List information across councils. Access free definitions and cross-references

See every local government service grouped by function.

The local government service list unambiguously defines what councils do.

Check the completeness of your council’s website.

esd provides a generic council website structure and A-Z.

Get consistent definitions for every type of metric.

Metrics are measures of the use or effectiveness of services and of how areas are made up.

Go to reports

Examine the detail of your area to understand the people and see where your help is needed

esd charts and maps show information for wards and smaller areas within your council

Compare metrics for every ward against local regional or national averages.

Lots more types of comparison are available.

See the breakdown of hundreds of different metrics by each ward.

See if metrics seem related and how well you are doing in view of local circumstances.

Examine hotspots for issues in your area compared with local, regional or national norms.

See which factors predominate in each area.

You can email support@esd.org.uk for help, or

Check out our FAQs

Q. Is the 2011 census data available through esd maps and charts?

A. Most census data which has been released by ONS at levels of geography lower than full LA can be viewed using the maps and charts. There are a few datasets which are not currently included because they were not obviously useful to an LA – However let us know if you have a need for something which is not there.

Q. Why are charts only possible at Ward level and not using ONS geographies?

A. Only Wards have names which would make sense when viewed on a chart. MLSOA, LLSOA and output areas in particular are only identified by codes which would have little meaning to most people.

Q. How do I change the level of geography I am looking at on a map?

A. Click on the 'Area' option and then choose the level of geography you would like to see from the drop down box shown.

Q. Where can I find the 'Activity Based Costing' tool which was available in esd-toolkit?

A. esd-toolkit is still live – we are only gradually migrating features and tools to the new site. You can still access esd-toolkit from the 'toolkit' option on the esd overview page – and everything you have previously used is still available there unless it has already been migrated to the new esd.

Q. The map is difficult to see, is there any way I can make it larger?

A. Yes, click on the 'Map' option on the left of the page and the map will be enlarged. The same applies to charts with the 'Chart' option.

Q. Where can I find the Local Government Business Model (LGBM) diagram?

A. It is here.

Leave a comment

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Huw R from West Sussex County Council said:

Hi, I really welcome the re-design, but please could you reconsider the ‘card deck’ when navigating the standards tree and just have a bread-crumb trail. - It would be easier and quicker to navigate.

Nick B from esd-toolkit Team replied:

Hi Huw,
Thanks for your feedback on the new tools. I don't know if you've already noticed, but you can currently see which level each card in the deck represents by hovering your mouse over it.

However, the tools are currently still under heavy development and we do have plans to improve this area. We hope to roll out further improvements soon.

Phil C from Cheshire East Council said:

Would it be possible to add a layer of Urban / Rural Classification?

Thomas D from esd-toolkit Team replied:

Hi Phil,

We have rurality data available at this link.

Is the above what you mean? I see ONS have statistics on Rural/Urban Classification on their site, but can only see the information at local authority level. Could you let me know if you mean the rurality information, the ONS statistics, or something else?

Thanks,
Tom

Phil C from Cheshire East Council replied:

Tom,
I was thinking more along the lines of the DEFRA definition which is available at LSOA level.
Also of value would be the access to services data from the 2011 census

Thomas D from esd-toolkit Team replied:

Hi Phil,

I have looked into the DEFRA definitions, and although it is possible to show this information, there are some issues.

I have had a look at the downloads, but am not sure which census data you are referring to.

I shall send you an email to more fully discuss these points.

Thanks,
Tom

Gavin C from London Borough of Merton said:

Also, if you click "see this data in a table" there's no way to switch it back to a map again.

Nick B from esd-toolkit Team replied:

Hi Gavin,

Thanks for confirming the web attitude issue, we're looking into it now and hopefully it will be working again soon.

Regarding your second point: the reason it's easy to move from map to table but not vice versa is because it's easier (from a technical perspective) to create a table from any given map, but a very complex table might not always be displayable in map form, so the table page doesn't contain this link by default.

Following your message, we are looking into whether we can display a link back the other way for tables that were originally created from maps or charts.

Hope that helps, let us know if any of the above is unclear.

Nick B from esd-toolkit Team replied:

Further to my longer comment: there should now be an option available to switch back to a map from a table or chart, if you created it from a map in the first place. Let us know if there are any problems.

Gavin C from London Borough of Merton said:

I too have been unable to view the data for "Households by web attitude" - either as a map or a table. Please can this be fixed?

Si Chun L from Coventry City Council said:

Hi,

Is there (i.) a list of the definitions for each of the indicators (like in LG inform) and (ii.) timescales for additional data to be uploaded?

I've tried creating a chart for Coventry using the Households by web attitude (%) but for some reason it draws a map with no data (even after selecting MSOAs rather than Wards).

The interface looks really good though.

Si

Nick B from esd-toolkit Team replied:

Hi Si,
Thanks for looking at the site, glad you liked the interface. I'll try to address your questions below:
i) The metric definitions can be found on the esd-standards site here: http://standards.esd.org.uk/?uri=list%2FmetricTypes - we're aiming to add direct links from reports to relevant metric definitions soon.
ii) The LGA try to add metrics within the time period plus one month - e.g. quarterly metrics within 4 months, annual metrics within 13.

You do seem to be right about the web attitude stats - we're looking into this now, and will post again here to let you and Gavin know when it's fixed.

Hope that helps, let us know if you have any further queries.

Richard C from Northamptonshire County Council said:

Hi,
I am using Internet Explorer 8 here and i know there is functionailty issues with LG-Inform, does that exist here also?
I ask as this is very slow and also i keep getting "do you wish to stop running script" error due to the speed.

Tom D from esd-toolkit Team replied:

Richard, yes we do have performance issues with IE8. If you tell IE to continue running scripts, it will normally finish. We're going to change the way maps work to move a lot more processing to the back end. This work will take a month or so to complete - sorry. Of course, IE9 or another browser such as Chrome will always be faster where that is an option. Thanks for getting in touch.

Phil C from Cheshire East Council said:

Will the Index of multiple deprivation be added as an available layer within the mapping function?
If it is to be added, will it also be possible to add the 7 domains as separate layers of data?

Mike T from Local Government Association esd-toolkit Team replied:

Yes Phil. IMD is only available for lower level super output areas, not larger areas, like wards. We need to tweak the software to work for metric types that are only available for some (not all) of the geographical levels. We'll do that this month and then IMD will show in maps. We'll investigate showing the 7 domains separately and get back to you. Thanks for the feedback.