Understanding Welsh Places

The aim of this collaborative project is to create a website that is the first point of call for statistical information about Welsh towns and communities with populations of more than 1,000 people. The Understanding Welsh Places (UWP) website will support and inspire communities, place makers and policy makers to make positive changes in the places where they live and work. People will be able to use and interpret the open data presented to identify opportunities in their areas now and in the future.

The Institute of Welsh Affairs (IWA) has been contracted by Carnegie UK Trust (CUKT) to work with others to shape the UWP project. The development of the website itself is funded by both CUKT and the Welsh Government. UWP is inspired by the success of the existing Understanding Scottish Places website (www.usp.scot), but will respond to the particular needs of communities in Wales.

Scoping and consultation

During the autumn, focus groups were held in Barry, Blaenau Ffestiniog, Cardiff, Narberth and Newtown. The aim of these events was to find out more about the data requirements of people working and volunteering within the sectors for which the UWP website is being designed. Participants included staff from social enterprises, voluntary organisations and community anchor organisations, regeneration professionals, town and community councillors and representatives from community voluntary councils, towns teams and local authorities.

What will the website be like?

The UWP website will present useful, available data about more than 300 places in Wales in a format that is quick and easy to use. It will be different to other data portals because people will not need to be experts to use it. The site will also present data at the level of towns and larger communities, rather than that of local authorities. A focus on exploring similarities, contrasts and interrelationships between places will help people to interpret and interact with this data in new and dynamic ways.An interesting and exciting feature of the site is that it will include maps of commuter journeys between places, an informative typology of Welsh places and analysis of the interrelationships between places.

Decisions have been made about what to include on the website and what to leave out based on the availability of quality, reliable information and in response to conversations with potential users. The data will, therefore, vary for different places. In particular, there may be less data available for smaller towns and communities with fewer than 2,000 residents than for larger places.

Communities also will be able to add information to the UWP website that will help to build up a picture of their places. The site will include links to a choice of toolkits for creating a place audit or place-based plan. The IWA are also working with town and community councils to source their own short descriptions of every place that will feature on the site, adding a qualitative element alongside the statistics and geographical information presented.

Building the website

The contract for developing the UWP website has been awarded to a consortium led by the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods (WISERD) hosted by Cardiff University. This consortium is working with the Centre for Local Economic Strategies - a Manchester-based think tank that was involved in developing the Understanding Scottish Places website - to deliver the interrelationships analysis for UWP. Consultation with target user groups is continuing as the build progresses: the team from WISERD recently ran a workshop with staff from third sector organisations to inform decisions about the typology of places that will be part of the analysis on the website. Potential users will also be invited to test the site before it goes live.

Launch

The first version of the UWP website will be launched in October 2019. The site will also be piloted over the summer at events aimed at gathering feedback and spreading the word.

UWP is an ongoing project and the website is intentionally a work in progress Updates will be made online in response to feedback from users of the site and the availability of statistical and geographic information about places in Wales. Extra datasets will also be added to the website in 2020.

Keep in touch

UWP would be a very different project if it weren’t for the contributions and support received from a wide range of people working in Welsh communities and in Wales’ third and public sectors. Please keep contact the Institute of Welsh Affairs directly to get involved in their next round of consultation.