Tameside MBC: Creating a needs assessment that inspires change

Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council (MBC) is a local authority in Greater Manchester. Like many councils in the UK, its residents face challenges around employment and health that impact their lives in different ways.  

Working closely with the Director of Public Health, we created a needs assessment report, bringing together data from a wide range of sources to understand the links between work, skills, health and wellbeing. And make recommendations for change.

These are currently being acted on to improve people's lives in the borough.

Our role

• Data analysis
• Stakeholder engagement
• Public survey
• Report writing

Why PS Research?

Tameside MBC initially got in touch via a recommendation on the back of an annual Skills Audit we’d done for Manchester Digital. 

This kind referral, combined with our local government experience (Adam was a senior researcher at a local authority and worked in various councils in a previous life) and previous work in public health research, made us a safe pair of hands.

We get how local government systems work, the various stakeholders involved in large projects and the amount of data required for public reports. Because of this, we’re able to get cracking quickly.

It helped make the whole thing a painless process for a Director of Public Health whose job requires them to be everywhere at once.   

By bringing external expertise to something that might have otherwise been done in-house, we’re also able to challenge perspectives (in a nice way), offer new ideas and bring different ways of looking at—and reporting on—data. All while working as an extension of the team (a benefit of hiring a research duo over a massive agency).

The result in this case was a needs assessment report that’s helping to shape Tameside MBC’s approach to local services and opportunities for residents. 

Analysis starts with analysis

For data to make an impact, it has to be relevant. 

With something as broad as work, skills and wellbeing, not all data is going to influence outcomes. We needed to find the quality in the quantity. 

We kicked off the project by chatting to everyone involved in the project—something we always do. No need to re-invent the wheel. 

An online meeting with Tameside MBC helped us understand the council’s expectations and audience and figure out the scope of the work together. 

Next, we arranged an in-person session with the Director of Public Health, Head of Economic Development and Public Health Intelligence Manager to share ideas and dig into what to include in the research (and what to leave out). 

We find meeting face-to-face works better than email for brainstorming, asking questions and clarifying. It helps build good relationships too—important when you’re working as part of a team. 

We left the meeting with clear direction: 

An analysis that always brings work and skills back to the lives, opportunities and long-term outcomes of residents in Tameside. 

And some broad areas of focus for our research, including:

• Deprivation
• Health inequalities
• Jobs and pay 
• Skills and qualifications

Now, we could start analysing and gathering data. 

Finding the big picture

To understand the health needs of residents and find gaps and opportunities, the needs assessment had three main areas of research:

1. Data analysis and desk research
2. Engagement with residents, local organisations and partners
3. A review of projects and interventions in Tameside and other parts of the country

We started with what’s already known, analysing local ‘Fingertips’ health profiles, labour market statistics (Nomis is great for this), indices of deprivation and education attainment for Tameside. 

Supplementing this with statistics from national research helped give local data context on topics such as poverty, how poor health affects employment transitions and women’s progression in the workplace.

We now had trends and challenges to build a report around.

These were the basis for stakeholder interviews—talking to key people in education, charity and health to learn what's happening in Tameside to address issues and what more could be done. 

Finally, we designed and ran a public survey to get feedback on emerging priorities and what residents felt needed to change in the borough. 

Mixing qualitative with quantitative analysis helped us identify priorities and recommendations.

It also gave us a narrative for a story. 

Pulling it all together

Data means little if the report doesn’t help you understand or make use of it. 

Using the client’s branding template, we brought our own style of report writing to put together a needs assessment that’s easy to follow and engaging. 

Here’s how: 

1. Assuming the reader knows nothing

We’d never assume the reader is stupid, but with something as broad as a needs assessment, it’s best to expect it to end up in the hands of readers who have no idea what it is or why the council is doing it. 

By approaching it like we were writing to an uninformed audience, we made sure whoever picks it up knows what we’re talking about. 

We started with a summary to bring a long report together in a few pages. This acts as a TL;DR (too long; didn’t read), introducing the needs assessment and covering key highlights so readers can understand and grasp the context of the data.  

The rest of the report follows the beginner-friendly style: 

• Clear sections and headings 
• Simple language (no jargon)
• Concise sentences (no waffling)
• Acronyms written in full the first time they’re used
• References explained
• Analysis recaps throughout

2. Telling a story

We wanted people who aren’t data analysts (most needs assessment readers) to easily understand the issues and why they matter. We also wanted to make a report that’s interesting. 

We’re too straight-to-the-point to write fancy prose, but we know how to use storytelling to add context, emotion and meaning to data.

By linking different types of research, we created a report that flows naturally and gives people the full picture on how work, skills and health connect. 

For example, here’s how we used local and national data to create a case study that provides real-world context: 

Similar case studies feature throughout the document to make data more relatable and memorable.

3. Using data visualisation to add impact

A big part of good report writing is knowing when to use visuals to get across important information. 

Where we wanted to draw people’s attention to key findings, we used charts, graphs and icons. And used text to add context.     

These help simplify large amounts of data. They also added variety, keeping the report interesting and easy on the eye. Nothing makes a report less appealing than endless blocks of text.

Want to write research reports that have an impact? Here are 50 tips. 

Using data to make a difference

The long process of data analysis, report writing and regular phone calls and meetings to deliver what the client wanted, resulted in a needs assessment that went down well with the Director of Public Health and all key stakeholders. 

So much so, it became the focus of Tameside MBC’s Public Health Annual Report. That meant additional work to re-purpose the needs assessment into an annual report and summary. And another chance to recommend new ways of sharing data. 

For example, we suggested including running commentary from the Director throughout the report — an idea the team hadn’t thought of and liked. 

The ‘Thoughts from James’ sections add extra insight and give existing data a different perspective. 

Just as important as a happy client though, is the needs assessment recommendations being turned into an action plan to create change. That’s what we’re in business to do.

 Read the full Tameside MBC Needs Assessment Report