What's New from the Core Unit and from across the Network

Here you will find the latest news on events and publications from the Core Unit and the Observatory Network. Follow the links below for 'What's New' in the Modules and 'What's New' in the LINs.

For information on items making the headlines and those of interest to parts of the South West Observatory, have a look at the News section of this site (the headlines for which are displayed in the right-hand column of this page).  

LAST UPDATED - Friday 30 July 2010

SWO EVENTS PROGRAMME LAUNCHED - The Observatory network's 2010/11 events programme is now underway, with online booking for the four remaining events looking at Population Projections, Place Making, Economics Demystified and Public Health Information and Evidence now open. For more information about these events and to book please see the SWO Events 2010/11 webpage.

NEW LOCAL PROFILES SECTION NOW ONLINE - SWO has recently compiled an online database offering an overview of Local Profiles completed in the South West. This includes links through to Local Profiles completed by those in our network and also from national bodies, such as NOMIS and ONS. For more, see the SWO Local Profiles.

SPATIAL ECONOMIC ANALYSIS TOOL SOUTH WEST LAUNCHED - Tied in with work on Local Economic Assessments, a Spatial Economic Analysis Tool for the South West and its parts was launched on Friday 18th June at GOSW. The resource, which comes as a DVD, was jointly commissioned by SWO with wide buy-in from upper-tier Local Authorities in the South West, South West Councils and the South West RDA to help them better understand Functional Economic Market Areas. For more information and latest updates, please see the SEAT-SW section of the website.

LOCAL ECONOMIC ASSESSMENT GOOD PRACTICE VIDEO - On Wednesday 30th June in Bristol, SWO hosted a national event to showcase and examine some of the emerging good practice from Local Authorities in the South West developing their Local Economic Assessments. To access interactive slides from the event plus a recently-uploaded 15 minutes film of the speakers, please see the LEA Good Practice event page.

INFORMATION ON LOCAL ENTERPRISE PARTNERSHIPS - In response to a number of informal requests from Local Authorities about LEPs, SWO has collated a web page which aims to assist colleagues by providing useful information. Please see the Local Enterprise Partnership web page for all this and more.  

ECONOMY - Survey Results from the South West Purchasing Managers' Index - June 2010 is now available, alongside a special paper on Business Start-Ups in the South West. In addition, see South West Growth Scenarios (2010-2030) for some of the latest research from the Economy Module.

ENVIRONMENT - Access the South West Earth Chattering web page on the Environment Module website for the latest pilot project from the Module and see what environmental activities are happening around the region.

PLANNING - With changes to structure and funding the Planning Module will no longer be maintained by authors from South West Councils. Watch this space for more information on how SWO will take this Thematic Module forward in the Autumn.  

SKILLS AND LEARNING - Access the South West Skills Newsletter from July 2010 for the latest on activities from SLIM.

PUBLIC HEALTH - Via the SWPHO website you can now access the 2010 Health Profiles to find out how healthy your community is. Also see Cancer Mortality Profiles for new information on a new interactive tool developed to support monitoring, commissioning and planning of local cancer services.

CULTURE - Access the latest Finding the Dots (June 2010) for all the latest cultural sector research, commentaries and consultations.

GLOUCESTERSHIRE - For information on the summer workshops provided by the inform Gloucestershire, see the MAIDEN (the multi-agency database for neighbourhoods in Gloucestershire) website.

WEST OF ENGLAND - You can access the latest stats, research and publications from the West of England partnership - covering Bristol, BANES, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire - by clicking here.

WILTSHIRE * NEW WEBSITE - Access and explore the new, revamped Intelligence Network website (which uses the SWO Web CMS) from the Wiltshire Local Intelligence team with a host of different sections on themes and localities.

SOMERSET - In addition to a number of new additions on www.sine.org.uk see the latest on Crime and Community Safety. 

BOURNEMOUTH, DORSET and POOLE - New ward profiles have been produced by Weymouth and Portland Borough in conjunction with Dorset County Council. To access these, please click here. 

DEVON - From inDevon's latest news, see this month's Social Care Transformation: Elected Member Briefing.

TORBAY -  Torbay Consultation and Research Team is the latest addition to the Observatory network. Over coming months more information will be made available detailing work and activity in the area. In the meantime, please click here for more information about current projects.

PLYMOUTH - Customers have told Plymouth 2020 that they want services that are easy to access and respond to their needs. To help deliver better services in this way, Plymouth has been divided into six areas called 'Localities', each containing a number of our existing 43 Neighbourhoods. See Locality Working for more on this.

CORNWALL - Understanding Cornwall presents the key messages for Cornwall in one place for the first time. For more on this, see Understanding Cornwall 2009-10.

ONS UPDATE - For the latest from ONS, see the current ONS South West July 2010 Newsletter.

ASSOCIATION OF REGIONAL OBSERVATORIES - For the latest from ARO, see the Briefings and Reports section which includes the June 2010 ARO response to a NOMIS query.