The Audit is produced as a clearly written report that can be understood by a diverse audience of stakeholders and parties. The results are presented in the form of charts, maps and league tables, together with interpretation and commentary. We conclude with a summary ‘report card’ showing how the area performs on the indicators as a whole.
The Audit report draws on 130 national indicators, including Audit Commission PIs and a range of unique Local Futures indicators, with the findings presented in three main sections:
- Economic development: economic performance; industrial structure; businesses and enterprise; education & skills; labour market
- Social profile: demographics (age; ethnicity; occupations; household formation; migration and change) prosperity & wealth; deprivation & inequality; health; crime
- Environment and amenities: land and property; housing; transport & communications; services & amenities; natural environment
In the concluding section of the Audit report we present a summary of our research findings and identify key issues and implications for strategy.
The standard Audit report be adapted to meet specific client needs, for example providing further detail and analysis on key policy themes. The report can also be accompanied by a more detailed analysis of conditions at a ward and neighbourhood-level.
Our Area Profiles provide an in-depth analysis of conditions within an area, at a more detailed ward and neighbourhood level - economic, social and environmental. They provide a wide range of data analysis, accompanied by a short summary of findings and 'report card'.
The Ward-level reports draw on over 100 national indicators, including Audit Commission PIs and a range of unique Local Futures indicators, with the the analysis presented in three main sections:
- Economic development: industrial structure; businesses and enterprise; education & skills; labour market
- Social profile: demographics (age; ethnicity; occupations; household formation; migration and change) prosperity & wealth; deprivation & inequality; health
- Environment and amenities: land and property; housing; transport & communications; local services
Local Futures has also developed a unique methodology for profiling individual wards, set within a national context. Our Ward Profiles benchmark the performance of an area on over 15 different policy themes and can also be made available for groups of wards.
Ward Profiles benchmark the performance of local authority wards nationally, regionally and locally (within the district) on a range of economic, social and environmental conditions. Each of the 15 thematic profiles analyse performance on up to 10 key indicators. The findings are presented in the form of tables (with ranked scores), spider charts and bar graphs. The findings are summarised in a Report Card containing A-E scores for each aspect of performance, accompanied by supporting commentary.