Over the years Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) has made significant contributions to the fight against poverty, but we know we could achieve even greater impact by enhancing access to and use of new and timely insights on hardship and inequalities in the UK.
We believe that by building a new insight infrastructure, inspired by open-source principles and collaboration, we could help improve how, collectively, we understand poverty, its social, financial, physical and emotional dimensions, and how we can best solve inequalities for good.
The Insight Infrastructure we are developing
JRF is an independent social change organisation, working to support and speed up the transition to a more equitable and just future, free from poverty, where people and planet can flourish.
We are currently developing an insight infrastructure which, powered by quantitative and qualitative data, will act as a satnav providing a series of possible routes to navigate from problem to solution.
Such routes will be paved by insights generated through triangulation of data from different sources – established datasets (admin data); new sources (charity data); experimental data products (place-based insight hubs, banking data, consumer data ); and lived experience of people (experiential insight, social listening).
Data and insights products, which we will generate and disseminate in open collaboration with others, are going to support and sustain a shared movement promoting innovation, better use of evidence, and data-driven decisions to solve social and economic inequality in the UK.
Guiding principles
- To make decisions informed by trusted sources, reliable evidence, and actionable insights.
- To ensure that data and insights are useful and accessible to technical and non-technical audiences.
- To adopt open-source and public good principles, wherever possible, to guide everything we do.
- To always use data and insights in a manner that is proportionate, purposeful, and respectful.
- To make sure innovation and experimentation embrace the possibility of failure, strive to learn from mistakes and widen our collective appetite for risk.
There’s a failure to recognise that not only problems but also solutions can grow exponentially.
There’s no guarantee they will. But they can.
Prof. Jan Boersema
Meet the team
Rosario Piazza
Chief Insight Architect
Emma Wincup
Qualitative Insight Manager
Adél Schofield
Quantitative Insight Manager
Aleks Collingwood
Partnership Insight Manager
Katie Johns
Experiential Insight Researcher
Project name: Ecosystem mapping & External Engagement
Delivery: in partnership with Connected by Data
Status: complete
What: To gain a better understanding and to map the ecosystem of intended users and beneficiaries of the insight infrastructure; what their needs and demands are in relation to new and timely insight; and to identify effective communication strategies with those audiences.
Why: So that we create tools which there is demand for and so build a meaningful shared movement.
How: Desk research, survey, one-to-one interviews and a series of workshops.
Project name: Social Media Listening
Delivery: in partnership with Demos
Status: complete
What: Generation and dissemination of insights drawn from the contribution on social media platforms of those experiencing social and economic inequality, poverty and related issues.
Why: Embed lived experience into research, programming, policy debate and recommendations.
How: Machine learning and qualitative analysis of data gathered from online social media channels.
Project name: Developing tools and models to share insights on poverty
Delivery: in partnership with Social Finance
Status: complete
What: Test models and approaches to insight generation and dissemination that are accessible to both technical and non-technical audiences; and to create a series of prototypes for user-testing, by harnessing and integrating a range of data sources.
Why: To learn from target users and collaborators what it will take for the infrastructure to effectively disseminate quantitative and qualitative insight into poverty and how to do so while providing a clear set of evidence and recommendations that can be tuned into real action.
How: A four stage process of discovery; ideation; prototyping; and recommendations.
Project name: Grounded Voices
Delivery: in-house
Status: ongoing
What: Generation and dissemination of insights on social and economic inequality, poverty and related issues, drawn from the contribution of people with direct experience.
Why: Ensure the research, policy and campaigning work of JRF, the sector and beyond is informed by what matters to people struggling to afford what they need.
How: An innovative qualitative research programme working directly with participants across the UK throughout the year on a series on online activities.
Project name: The Role of Charity Data
Delivery: in partnership with Data For Action
Status: live
What: Create, test and implement models which allow for better designing and targeting of interventions by social sector organisations, whilst increasing research and analysis of social sector data.
Why: Explore the role data collected by charities can play in informing decision-making and service delivery, beyond monitoring and reporting functions
How: Engage with key stakeholders to understand what it will take to create shared standards, tools and practices that will enable to streamline the sharing and consumption of charity data.
Project name: The Untapped Potential of Benefits Data
Delivery: in partnership with Policy in Practice
Status: live
What: Prototype a series of new insights informed by data on Universal Credit and other benefits in triangulation with other administrative datasets.
Why: Explore the untapped potential of underused admin data and increase its accessibility.
How: Create an interactive dashboard providing insights on people entitled to and in receipt of Universal Credit and other benefits in five London boroughs using admin data in combination with data generated by local authorities, and the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP).
Project name: Making sense of data gaps
Delivery: in partnership with Insightano
Status: live
What: To generate an comprehensive checklist of major statistical releases assessing gaps and limitations.
Why: Create a strong and compelling case to lobby government departments to collect and release better and more inclusive data.
How: Generate a comprehensive list of socio-demographic data gaps affecting major statistical releases used to monitor poverty in its multidimensional aspects; from financial, to social and emotional.
Project name: Northern England Insight Finder
Delivery: in partnership with Open Innovations
Status: complete
What: Interactive portal triangulating a large variety of open-source data that users can navigate by geography, from regional to local level, and by themes (or ‘spotlights’).
Why: Create a series of ‘spotlights’ on issues relating to economic insecurity, health and housing.
How: Prototype an interactive tool and a series of analytical techniques on a defined geographical area of the Northern regions of England.
Project name: Unlocking Banking Data for Social Good
Delivery: in partnership with Smart Data Foundry
Status: live
What: Deploy an interactive dashboard powered by banking data exploring income volatility and economic security in the UK; plus, award a series of free licenses for researchers to access the data through a secure haven
Why: Fill the gap in evidence on within-year earnings and income volatility.
How: Prototype analysis of and access to new data sources.
Project name: Minimum Income Standard (MIS)
Delivery: in collaboration with Loughborough University
Status: ongoing
What: Calculate the income that people need to reach a minimum socially acceptable standard of living in the UK today, based on what members of the public think.
Why: A minimum standard of living is more than just food, clothes and shelter. It is about having what’s needed to have the opportunities and choices necessary to participate in society. MIS research enables to track changes in what people think is necessary to live at that level, and what income is required to provide it.
How: Members of the public have detailed negotiations, in groups, about the things a household needs to achieve an acceptable living standard. Detailed budgets are priced at various stores and suppliers, and budgets for different household types are produced.
Project name: Grassroots Poverty Action Group (GPAG)
Delivery: in-house
Status: ongoing
What: Sounding board made of people with direct experience of poverty and related issues
Why: Ensure we test approaches and deploy programmes that are truly representative and respectful of those with direct experience of the issues we care about
How: Regular engagement of the group with internal and external stakeholders
More coming soon...