Our man on the CASE
by Lee Smith, CASE programme manager
DCMS has recently appointed Lee Smith as its strategic and policy research lead and the CASE programme manager. Lee is a social researcher with over 14 years’ experience of leading programmes and delivering policy-focused research projects to inform government understanding of public attitudes and behaviours.
First thoughts from Lee..
As the new CASE programme manager I'm excited to help support our sectors’ understanding and use of evidence to enhance their work. The potential for CASE to facilitate better evidence use to inform both national and local level policies is significant and I look forward to getting CASE recognised more widely and used more effectively.
I have already been impressed by the level of knowledge captured within the CASE website. CASE demonstrates the wealth of evidence that currently exists on the economic and social impact of sports participation and cultural engagement. We want CASE to become a key resource for policy makers, academics and those involved in communicating what drives participation and the sectors’ potential contribution to the economy and individuals’ well-being.
A key challenge for us over the coming year is to tell more people about the value of CASE and how they can make use of this wealth of information. We are already reaching out via this newsletter and the
stakeholder blogs and more exciting work is planned to bring the data alive using graphics. The scale of evidence the CASE programme covers can be daunting so we’re working on how to make it easier to navigate through the different tools and reports available.
Watch this space for new developments and if colleagues would find this eNewsletter useful they can subscribe via
this link.
Events – sign up to the CASE Webinar
Topic: Making the CASE for culture and sport – how to use the local profile tools
Date: Tuesday 8 May, 12.00pm – 12.50pm
This webinar is aimed at local authority colleagues with an interest in using evidence to support local sport and cultural policy making.
Presented by James Doeser (Arts Council England) and Alan Dovaston (Sport England) the webinar will provide:
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An introduction to CASE
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An overview of the Sport England Local Sport Profile Tool
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An overview of the Culture and Heritage Profile Tool
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Practical ways to use the CASE tools to support advocacy and policy development
The webinar is free but places are limited. To book your place please email case@culture.gsi.gov.uk now.
Webinars are easy to use – you simply need a computer with telephone access. We will provide full registration details when you book your place.
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CASE blog round up
Thanks to all the guest bloggers posting articles about their experiences of CASE. These include –
Making the case for CASE. James Doeser, Senior Officer, Research and Knowledge at Arts Council England kicked off the new series of blogs about CASE.
Better decision making with CASE. Dr Javier Stanziola, Lecturer in Management and Cultural Industries at the University of Leeds, looks at the value of the CASE programme as evidence in policy making.
The data trail. John Davies, English Heritage's economist, shows how we can use data to find new ways to understand the impact of cultural and sporting investments.
Location, location, location? Orian Brook, a PhD student at the University of St Andrews, shows how CASE was used in her research exploring whether the distance people live from arts venues influences their attendance.
We are always looking for CASE bloggers. If you have used CASE and would like to write a blog post please email case@culture.gsi.gov.uk
Data visualisation
One way of making CASE data more accessible is by using data visualisation techniques. Dr Tony Hirst, a lecturer in Telematics at the Open University, is advising on data visualisation, as part of the current communications project to raise awareness of CASE. Tony has posted some of his thoughts on using data visualisation for CASE in his blog
OUseful.info You can post comments there or follow him on Twitter @psychemedia – please use
#CASEprog.
CASE updates
Winchester workshop report – Last month we ran a workshop at the Winchester Discovery Centre on how to use CASE for local cultural policy making. Jon Horne from Sport England demonstrated the Sports local profile toolkit Community Sport: In it for the Long Run. This is a new online resource which is usefully GIS-enabled. It gives an instant snapshot of an area, presenting information in an approachable visual way.
The event was hosted by the South East Cultural Improvement Forum, presentations from the day can be found on the SECIF website.
CASE database - The updated database goes live on 11th June. All relevant articles published between February 2011 and February 2012 will now be included.
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