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Map and explore the community assets and services in the areas that matter to you

The Services Directory is now available to all Local Insight subscribers, offering detailed information on the social infrastructure and community assets across England, Scotland and Wales.

This feature has launched in beta to all Local Insight users, which means that we are still working on improving it. Further developments will bring both new functionalities and datasets – as well as wider coverage of existing data. 

From GP surgeries and schools, to housing providers and third sector organisations, the Service Directory can be used to:

  • Identify service gaps to inform support and investment.
  • Find local partners and avoid duplication of services.
  • Target grants where services are lacking.

Local Insight users can access the Services Directory right now within Local Insight via the in-app sidebar menu.

You can also find more comprehensive instructions on how to use this new feature within the Help Centre.

How to use the Services Directory

Getting started with the Services Directory is simple. 

  1. Select your Custom Areas
    To get started, you’ll need to select which Custom Areas you want to analyse.
  2. Click on the Services tab
    Choose which Services to display. These Services are divided into categories such as: NHS Sites, Schools, Registered Social Housing, Third Sector and Points of Interest.
  3. Learn more about the Services within your area
    Detailed metadata has been created for each Service within the system. This can be explored by either clicking the icons on the map, or via the table below, where you can find the metadata for all the Services selected in a table format.

     

Explore the data within the Services Directory

Services Directory data comes from a number of different sources – ensuring your teams are all working from one version of the truth.

There are a number of ways to learn more about the data within this feature, and bring it into your own reporting.

  • View Service metadata in the ‘Service details’ tab
    To learn more about the data, click the small blue ‘info’ icon to see more information about the Service.
  • View the underlying Service data
    To see the underlying data and metadata for each Service, you can click the table icon. You can use this feature to sort the Services. For example, within the Schools data, you’ll be able to sort the list of schools by percentage of pupils with Free School Meals.

  • Export the Service data
    Click the Download button to export an .csv file of the Services you’ve selected.  You can export all the selected Services – or just an individual Service category. This data can then be uploaded via the ‘Manage Services’ module and viewed alongside 1,500+ socioeconomic datasets in the ‘Map’ module.

What data is in the Services Directory?

As mentioned, this feature is currently in beta, and so data varies between England, Scotland and Wales.

For England, we currently hold:

  • NHS Site data – Find local Dental Practices, GP Surgeries, Social Care sites, Treatment Centres, Pharmacies and more
  • Points of Interest – Explore various services including Animal Services, Community Centre, Libraries, Places of Worship, Tourism Services and much more
  • Registered Social Housing – In England, see the local large and small providers of social housing in your area
  • Schools data – See the divide of schools from Nurseries to 16 Plus, as well as a full list of ‘all-through’ schools
  • Third Sector – Find out about grant provision in your area, and whether organisations have received funding in the last 12 months

If you have feedback on any of the functionality, or would like to share open, nationwide point location data that you’d like us to include within the Local Insight Services Directory, please email us at support@ocsi.co.uk

Ready to explore?

The Services Directory is available now for all Local Insight users – explore your area and its local assets now.

If you don’t have a subscription, but would like to explore the Services Directory, book a demo today and receive a free two week trial.

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