#13 Systems analysis: identifying the gaps

What is it?
Systems analysis is the term used to describe a range of methods that explore the need for services and the experiences of the people who use them. Local authorities can then use this information to improve services so they better suit people’s needs.

How could I use it?
1.    User Journey Mapping tracks a typical customer’s journey through a service. It captures common behaviours and contact between the customer and the service provider. The findings can then be analysed and the local authority can make improvements where it sees bottlenecks or tensions.

2.    Needs Mapping is the term for a collection of techniques that estimate the existence, nature and distribution of actual and potential needs among the population. It is a helpful method for local authorities that want to target services for those most in need. Needs mapping uses both quantitative and qualitative methods, such as talking to experts, analysing statistics, carrying out surveys and conducting interviews with service providers, users, and residents. By building a detailed picture of existing and emerging needs within a population local authorities are better able to target the services they provide and tailor them to the needs to their residents.

3.    Identifying Difference through market research, consumer categories and psycho-social demographics allows needs to be identified at a very specific level. In future this information can be used to more effectively target resources. It is an equally important tool in terms of prevention.

4.    Assessing Concurrent Activities by carrying out a survey of activities that are already happening in any particular field (concurrent activities) local authorities can make sure they do not duplicate effort or ideas when they start to look for innovative solutions. This exercise should take place at the beginning of a project in order to maximise the project's focus and scope. This can also be a means of establishing a network to share information.

Where has it been used?
•    Needs Mapping in North Wandsworth - in the London Borough of Wandsworth the public health, strategy and service improvement units came together to capture the health service needs of North Wandsworth. Epidemiological, corporate and comparative approaches were incorporated in order to assertain service gaps and areas where the service could be improved.

•    Planning for Real in Yanfield, Stafford - Together Stafford Borough Council, the Community Council of Staffordshire, Staffordshire Police and the Youth Service held a meeting with residents where they could discuss concerns and together develop an action plan for the village.
•    A large-scale 3D map of the area was constructed and members of the community were invited to place stickers on areas where they thought there were problems.
•    They then made suggestions about what they would like to see happen in those areas, for example, more facilities for young people, an arts and crafts club, and parks for 6-12 year olds. Together residents prioritise ideas on what they would like to see happen.

•    Identifying difference – 'Social Exclusion and Imprisonment in Scotland'
•    In 2003, researchers at Caledonian University, Glasgow, conducted a study to explore the link between social deprivation and imprisonment in Scotland. They analysed a range of information about the prison population.
•    Postcodes of prisoners were used to  correlate prison population to other demographic information. Researchers found that 50 per cent of prisoners came from the poorest 12 per cent of council wards across Scotland, and the imprisonment rate for men aged between 21 and 25 is 924 per 100,00 (compared to the national average of 237 per 100,000) with the imprisonment rate for 23-year-old men from the 27 most deprived wards 3,427 per 100,000.

More information
•    Mapping emerging and unmet needs