How CACI supported Coventry City Council address under-represented populations

The challenge

In December 2020 in England, Local Authorities took on responsibility for COVID-19 mass testing using lateral flow tests (LFT). As test data became available, Coventry City Council was keen to ensure that the profile of those taking up the test reflected the overall profile of the population.

The solution

Analyst Dr Harriet Rowthorn and her team saw that they could use CACI’s Acorn profiling data to help them understand who within the target audience was not taking up the opportunity for LFT testing.

Harriet says:

We receive Lateral Flow Test data at case level, so we have a postcode for each person who has taken a test. We analyse the data week-by-week to reveal the locations and characteristics of people that are not coming forward as much as we expect.

They used the Acorn Knowledge Sheets to find out more about their typical behaviours and preferences and reviewed their communications channels and test centre locations to see how they can better address under-represented populations.

The benefits

Data and insight has become even more valuable to Local Authorities during and beyond the pandemic. Open datasets previously used only tell a historic story: the value of Acorn data is to show a real-time picture of local community profiles and behaviours, enabling local authorities to take action with confidence based on up-to-date information and to model for the future. LFT is one of a number of Coventry Council’s community programmes that have been enhanced with insight provided by the Public Health Intelligence team drawn from Acorn data.

The data helps the Council understand relevant marketing channels, social media habits, and internet usage – digital exclusion might mean a leafleting campaign is a better way to communicate in some locations. Coventry Council can focus resources in specific areas with communications and engagement activity that are really relevant.

The LFT programme is a really key initiative. With our Acorn reporting, we can help the Council to achieve its aim of getting everyone in the city tested at least once a week, so we can control and monitor the spread of Covid-19 by identifying asymptomatic cases. Everyone we introduce it to finds the Acorn data profiling useful and insightful – it helps us understand Coventry citizens’ characteristics and needs more deeply, so we can focus our resources to meet them even better.

Dr Harriet Rowthorn,
Analyst, Coventry City Council

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