Beyond Borders: Harnessing Data to Transform Places and Unite People

A reflection from Impera Analytics at the President’s Conference 2025

On June 10th, Impera Analytics took the stage at the 2025 President’s Conference to deliver a powerful presentation:"Beyond Borders: Harnessing Data to Transform Places and Unite People."

Joined by Simon Fletcher from Lichfield District Council and Michael Rigby from Impact on Urban Health, we explored how transformative insights — powered by the Social Progress Index (SPI) — are helping organisations break down silos, engage communities, and create meaningful, data-driven change.

But before diving into dashboards and case studies, we began with a simple but profound question:

What is a border?

We tend to think of borders as lines — on a map, between departments, around ideas.

But some of the most powerful borders aren’t visible at all.They’re intangible: systems that don’t talk to each other, data locked away in silos, communities missing from the picture.

These invisible borders can organise us — or obstruct us.They can help us focus — or confine our vision.

We illustrated this with a quick game of Where’s Wally? — because sometimes, even when something (or someone) is right there, you can’t see it clearly through the noise.

Where’s Wally-style city scene [Illustration]. (n.d.). Retrieved June 30, 2025, from unknown source

The Real Barriers to Change

Through this lens, we identified five core barriers holding back progress:

• The Noise Barrier: Too much data, not enough meaning. Dashboards without direction. Indicators that obscure more than they reveal.

• The Invisibility Barrier: When people or places are missing from the data, they’re left out of decisions.

• The Story Barrier: Data without a narrative leaves no clear path to follow.

• The Access Border: Communities become invisible because they’re locked out by closed systems or missing data.

• The Mental Border: Siloed thinking and internal biases prevent bold, human-centred action.

At Impera, we believe the answer to these barriers lies in visibility — clear, human-focused insights that drive collaboration, action, and change.

From Borders to Breakthroughs: Real Impact on Stage

We then showcased how SPI is helping overcome these barriers in two very different but equally powerful contexts.

🏙️ Lichfield: A Ward-Level SPI to Power Local Decisions

Simon Fletcher shared the journey of Lichfield District Council, which launched one of the UK’s first ward-level Social Progress Indexes, covering all 22 wards with over 50 indicators of wellbeing.

The Lichfield SPI:

• Measures outcomes beyond GDP — including health, housing, education, and environmental quality.

• Provides an interactive dashboard that helps staff, partners, and even residents explore local needs and strengths.

• Informs targeted funding bids, regeneration efforts, and a new “Health in All Policies” approach.

• Enables collaboration between the district and Staffordshire County Council through formal data-sharing.

• Has increased data maturity through training and capacity-building across departments.

“We’ve stopped guessing where the need is. The SPI shows us clearly — and that changes how we act.” – Simon Fletcher

🔗 Learn more: Lichfield SPI Dashboard

🏥 Impact on Urban Health: Neighbourhood-Level Data in Lambeth & Southwark

Michael Rigby introduced the Urban Health Index (UHI), developed with the Social Progress Imperative to measure health and wellbeing in 68 neighbourhoods across Lambeth and Southwark.

The Urban Health Index:

• Tracks over 42 indicators in three SPI dimensions: basic needs, wellbeing, and opportunity.

• Uses community voice: surveys, focus groups, and interviews with over 5,000 residents.

• Highlights systemic issues such as childhood obesity, mental health, housing, and trust in local services.

• Equips policymakers, charities, and health leaders to target interventions where they’re needed most.

• Offers public-facing dashboards to make insights accessible and actionable for all.

“When we combine data with lived experience, we stop working in the dark. We start creating real, lasting health outcomes.” – Michael Rigby

🔗 Explore the Index: Urban Health Index

What Impera Brings

Impera Analytics exists to help people see beyond the obvious. We turn complexity into clarity and data into decisions that matter. At the heart of our work is a belief that lasting change begins when we remove the borders that separate people, departments, and ideas.

Our strength lies not just in the tools we build — but in how we work alongside local authorities, health leaders, and communities to interpret, act, and lead with confidence.

Whether it’s through developing tailored insight platforms, fostering collaboration across systems, or empowering people with meaningful narratives, we make information work for the people it’s meant to serve.

We are not just analysts or strategists.We are translators of impact — helping organisations see what matters, so they can act on what matters.

In every project, in every place, our mission remains the same:To bridge the gap between information and action — and to build a future where data brings people together, not apart.