The time has come to move on. I’ve been with Data Cymru for 16 years and during that time some things have stayed the same and many things have changed. This is a reflection on all that’s happened and the joys I’ve experienced working for this unique organisation.

Place based evidence is essential, both to plan and deliver services and to understand how places are changing over time. This is being brought into stronger focus in recent work to better understand well-being at a community level. However, painting a picture of a place and being able to distinguish its characteristics from those of other places brings its challenges. Firstly, how best to define our places in a consistent way, while providing information on a geographical basis which service providers (and citizens) will recognise as towns, communities, etc. Secondly, the challenge of limited robust quantitative data being available at a sub-local authority level.