l bid, to which we fitted our detail work. The original high-level plan changed very little after the project started; with minor exceptions to be discussed below, we met our initial target dates throughout the project’s year. We identified and secured key project management resources and sector expertise within partner councils, and commenced successful recruitment of two technical posts to be managed by D2I, with the core team in place by 1st May 2023 and a robust project governance framework in place with 8 support from Essex County Council. During the recruitment phase we also produced our initial plans and outline documents. We leveraged existing resources within D2I to commence our user research during our technical recruitment period in the final quarter of 2022-23, ensuring that our new technical team would have access to relevant sector insight as soon as they started work. Our initial user research findings were delivered to DfE colleagues in May 2023, which helped us to establish good open working arrangements early in the project. 5.2. Research Initial research for the project took two key forms: • User research with LA experts and other sector stakeholders. • Desktop research and analysis of existing data structures and standard reporting arrangements in the sector. We split our user research between in-depth one-to-one interviews, to capture specific views, and broader open workshops to foster group discussion and interaction. We also delivered a survey to gather more specific feedback on individual areas of data practice. While the respondent map (pictured) shows strong representation from LAs within the North West and London partnerships, we also see representation from almost every region nationally. This breadth of experience and expertise – not only i