Evidencing rural need rural-evidence.uk

Evidencing rural need

www.rural-evidence.org.uk

ACRE Regional Coordinators Network27th April 2010

Tom Smith, OCSI

To cover

1. Background - why?

2. The reports

3. The website

4. Next steps

Background – why?

The challenge

• “ Government policies need to become better at reflecting the scattered and hidden nature of rural disadvantage.

Policies and funding mechanisms should be rurally proofed to make sure they are capable of targeting people in need, rather than places ”

Report of the Rural Advocate (March 2008)

Project aims

• Strengthen the evidence base on rural deprivation for local partners across England

• Provide rural partners with the summary information to effectively represent rural issues in local and regional programme strategy, planning and prioritisation

• Provide local communities with quantitative evidence to support community and parish planning

• Develop a website interface to allow local partners to quickly find the information for their area

Building on previous work

• Norfolk Rural Community Council

• Suffolk County Council

• South-East Rural Community Councils

• Commission for Rural Communities

• South-West Acre Network

• Herefordshire and Worcestershire RCC

The reports

Reports developed for the project

1. Rural share of deprivation

2. Most deprived rural areas

3. Rural place profiles

4. Who’s there: Workplace and daytime profiles

• Provided for LAs and rural places across England

• More than 10,000 reports … Word and PDF format

Reports developed for the project

Some background

• What is ‘rural’? Countryside Agency/ ONS definition– Based on ‘Settlement size’ and ‘Sparsity ‘– Urban; Rural (Town & fringe, Villages, Hamlets &

Isolated)

• Not looked at whether ‘rural’ deprivation is different from ‘urban’ deprivation – we are using datasets that apply in both rural and urban areas

• Should not be seen as downplaying urban deprivation levels, but providing additional rural evidence

Reports developed for the project (1)

1. Rural share of deprivation– Strategic influencing tool – highlight the volume of

rural deprivation locally– Developed for: LAs (district, unitary, county), regions

and England, Parliamentary Constituencies

2. Most deprived rural areas

3. Rural place profiles

4. Who’s there: Workplace and daytime profiles

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

IMD at Super Output Area level (1,500 people)

IMD at Output Area level (300 people)

DWP Working Age Client Group (individual level)

Dep

riva

tion

in S

outh

Wes

t, in

rur

al a

reas

Of the 300 most deprived LSOAs, 11 (4%) are rural

Of the 1,697 most deprived OAs, 128

(7.5%) are rural

Of the 363,000 DWP claimants of working-age, 90,000 (25%)

live in rural areas

• Rural areas are less likely to be deprived than urban areas

• But … levels of social exclusion in rural areas under-estimate level of exclusion for people

(this is in the South West)

People and places – deprivation levels

• At SOA level, few of the deprived areas are rural (4%)

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

IMD at Super Output Area level (1,500 people)

IMD at Output Area level (300 people)

DWP Working Age Client Group (individual level)

Dep

riva

tion

in S

outh

Wes

t, in

rur

al a

reas

Of the 300 most deprived LSOAs, 11 (4%) are rural

Of the 1,697 most deprived OAs, 128

(7.5%) are rural

Of the 363,000 DWP claimants of working-age, 90,000 (25%)

live in rural areas

Finer grain detail

People and places – deprivation levels• At more detailed OA level, more of the deprived

areas are rural (7.5%)

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

IMD at Super Output Area level (1,500 people)

IMD at Output Area level (300 people)

DWP Working Age Client Group (individual level)

Dep

riva

tion

in S

outh

Wes

t, in

rur

al a

reas

Of the 300 most deprived LSOAs, 11 (4%) are rural

Of the 1,697 most deprived OAs, 128

(7.5%) are rural

Of the 363,000 DWP claimants of working-age, 90,000 (25%)

live in rural areas

Finer grain detail

People and places – deprivation levels• At individual level, 25% of all people of working-age

receiving DWP benefits in the South-West live in rural areas

Rural areas are (usually) substantially more deprived

based on the location of deprived people than based on the location of deprived areas

Key message 1

Reports developed for the project (2)

1. Rural share of deprivation

2. Most deprived rural areas– Strategic influencing and operational tool – highlighting

the level, location and characteristics of deprived rural areas

– Based on government IMD measure, and the finer-grained estimates developed by OCSI (with Norfolk RCC)

– Developed for: LAs (district, unitary, county), regions and England, Parliamentary Constituencies

3. Rural place profiles

4. Who’s there: Workplace and daytime profiles

Norfolk – hotspots at SOA level

Norfolk – hotspots at smaller OA level

Cumbria – SOA

Cumbria – OA

% of rural areas in Cumbria among the most deprived 30% in England

0.0% 5.0% 10.0% 15.0% 20.0%

Super

Output

Area

Output

Area

% of areas in the most deprived 30% in England

The most deprived LSOAs are (usually) overwhelmingly

urban

But … analysis at Output Area level uncovers many pockets of deprivation in rural areas

Key message 2

Deprived rural areas look much like deprived urban areas on key indicators– High levels of unemployment– High levels of lone parents– Relatively high levels of children– Very high levels of social housing– High levels of limiting long-term

illness– Very high levels of adults with no

qualifications

Key message 3

Reports developed for the project (3)

1. Rural share of deprivation

2. Most deprived rural areas

3. Rural place profiles– Support for community and parish planning –

quantitative evidence for smaller rural communities– Developed for: “settlements” (definition from Office

for National Statistics), parishes coming soon

4. Who’s there: Workplace and daytime profiles

Rural place profiles

Reports developed for the project (4)

1. Rural share of deprivation

2. Most deprived rural areas

3. Rural place profiles

4. Who’s there: Workplace and daytime profiles– Data report for targeting services to groups who are

actually present in the day (rather than the usual emphasis on residential populations, many of whom are out-commuters)

– Developed for: LAs (district, unitary, county)

Who’s there: Workplace and daytime

Recap - reports developed for the project

1. Rural share of deprivation

2. Most deprived rural areas

3. Rural place profiles

4. Who’s there: Workplace and daytime profiles

• Provided for LAs and rural places across England

• More than 10,000 reports … Word and PDF format

The website

What does the website need to do?

• Interface to allow local partners to quickly find the information for their area

• Ability to search for reports by area name, location, RCC

• Search and locate reports using Google maps

• Easy-to-use interface, using familiar functionality

• Robust for multiple users – large downloads, backed-up data, 24/7 support

Recap – the website

• Interface to allow local partners to quickly find the information for their area

• Ability to search for reports by area name, location, RCC

• Search and locate reports using Google maps

• Easy-to-use interface, using familiar functionality

• Robust for multiple users – large downloads, backed-up data, 24/7 support

Next steps

Next steps – some thoughts

• Project completion– Parish profiles– Comments and amends to the reports

• How do we use the data to strengthen rural working?– Case studies– Supporting resources, including presentations

• Phase 2– Additional reports, eg Economic trends in rural areas– Summary analysis

• Use the reports and analysis!

Thank you

www.rural-evidence.org.uk

Tom Smith Oxford Consultants for Social Inclusion (OCSI)e: Tom.Smith@ocsi.co.ukt: 01273 201 345w: www.ocsi.co.uk