SINePost newsletter - August 2017

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In this issue ...

1. Somerset: Our County - Joint Strategic Needs Assessment 2017
2. Overview of the UK's Ageing Population
3. Local Health Profile 2017
4. Volunteering statistics
5. Births and Deaths statistics
6. Working and Workless Households statistics
7. Economic Factsheet: Employment and Economic Activity
8. Service Families Attitude survey
9. What's New on the Somerset Intelligence website?
10. Forthcoming Statistical Releases

1. Somerset: Our County - Joint Strategic Needs Assessment 2017

The latest annual Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) summary, produced by the Somerset Health and Wellbeing Board, is now available at: www.somersetintelligence.org.uk/jsna.

The summary gives an overview of the strategic health, wellbeing and social needs of Somerset people, and this year has a particular focus on ageing well. It is accompanied by a report recording the experiences and views of local people on what helps them age well and what doesn’t.

The summary report comprises three main headed sections, each identified as key to ageing well:

• Remaining Healthy – including analysis of multi-morbidity, causes of death, lifestyles and prevention.
• Remaining Independent – looking at care, housing and transport.
• Remaining Active and Included in Community Life – assessing the impact of social contact and loneliness, work and volunteering.

Data and intelligence to support the JSNA is maintained within the themed sections of the Somerset Intelligence website: www.somersetintelligence.org.uk

2. Overview of the UK’s Ageing Population

West Somerset is projected to have the highest ratio of older people to ‘working age’ people of any local authority in the UK according to analysis by the Office for National Statistics. The Old Age Dependency Ratio (OADR) is defined as the number of people over 65 years old for every 1,000 people aged between 16 and 64 years old.

By 2036 there are projected to be 928 people aged 65 or over in West Somerset for every 1,000 people aged 16 to 64. The OADR for Somerset’s other district areas are more modest, ranging from 567 per 1,000 for Sedgemoor to 650 per 1,000 for South Somerset. Nevertheless, all Somerset districts are projected to have OADRs above the UK average.

The OADR can be a useful measure to understand how the balance in the population will change, particularly when planning for the needs of the different age groups.

See: www.ons.gov.uk/releases/overviewoftheukpopulationjuly2017

3. Local Health Profile 2017

Health in Somerset is better than, or not significantly different from, the England average in respect of most indicators in the latest annual profile from Public Health England (based largely on 2015/16 data)

Indicators for which the county fares particularly well include: smoking prevalence; under 18 conceptions; child obesity; breastfeeding initiation; and life expectancy. (Nevertheless, life expectancy is 6.3 years lower for men and 4.3 years lower for women in the most deprived areas of Somerset than in the least deprived areas.)

Indicators for which Somerset appears significantly worse than the England average include: smoking in pregnancy; hospital stays for self-harm; under 18s alcohol-specific hospital admissions; and excess weight in adults.

Profiles are available at county and local authority district level, at: www.gov.uk/government/statistics/2017-health-profiles

4. Volunteering statistics

The proportion of adults in the South West who say they take part in formal volunteering at least once a month increased from 24% in 2015/16 to 29% in 2016/17, according to the latest annual Community Life Survey from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

When looking at all volunteering (formal and informal), 70% of adults in the South West engaged at least once a year in 2016/17 (up from 68% in the preceding year). This was the highest proportion of any region.

People in the South West were also the most generous in terms of charitable giving, with 79% of adults saying they had given to charity in the previous four weeks. Nationally, the proportion was 75%, with the average amount given being £22.

For further details, see: www.gov.uk/government/statistics/community-life-survey-2016-17

5. Births and Deaths statistics

Despite increasing for the previous two years the number of live births in Somerset decreased in 2016, according to data from the Office for National Statistics. There were 5,470 live births in 2016 (compared to 5,624 in 2015, a decline of 154).

In 2016 Somerset had a General Fertility Rate (GFR) of 63.0 live births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44, which was greater the than South West and England averages (59.5 and 62.5 respectively). At a district level the General Fertility Rate remained highest in Sedgemoor (66.8) and lowest in West Somerset (55.2). See: www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/livebirths

As in 2015, there were more deaths than births recorded in Somerset in 2016, with 6,044 recorded deaths in the county; a difference of 574, which was greater than that in 2015. See:

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths

6. Working and Workless Households statistics

There are estimated to be 27,000 ‘workless’ households in Somerset in latest annual (2016) figures published by the Office for National Statistics. This represents 16.1% of all households. A workless household is defined as one containing at least one person aged 16 to 64 and where no-one aged 16 or over is in employment. 

Based on the 5-year period 2012-16 (to help remove some of the sampling variability seen in these estimates), Somerset ranks 149^th of 201 county and unitary authorities in Great Britain in terms of proportions of workless households. Somerset ranks 9^th out of 15 authorities in the South West of England.

An estimated 12,000 children (aged under 16) in Somerset live in workless households, representing 11% of the child population. 24,000 children live in ‘mixed’ households (where at least one person works and one person is unemployed or inactive) and 68,000 children live in ‘working’ households (where all individuals are in employment).

For the full dataset, see: www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peoplenotinwork/unemployment/bulletins

7. Economic Factsheet: Employment and Economic Activity

The latest quarterly factsheet focussing on employment and economic activity in Somerset is now available: www.somersetintelligence.org.uk/files/Economic%20Factsheet_Employment%20July%202017.pdf

Headlines include:

• 79.3% of Somerset’s residents aged 16-64 are economically active, compared to 77.8% nationally. Both Mendip and Taunton Deane saw a slight increase in economic activity over the last year, while Somerset’s other districts saw a fall.
• Somerset’s employment rate remains higher than the national level (76.3% compared to 74.0%).
• Taunton Deane and West Somerset have the highest employment rates of all the districts (79.4% and 79.2% respectively). West Somerset saw the greatest decline over the last year (down 7.1%).

8. Service Families Attitude Survey

Latest annual results of the national Tri-service Families Continuous Attitude Survey have been released by the Ministry of Defence. The survey monitors the views of spouses and civil partners of armed forces personnel in areas such as childcare, employment, family life, housing and the Armed Forces Covenant

Findings for the latest survey include:

• Awareness of the Armed Forces Covenant continues to improve amongst Service families: 66% had heard of the Covenant in 2017, compared to 59% in 2015.
• Half of Service families feel disadvantaged about family life in comparison to the general public; just one in ten feel advantaged
• Half (51%) of all families have at least one child of school age.
• 74% of spouses are in employment, with 11% also serving in the Regular Armed Forces.

See: www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tri-service-families-continuous-attitude-survey-2017

9. What’s New on the Somerset Intelligence website?

The following content has been updated in the last month:

• Joint Strategic Needs Assessment: somersetintelligence.org.uk/jsna
• Population Estimates and Projections: somersetintelligence.org.uk/population-estimates-and-projections/
• Armed Forces Veterans and Dependents: somersetintelligence.org.uk/veterans-and-dependants.html
• Serving Personnel and Dependents: somersetintelligence.org.uk/armed-forces-serving.html 

10. Forthcoming Statistical Releases

The following are due for release at sub-regional geographies during August:

• UK migration indicators by local area: 2016 (ONS)
• Population of the UK by country of birth and nationality: 2016 (ONS)
• Parents' country of birth, England and Wales: 2016 (ONS)
• Benefit cap: number of households capped to May 2017 (DWP)
• Schools, pupils and their characteristics: January 2017 (DfE)
• National curriculum assessments at key stage 2: 2016 to 2017 (DfE)

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