SINePost newsletter - March 2019

1. Updated Electoral Ward and District Profiles

Updated community profiles are now available on the Somerset Intelligence website in preparation for the local elections in May 2019. This update includes the new wards for the new Somerset West and Taunton district and updated wards for South Somerset that will take effect from the election.

The profiles include statistics on population, ethnicity, deprivation, school attainment, employment, crime and household composition. Information is presented through a series of interactive charts and tables and includes district and county comparisons where applicable.

See: www.somersetintelligence.org.uk/community-profiles.html

2. Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) Area Profiles

Profiles of Somerset’s ten JSNA ‘Joint-Planning Areas’ are now available. The profiles were developed in response to a request from the Health and Wellbeing Board for JSNA information to be made available at a sub-county level; this being the basis on which many services are provided. They are intended to show the character and context of planning in each area.

The JSNA Joint-Planning Areas are all contained within district council boundaries. South Somerset is apportioned into three areas, while Mendip, Sedgemoor and Taunton Deane are covered by two areas each. The West Somerset profile covers the (current) district council boundary.

For more information, and to download the individual profiles, see: www.somersetintelligence.org.uk/jsna-joint-planning-area-profiles/

3. Migrant Worker statistics

The number of non-UK nationals registering for a National Insurance Number (NINo) in Somerset declined for the second successive year in 2018, mirroring a national fall, according to figures from the Department for Work and Pensions. There were a total of 2,738 registrations in Somerset during 2018, down from 3,089 registrations in 2017, and a peak of 3,913 registrations in 2016.

Romania continued to be the most common country of origin, with 945 registrations in 2018 (broadly the same number as in 2017). Polish nationals remained the second most common, with 416 registrations (down from 579 in 2017). Bulgarian (202 registrations) and Portuguese (130) nationals were the next most common.

Data are published through the Department for Work and Pension’s ‘Stat-Xplore’ tool, at: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/

4. Avoidable Mortality statistics

There were 1,153 ‘avoidable’ deaths in Somerset in 2017, that is, deaths that could have been avoided through timely and effective healthcare, according to the Office for National Statistics. This represented 19% of all deaths, which was below the national (England) average rate of 23%.

Males are more likely to have an avoidable death than females, with approximately 23% of male deaths in Somerset in 2017 considered avoidable compared to 15% of female deaths.

Nationally, neoplasms (cancers and other non-cancerous tissue growths) continue to be the leading cause of avoidable mortality, followed by cardiovascular diseases and injuries.

For full details, see: www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/causesofdeath

5. Deaths of Homeless People

In the five-year period 2013 to 2017 there were 20 deaths of homeless people in Somerset, according to estimates published by the Office for National Statistics.

At a district level, highest numbers of deaths were in Taunton Deane (nine), with three deaths each in Sedgemoor, South Somerset and West Somerset, and two in Mendip.

As a rate per population, highest prevalence was in West Somerset (2.9 per 100,000 population aged 15-74), followed by Taunton Deane (2.3 per 100,000). Highest rates within the South West region were in Plymouth, Cornwall and North Devon. Nationally the rate was 1.2 deaths per 100,000 population.

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

6. Public Health Outcomes Framework update

Public Health England has updated its main local authority health and wellbeing profiling tool with new data for 51 indicators:  

https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile/public-health-outcomes-framework

Somerset continues to perform better than, or broadly in line with, national benchmarks in respect of the majority of indicators, including life expectancy, inequality in life expectancy, road traffic casualties, low birth weight in babies and cancer screening coverage.

Indicators for which Somerset appears worse than national average benchmarks include hospital admissions caused by unintentional and deliberate injuries in children and emergency hospital admissions for intentional self-harm.

It may be noted that indicators based on hospital admissions may be influenced by local variation in referral and admission practices as well as variation in incidence or prevalence.

7. Suicide Prevention Profile

Public Health England (PHE) has updated its local authority suicide prevention profile tool, providing a range of data on suicide and related risk factors:

https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile-group/mental-health/profile/suicide

For the three-year period 2015-17, Somerset experienced a suicide rate of 10.9 people per 100,000 population (age-standardised), slightly above the national average rate (9.6 per 100,000). The suicide rate for males was three times the rate for females, both locally and nationally.

Risk factors related to suicide for which Somerset appears higher than national average benchmarks include: depression recorded prevalence; the proportion of people with a long-term health problem or disability; numbers of marital breakups; and numbers of people living alone.

8. Child Benefit statistics

In August 2018 there were 102,100 children (aged 0-19) in Somerset for which Child Benefit was being received, according to the latest annual snapshot released by HM Revenue & Customs. An additional 4,970 children had been ‘opted out’, following the introduction of the High Income Child Benefit Charge (HIBC).

Data are published by single year of age and family size and can act as a ‘real-time’ proxy for the child population. However, families that have chosen not to claim Child Benefit (due to the introduction of the HIBC) are excluded, meaning that this will be a less reliable picture over time.

Of the families in Somerset receiving Child Benefit, 46% are currently one-child families; 39% have two children; 11% have three children; 3% have four children and 1% (550 families) have five or more children. There are an average of 1.73 children per family in Somerset, in line with the UK average of 1.74.

The local areas (LSOAs) with the highest proportions of families with three or more children are Bridgwater Hamp East and Bridgwater Hamp West.

See: www.gov.uk/government/collections/child-benefit-geographical-statistics

9. Recorded Crime data

Recorded crime declined marginally in Somerset in the year to September 2018, in figures published by the Office for National Statistics. There were a total of 37,490 crimes recorded in the year to September 2018, compared to 38,067 in the preceding 12 months.

Falls were seen in drug offences, shoplifting and theft from a person, while there were increases in residential burglaries and sexual offenses.

Recorded crime can be affected by a range of factors, including changes in policing activity and recording practice and the willingness of victims to report offences.

For the full dataset, see: www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice

10. Domestic Solar Energy Installation statistics

Approximately 1 in 20 households in Somerset now have photovoltaic (solar energy) installations according to the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. The Feed-in-Tariff scheme (FITs) pays households a tariff for the electricity they generate: www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/sub-regional-feed-in-tariffs-confirmed-on-the-cfr-statistics

As at December 2018, there were 12,758 domestic photovoltaic (solar energy) installations in Somerset, an increase of just over 300 on the figure a year earlier. At a district level, West Somerset has the highest rate of installations (639 per 10,000 households) and South Somerset the lowest (495 per 10,000). The South West region has by far the highest rate of installations of any region in England, linked to its favourable climate.

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

Recent updates include:

• House Price Statistics dashboard (data updated to December 2018) - www.somersetintelligence.org.uk/somerset-house-price-statistics.html
• Special Educational Needs and Disabilities section (publication of new Somerset SEND Needs Assessment) - www.somersetintelligence.org.uk/send.html

12. Forthcoming Statistical Releases

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

• Housing affordability in England and Wales: 2018 (ONS)
• Electoral statistics, UK: 2018 (ONS)
• 2019 Child Health profiles (PHE)
• Child obesity and excess weight at small area level: data up to 2017 to 2018 (PHE)
• Marriages in England and Wales: 2016 (ONS)
• Pupil absence in schools in England: 2017 to 2018 (DfE)
• Council Tax Levels set by Local Authorities, England 2019 to 2020 (MHCLG)

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