SINePost newsletter - October 2016

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In this issue ...

1. Impact of Welfare Reform report
2. Personal Well-being estimates
3. Health Profiles for local authorities
4. Birth Characteristics statistics
5. Sexual Identity estimates
6. Road Casualty statistics
7. Travel to Work Area analysis
8. Business and Employment Survey results
9. Dental Health statistics
10. What's New on the Somerset Intelligence website?
11. Forthcoming Statistical Releases

1. Impact of Welfare Reform report

The latest annual report from Somerset Intelligence considering the impact of ongoing benefit reforms on local residents and organisations is now available.

Based on a range of data pooled from local and national sources, the report looks at trends in council tax collection; housing affordability and supply; benefit capping; Jobcentre sanctions; use of foodbanks; use of citizens’ advice services; and rollout of Universal Credit. Accompanying case studies highlight some individual personal impacts.

The report finds improving pictures in some respects, set against some areas of increasing concern. There remain some geographical variations, with some district areas bucking general countywide trends.

See: www.somersetintelligence.org.uk/welfare-reform-impact-monitoring/

2. Personal Well-being estimates

Overall levels of (self-reported) personal well-being in Somerset continue to improve according to the latest results from the government’s Measuring National Well-being programme: www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/wellbeing/bulletins/measuringnationalwellbeing

In 2015/16, average levels of ‘happiness’ and ‘feelings that life is worthwhile’ increased in Somerset compared to 2014/15, while ‘anxiety’ fell. Average levels of ‘life satisfaction’ were unchanged. Somerset continues to perform better than the national average in terms of all four measures of personal well-being.

At a district level, Sedgemoor is the happiest place to live in Somerset, South Somerset is best for life satisfaction, while Mendip is worst for anxiety levels.

3. Health Profiles for local authorities

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 2014/15 data)

Indicators for which the county fares particularly well include: life expectancy; smoking related deaths; under 18 conceptions; breastfeeding initiation; and child obesity.

Somerset appears significantly worse than the England average in terms of: smoking in pregnancy; hospital stays for self-harm; under 18 alcohol-specific hospital stays; recorded diabetes; excess weight in adults; and hip fractures.

See: www.somersetintelligence.org.uk/local-health-profiles/

4. Birth Characteristics statistics

Women in Somerset have babies earlier on average than their national and regional counterparts according to latest (2015) figures from the Office for National Statistics. Nationally and in the South West as a whole the birth rate is highest in the 30 to 34 age group while in Somerset the highest birth rate is in the 25 to 29 age group.

Meanwhile, the proportion of births outside marriage (or civil partnership) in Somerset remains well above the England average (53.0% compared with 47.2%).

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

5. Sexual Identity estimates

Results from the 2015 Annual Population Survey (APS) indicate that 1.7% of UK adults identify themselves as gay, lesbian or bisexual (LGB), with the proportion highest in the 16-24 age group (at 3.1%) and lowest in the 65 and over age group (at 0.6%): https://www.ons.gov.uk/releases/sexualidentityuk2015

If national proportions were applied to Somerset’s population demographic, this would equate to around 7,600 lesbian, gay or bisexual adults in the county.

It is generally accepted that the APS will underestimate the true size of the lesbian, gay or bisexual population. Several historical surveys, both in the UK and overseas, have variously put the size of the LGB population at between 5% and 7%.

6. Road Casualty statistics

The number of reported casualties on Somerset’s roads fell by 11% in 2015 according to annual figures published by the Department for Transport. There were 1,455 casualties in 2015 compared to 1,623 in 2014.

The number of people killed or seriously injured (KSI) in Somerset declined from 218 in 2014 to 210 in 2015.

The number of child KSI casualties rose for the second successive year, to 13. There were no child fatalities in 2015.

See: http://www.somersetintelligence.org.uk/road-accident-dashboard.html

7. Travel to Work Area analysis

Analysis of Travel to Work Areas (approximating to local labour market areas) has been published by the Office for National Statistics: www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes

For Somerset, Travel to Work Areas (TTWAs) are largely aligned to district boundaries, although established commuter flows mean that parts of Mendip are within the Bath and Trowbridge TTWAs, and part of north Sedgemoor is aligned to Weston-super-Mare.

For the TTWAs covering Somerset:

• The share of the 16-64 population with a level 4 (degree level) qualification ranges from 46.4% in the Bath TTWA to 26.5% in the Bridgwater TTWA
• Employment rates range from 80.5% in the Yeovil TTWA to 75.1% in the Weston-super-Mare TTWA.
• Taunton TTWA has the highest male employment rate (90.1%) and the lowest female employment rate (71.0%).

8. Business and Employment Survey results

The number of employees in Somerset increased by 3,100 between 2014 and 2015 , from 213,900 to 217,000, according to provisional figures from the ONS Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES): https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes

Provisional results also indicate:

• Between 2014 and 2015, the number of private sector employees increased by approximately 4,000 while the number of public sector workers declined by 900.
• Between 2014 and 2015, the number of full-time employees increased by 4,900, and the number of part-time workers declined by 1,900.

9. Dental Health statistics

There were 448,593 courses of treatment (CoT) delivered by NHS dentists in Somerset in 2015/16 according to figures published by the NHS. This was around 7,000 fewer treatments than in the preceding year.

In the 24 month period ending 30th June 2016, 249,367 adult patients were seen by an NHS dentist, representing 57% of the adult population.

The number of children seen by an NHS dentist in the 12 months up to 30th June 2016 was 66,554. This equates to 64% of the child population.

For further details, see: http://content.digital.nhs.uk/article/2021/Website-Search?productid=21894&q=dental+statistics&sort=Relevance&size=10&page=1&area=both#top

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

The following content has been updated in the last month:

• New-look Community Profiles for all District electoral wards- http://www.somersetintelligence.org.uk/community-profiles.html
• Smoking and tobacco control http://www.somersetintelligence.org.uk/smoking.html
• Crime statistics - http://www.somersetintelligence.org.uk/police-uk-dashboard.html
• Preventing suicides: http://www.somersetintelligence.org.uk/suicide.html
• New interactive data dashboards have been created for:-
  • Fire & Rescue - http://www.somersetintelligence.org.uk/fire-statistics-dashboard.html
  • Adult social care - http://www.somersetintelligence.org.uk/adult-social-care-dashboard.html
  • Schools - http://www.somersetintelligence.org.uk/school-attainment-dashboard.html

11. Forthcoming Statistical Releases

The following are due for release in October at sub-regional geographies:

• Housing summary measures analysis 2015 (DCLG)
• Business Activity, Size and Location in the UK (ONS)
• Health expectancies at birth and at age 65 in the UK, based on 2011 census health and disability prevalence data: 2010 to 2012 (ONS)
• Safeguarding Adults 2015 to 2016, Experimental statistics (NHS)
• Early years foundation stage profile results in England: 2015 to 2016 (DfE)
• A level and other 16 to 18 results: 2015 to 2016 (DfE)
• FE Data Library: Apprenticeships (BIS/SFA)

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