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Social Justice
a Scotland where everyone matters
Indicators of Progress 2003

Introduction

Availability of Information

The milestones have been updated with the latest information available at the time of publication. Since the publication of last year's report, no new information is available from the Scottish Health Survey, Dental Health Services Research Unit, and the Scottish Crime Survey. In addition, it is recognised that the current data source is insufficient to measure the crime rates in disadvantaged areas.

Scottish Health Survey
Information on alcohol misuse from the 2003 Scottish Health Survey will be available in 2004/05.

Dental Health Services Research Unit
Information on dental decay from the Dental Health Services Research Unit for 2002/03 is expected to be available by the end of 2003.

Scottish Crime Survey
Information on older people's fear of crime and adult drug misuse from the 2003 Scottish Crime Survey is expected to be available spring 2004.

Interpretation of Low Income Milestones

Three of the milestones in this report monitor low income. The measurement of low income is not straightforward and a detailed discussion of the issues around the low income statistics and their interpretation is included in the annex to this report.

A summary of the main points is as follows:

• Relative and absolute measures are both important. Relative low income compares income against the mean or median in the same year. Absolute low income compares income against the mean or median level in 1996/97 in real terms - uprated using the Retail Prices Index. Both measures are necessary to provide the full picture.
• Five different thresholds of mean and median income are provided to help identify changes in household income distribution, whether the changes are focused on certain parts of the distribution, or whether the changes are being experienced by households in general.
• Housing costs are also a factor and both before and after housing costs information is reported.
• These statistics are based on a sample survey and estimates are therefore subject to a degree of sampling variation. Small year-on-year changes are not significant and several years of data should be examined to establish trends.

Area Deprivation Analysis

This report includes analysis of relatively deprived areas for a range of milestones. The two main measures of relative area deprivation are the Interim Scottish Multiple Index of Deprivation (SMID) and the Carstairs measure. The Carstairs measure is used in the milestones based around health, whereas the Interim SMID is employed in other milestones.

Interim Scottish Multiple Index of Deprivation
This measure is an interim measure and the Scottish Executive has set out its plans for the full measure which will be available in Spring 2004. The interim SMID is a relative measure of area deprivation. Interim SMID ranks the 1999 electoral wards by combining deprivation information on income, employment, health and disability, education, skills and training, and geographical access to services. Within this analysis, the interim SMID ranked wards are assigned to population weighted deprivation quintiles, and the most deprived wards containing 20 per cent of Scotland's population are assigned to deprivation quintile 1. The following classification is used:

Scottish Indices of Deprivation 2003http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/social/siod-00.asp
Measuring Deprivation in Scotland: Scottish Executive Responsehttp://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/social/mdisr-00.asp

Carstairs Deprivation Quintiles
The Carstairs index of deprivation (*), is a small area based measure of socio-economic circumstances. Typically these areas are based on postcode sectors of which there are almost 1,000 in Scotland with an average population of around 5,000. The main source of data about the socio-economic characteristics of each area is the 10 yearly census which records information about the social and economic characteristics of the population living in each area. The Carstairs index is based on 4 variables from the census:

• male unemployment rates;
• the proportion of households in social classes 4 and 5;
• car ownership; and
• overcrowding (more than 1 person per room in private households).

These 4 variables are measured against the Scottish average and re-scaled so that they have the same degree of variation across Scotland. The resulting transformed variables ( z-scores) are given equal weight and combined to form an overall index of deprivation.

* Vera Carstairs & R Morris, Deprivation and Health in Scotland, Aberdeen University Press, 1991

Urban Rural Analysis

The urban and rural analysis included is consistent with the Scottish Executive's core definition which classifies settlements of 3,000 or less people to be rural. Where the data allows, the analysis is presented using the Scottish Household Survey 6-fold classification. This expands on the core classification by considering the 'drive times' between smaller settlements and rural areas and larger settlements.

2001 Census Analysis

The 2001 Census allows a comparison of the labour market milestones to be made for various subgroups and areas. Within the relevant milestones, a minority ethnic groups and council area breakdown is included.

The 2001 Census information on the labour market is not directly comparable with the Labour Force Survey because (i) The census is a self-completion survey whereas the Labour Force Survey is based on interview; (ii) the census is based on 100% sample of the population, whereas the Labour Force Survey produces estimates based on a survey of a smaller sample of the population; and (iii) the Census data is a snapshot of circumstances at 29 April 2001 and the Labour Force Survey covers a specified period. The Labour Force Survey is the official source of labour market statistics.

Background data

Within each milestone the statistics behind the charts and commentary are included in the sections called 'Background data'.

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