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Social Focus on Disability 2004

chapter three: Neighbourhoods: Perceptions and Participation

The first paragraph of Closing the Opportunity Gap: Social Justice states that:

'Social Justice underpins the whole range of Executive policies. It is entirely concerned with closing the opportunity gaps faced by deprived communities and disadvantaged groups. It encapsulates the Executive's core beliefs that child poverty is unacceptable and must be eradicated; that everybody should have the chance of a decent, warm home; that people should be supported in building for themselves strong, safe communities in which to live and work; that inequality and discrimination have no place in Scottish society.'

So how do disabled people view their communities and neighbourhoods compared to non-disabled people?

Peoples perceptions of their neighbour-hood are dependent on many different factors; the surrounding area, access to services, levels of crime and anti-social behaviour. The Scottish Household Survey (SHS) asks a number of questions on peoples attitudes and their interaction within their local neighbourhood. The results show that:

• Disabled adults and those who have a long-term illness are likely to find anti-social behaviour more common in their local neighbourhood than those without a disability or long-term illness.
• Those with a disability or long-term illness are more likely to feel 'unsafe' when walking alone in their neighbourhood after dark than those without a disability or long-term illness.
• People with a disability or long-term illness feel less involved in their local community than those who have no disability or long-term illness.

Perception of neighbourhood

The SHS asks people to rate their neighbourhood in terms of how they consider it to be as a place to live. Over 90 per cent of all adults rate their neighbourhood as a very good or fairly good place to live. Disabled people are less likely to rate their neighbourhood as very good or fairly good (88 per cent) compared to people without a disability/long-term illness (93 per cent).

Significant differences also exist across age groups with younger people being more likely to rate their neighbourhood poorly than those in older age groups, but for all age groups, disabled people are more likely to rate their neighbour-hood as poor than non-disabled people.

Table 3.2 shows that adults' perception of their neighbourhood varies considerably by tenure. Adults who rent in the social sector are significantly more likely to rate their neighbourhood as a poor place to live; 18 per cent of all adults who rent from their local authority rate their neighbourhood as poor. This compares to only 4 per cent of adults who own their home outright. These finding hold regardless of whether adults have a disability or not.

Anti-social behaviour

The level of anti-social behaviour within neighbourhoods is measured from the SHS using a series of indicators:

• Noisy neighbours or loud parties
• Vandalism, graffiti or other deliberate damage to property
• Groups of young people hanging around on the street
• People who have been drinking or using drugs
• Rubbish or litter lying around

People are asked to assess how common each of the above are in their neighbourhood.

Table 3.3 shows that disabled and long-term ill adults are significantly more aware of all forms of anti-social behaviour within their neighbourhood than adults without a disability or long-term illness. The most common form of anti-social behaviour quoted across all groups is 'groups of young people hanging about' and 'rubbish or litter lying around'.

Perception of crime

In 2002, 36 per cent of disabled/long-term ill adults considered their neighbour-hood to be 'very unsafe' or 'a bit unsafe' for walking alone in the neighbourhood after dark. This compares with 21 per cent of adults without a disability or long-term illness who feel their neighbourhood is 'very unsafe' or 'a bit unsafe' for walking alone after dark.

Table 3.4 shows that disabled adults are more likely to respond 'don't know' (13 per cent) when questioned about their perceptions of safety when walking alone in the neighbourhood after dark. In contrast, only 2 per cent of adults without a disability or long-term illness reply that they don't know. This may suggest that disabled adults are less likely to walk around the neighbourhood after dark and thus may explain why people do not offer their views on how safe they find the neighbourhood.

People's perception of crime varies with sex and age - women are more likely to feel unsafe than men and older people are more likely to feel unsafe than younger persons. Chapter One explained that the age profile of the disabled population is older than the non-disabled profile, and thus it is important to take this into account when drawing any conclusions.

Table 3.5 confirms that women are significantly more likely, compared to men, to feel unsafe when walking alone in their neighbourhood after dark. In Scotland overall, 13 per cent of men and 33 per cent of women consider themselves to be unsafe when walking alone after dark. However both disabled men and disabled women are more likely to feel unsafe than those without a disability: 25 per cent of disabled men feel unsafe compared with 11 per cent of non-disabled men and 45 per cent of disabled women feel unsafe compared to 30 per cent of non-disabled women.

The SHS also shows that older people are more likely to feel unsafe, compared to those in younger age bands, when walking alone in the neighbourhood after dark, but that for all age groups disabled people feel more unsafe than non-disabled people.

There are also differences in the perceptions of safety between disabled adults and adults without a disability or long-term illness, when they are asked how safe they feel when home alone at night (Table 3.7). Six per cent of disabled adults consider themselves 'very unsafe' or 'a bit unsafe' when alone in their home at night compared to 3 per cent of adults without a disability or long-term illness.

Tables 3.8 and 3.9 show how adults' perceptions of safety when home alone at night varies by sex and age.

As with walking alone in their neighbourhood after dark Table 3.8 shows that women are also more likely than men to feel 'unsafe' when alone in their home at night (8 per cent of disabled females compared to 4 per cent of disabled males).

There are differences across age groups between the disabled and non-disabled population in the proportion of adults who feel unsafe when home alone at night (although there are no specific trends in the data).

Worries about being a victim of crime

The SHS asks adults how worried they are about being the victim of crime. ⁸

Source: Scottish Household Survey

Overall, adults are most worried about having their home broken into and things stolen (31 per cent). Chart 3.1 shows that disabled adults are more worried about being the victim of a crime than those without a disability. For example, 22 per cent of adults without a disability are very or fairly worried about being mugged and robbed, but this rises to 30 per cent for adults with a disability.

Respondents' level of worry about being a victim of crime varies by sex and age. For each of the crime types women are more likely than men to be very or fairly worried about being the victim of such crime with the exception of car crime (having your car stolen or things stolen from your car) where the proportion of men and women being very or fairly worried is similar. The largest differences between men and women relates to worry about being sexually assaulted or raped, and being mugged or robbed. In general, the level of worry about being the victim of crime decreases as people get older.

Respondents in the SHS are also asked to rate how much their quality of life is affected by fear of crime on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is no effect and 10 is a total effect on their quality of life.

Table 3.10 shows that for 28 per cent of disabled adults their quality of life is not at all affected by fear of crime. The comparable figure for adults without a disability is 32 per cent.

There are significant differences between disabled adults and adults without a disability in terms of those responding that fear of crime has some effect on their quality of life (taking 6 to 10 as being an indication of this). Fifteen per cent of disabled adults responded that their quality of life was affected in some way. This compares to 8 per cent of adults without a disability or long-term illness.

Neighbourhood involvement

As shown in Table 3.11, 30 per cent of adults in Scotland say that they do not feel involved in their local community. However the figures for disabled adults and those with a long-term illness are higher (41 per cent and 38 per cent respectively).

There are no significant differences between men and women in terms of how involved they feel in their local community. Differences do exist across age groups. Chart 3.2 illustrates these differences for those adults responding they feel 'not at all' involved in their local community. Adults aged 16 to 24 and 75 plus are most likely to feel 'not at all' involved in their local community and those aged 35 to 59 years are least likely to feel 'not at all' involved in the community. For all age groups, people with a disability or a long-term illness are more likely to feel 'not involved' in their community than people without a disability or long-term illness.

Source: Scottish Household Survey
Note:
1 The disabled and long-term ill categories are combined to ensure sample sizes are large enough to disclose the results.

Neighbourhood support

Information on the level of help and support available to people within their neighbourhood is also collected by asking adults how much they agree or disagree with the following statements:

• Statement 1: If I was alone and needed help, I could rely on one my friends/relatives in this neighbour-hood to help me
• Statement 2: If my home was empty, I could count on one of my friends/ relatives in this neighbourhood to keep an eye on my home
• Statement 3: I feel I could turn to friends/relatives in this neighbour-hood for advice or support

As shown in Table 3.12, the proportion of disabled adults strongly agreeing or tending to agree with the statements on neighbourhood support is slightly lower than that of adults without a disability but these differences are not significant.

Social contact

The most common form of social contact for all adults is speaking to relatives on the telephone (85 per cent) and the least common is going out with relatives (40 per cent). Over 80 per cent of disabled adults and adults without a disability have spoken to their neighbours in the last two weeks.

There are, however, differences between disabled adults and those adults without a disability or long-term illness in terms of the amount of social contact each group has. Disabled adults are less likely to visit or go out with their relatives and friends, compared to those without a disability or long-term illness but they are more likely to have had relatives round to visit in the last two weeks.

Source: Scottish Household Survey

Accessing various services

The perceptions of the convenience of local services such as post offices and banks are generally high; over half of all adults find each of the services very or fairly convenient. However there are differences between disabled adults and those without a disability in terms of their perceptions of how convenient they find each of the services. Analysis shows that for all services, disabled adults find them less convenient than those without a disability (Chart 3.4).

Source: Scottish Household Survey

Volunteering

In 2001 and 2002, disabled adults and those with a long-term illness were significantly less likely to give up their time as a volunteer, with only 17 and 18 per cent respectively providing help to clubs, charities, campaigns or organisations in an unpaid capacity over the previous 12 months. This compares to 28 per cent of adults without a disability or illness who volunteered.

Views on local council

Views on council services and how the council performs is gauged by asking adults to what extent they agree or disagree with the following phrases:

• 'My council provides high quality services' (Phrase 1)
• 'My local council does the best it can with the money available' (Phrase 2)
• 'Voting in local government elections is important' (Phrase 3)

Overall, a slightly higher proportion of disabled adults or adults with a long-term illness consider their council to perform better. Forty-six per cent of disabled/ long-term ill adults agree that their council provides high quality services compared with 43 per cent of adults without a disability or illness. Forty-six per cent of disabled/long-term ill adults agree that the council does the best that it can with the money available compared to 40 per cent of adults without a disability or illness.

Internet access

The SHS asks respondents whether they make any use of the internet for their personal use, as opposed to work-related use. This can take place at home, at work, or elsewhere. The results, displayed in Table 3.15, show that adults with a disability or long-term illness are significantly less likely to access the internet, than those adults without a disability or long-term illness. Only 12 per cent of disabled adults access the internet for their personal use. This figure more than doubles for adults without a disability or long-term illness (39 per cent).

Table 3.16 shows the differences in personal internet access across the sexes:

Women are less likely to make use of the internet than men; 11 per cent of disabled women access the internet, compared to 14 per cent of disabled men.

There are also differences by age; older adults are less likely to make use of the internet. Over half (56 per cent) of all adults aged between 16 and 24 access the internet for their personal use. In contrast, only 14 per cent of adults aged 60 or over make use of the internet. The results are shown in Chart 3.5:

Source: Scottish Household Survey
Note:
1 The disabled and long-term ill categories are combined to ensure sample sizes are large enough to disclose the results.

It is evident from Chart 3.5 that adults without a disability or long-term illness are more likely to have access to the internet across all age groups.

References

Closing the Opportunity Gap, Scottish Budget for 2003-2006, Social Justice
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/finance/ctog-09.asp

Scottish Crime Survey, 2000
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/cru/kd01/green/csor-00.asp

Scottish Household Survey
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/about/SR/CRU-SocInc/00016002/SHShome.aspx

Contacts

Telephone contact points for information relating to Chapter 3, Neighbourhoods:

Scottish Executive

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