How is the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation used in resource allocation?
The most recent use of the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) includes:
• Fairer Scotland Fund - SIMD is used in the allocation of the Fairer Scotland Fund to Community Planning Partnerships (CPPs) for financial years 2008/09 to 2010/11 (£145 million per year). Allocation of the Fairer Scotland Fund is based on a formula which adjusts for area based and individual deprivation. The fund is split proportionately between: a 75% area based deprivation component and a 25% individual deprivation component. 2/3 of the 75% area based deprivation component is allocated according to the national share 1 of data zones that each Community Planning Partnership has in the most deprived 15% and 1/3 of the 75% area based deprivation component to Community Planning Partnerships with more than 15% of their area in the most deprived 15%. Individual deprivation is calculated by taking the numbers of income deprived in the Community Planning Partnership and expressing this as a proportion of the number of individuals income deprived in Scotland in 2006. The numbers of income deprived are taken from the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation website and can be accessed via: Income Deprived.
• Grant Aided Expenditure (GAE) 2 - SIMD is used in two of the ninety-five GAE lines for the 2008-11 settlement with Local Authorities. These are: Enhanced Debt Services (£5.3 million) and Street Cleaning (£69 million). As a proportion of the Total Estimated Expenditure for 2008/09, these funding streams represent 0.04% and 0.59% respectively. Enhanced Debt Advice Services GAE uses the SIMD income domain variable 'Number of current income deprived' as the primary indicator to proportion monies between authorities. The Street Cleaning GAE uses population as the primary indicator, in addition to a secondary indicator covering road density. The secondary indicator uses the '20% most deprived data zones' within the allocation formula.
Previously, SIMD has been used in the allocation of specific funding streams, including:
• Community Regeneration Fund (now replaced by the Fairer Scotland Fund) - £318 million (2005-08) targeted at the most deprived neighbourhoods;
• Working for Families Fund - £35 million (2005-08) providing affordable, flexible childcare to enable people to access employment or training;
• Keep Well - £37 million (2008-11) targeted at the most deprived communities to identify people at particular risk of preventable ill health and provide access to services and treatments appropriate to their need (the SIMD is used as the basis for identifying the CHP areas where the Keep Well programme is to be delivered).
• Scottish Enhanced Services Programme for Primary and Community Care - £19.5 million (2007/08 to 2008/09) 25% allocated by SIMD (50% allocated using the Scottish Allocation Formula, 25 per cent on basis of population, older people (65 years of age and over)).
NHS Scotland Resource Allocation
Around 70% of the budget for NHSScotland is allocated via the Arbuthnott Formula which provides funds to the 14 Health Boards for hospital and community services and GP prescribing. The Arbuthnott Formula was introduced ion 2000 and hence does not use SIMD. The NHSScotland Resource Allocation Committee (NRAC) was established in 2005 to improve the Arbuthnott Formula . The research carried out for NRAC did not recommend using SIMD as part of the formula. The need indices used in the Formula are not indicators of deprivation but are trying to predict the need for healthcare. The SIMD indicators did not emerge from the analysis as the best predictors of health need.
Although the Arbuthnott Formula allocates the vast majority of the budget of NHSScotland, some funding has been allocated on the basis of SIMD. In 2006/07, the Deprived Areas Allowance was introduced for dental practices. This recognised that those living in the most deprived areas have the poorest oral health. Practices were paid a deprivation allowance based on the location of their practice. SIMD was used as the basis for measuring the deprivation in the area around each practice. In addition to this, the Keep Well project determined where the Pilots should be sited by using the 15% most deprived areas in SIMD.
Notes
1 National share is the number of data zones in the Community Planning Partnership expressed as a proportion of the total number of data zones in Scotland.
2 Grant Aided Expenditure (GAE) allocations are neither a budget nor a spending target for any particular service. They are a component used in distributing the total block grant that the Scottish Government provides to local authorities. Local authorities then decide how best to allocate the resulting overall block grant across services, based on local need and priorities.