The Scottish Government

SNS: Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation Website Development

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

The planning cycle for updating the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation in 2009 provides an opportunity to review the SIMD website. The Scottish Government are keen to seek the opinions of users of the website to scope possible developments to the 'look and feel' of the existing site.

The SIMD website can be accessed via: www.scotland.gov.uk/simd

Some questions to promote discussion include:

• Is the content of the site organised such that users can easily find what they need?
• Does the navigation design enable users to move around easily?
• Does the visual style of the site appeal? What do you like and dislike about the presentation?
• Is there a consistent look throughout the site?
• Do you experience any difficulties when using the Interactive Mapping facility?
• Is there anything you would like to see added to the site?

Thanks
Office of the Chief Statistician

Comments

• 1. Heidi Goodship - Scottish Borders Council

  Monday, April 21, 2008 11:36

  I am keen to start a debate on the content of the next SIMD, particularly with regard to using indicators that are effective at measuring aspects of deprivation equally in an urban and rural environment. We have a guideline called "Rural Proofing", in which all policies, documents etc written by SBC for the public domain have to be assessed for their impact on people living in the rural area. The SIMD is a very important index, as it affects so many aspects of resource allocation. If the SIMD is perceived to have an urban bias, then any sort of report containing funding allocation based on it will be perceived as unfair, particularly if we appear to lose out on funding as a result of our deprivation index. There are many different dimensions to the benefits and disadvantages of rural living, it's not all about dependency on benefits. For example, overcrowding would not be a suitable Housing Domain indicator in a rural area, whereas housing afforbility in relation to income versus house prices might apply to an urban and rural setting.
  Do you have any suggestions on which indicators might be inadvertantly contributing to the SIMD's perceived "urban bias" and what they might be replaced with?

• 2. Andrew Fraser - Stirling

  Thursday, May 15, 2008 17:29

  I'm not even going to look!
  
  There are so many really bad sites around, I dread opening another.
  
  Unless you can assure me that this site's been the subject of preparation by someone well-versed in ergonomics and engineering psychology.
  
  See page 12 of The Herald, 2008-05-12, Monday, if you want to see what I mean. (Perhaps you already do, of course ...)
  
  

• 3. Anna Jermyn - The Moray Council, Elgin, Morayshire

  Tuesday, May 20, 2008 09:49

  I would like to see clear, obvious links to each of the SIMD result reports. Although they are there, they are not particularly easy to find.

• 4. Sara Daniels - Glasgow

  Wednesday, May 21, 2008 15:53

  One of the things I find hardest to do on the current site is identify the data zones I'm interested in. The number and ward / constituency details are there, but at the bottom of the mini - window which can make it tricky to note the relevant numbers. The SIMD data report has the 'nearest settlement' noted for each data zone - would it be possible to include that on the same screen?
  
  One other point would be that given the focus on the lowest 15% of data zones which is still present through a lot of policy, it would be really helpful if the colour coding reflected this - bands of 15,30,45,60,etc then two 20% bands. Not consistent but I have endless trouble explaining to people that lowest band does not equal lowest 15%!

• 5. Alasdair Mathers - midlothian

  Monday, June 2, 2008 09:49

  We use this information a good deal already- but there are still issues for us- I agree that there is a need to analyse against urban bias- we are semi rural & this need to be considered for areas such as us not just Highlands / Borders/ D&G / and the islands . It takes a good deal of time to collate data to new wards ,and there is still a need to link more to other data sources so that we can access summaries of NHS/ DWP and labour market data to expand on teh SIMD when giving community planning partenrs and communities understandable information- a new field on public investmnet levels in SIMD areas would also help with baselines and progress measurements in CPP's I want to know ( and I'm sure others do too, whether all the talk about prioritising areas of deprivaiton is reflceted in the mainstream budgets of public bodies