The Scottish Government

Do you have any of the data for the Scottish Government' historic deprivation analyses by George Duguid, based on the 1981 and 1991 census? Or do you know where we might get it?
Daryll Archibald, St Andrews University is researching the effects of area regeneration on people’s health and well-being? Fife Council is supporting this collaborative project involving the School of Geography & Geosciences at the University of St-Andrews, and also NHS Fife. It will conduct a national-level analysis using the Scottish Longitudinal Study (SLS) and in-depth analysis of families experience of regeneration in Fife. The study should shed light on long-term changing patterns of deprivation and their relationship to health and well-being in Scotland.

Right now the early Duguid census analyses could be an important source of which parts of Scotland were in the most deprived 10% of Census Output Areas or Enumeration Districts. We have the reports: Areas of Special Need in Scotland, Oct 1984, Central Research Unit, Scottish Office; and Deprived Areas in Scotland, Results of an Analysis of the 1991 Census, 1995, Central Research Unit, Scottish Executive. These list clusters of most deprived coas and eds. However we can't find the data including the coded lists of areas. Can you help?

Please contact Daryll Archibald at dga5@st-andrews.ac.uk.

In response to the last e-mail proposing the Automated Data Download Function, is it clear to what level we will be able to access information i.e. will we be able to set it up via data zones or location names only?

I totally agree with John's previous comment. It makes the data very difficult to use.

Does anyone else find it bizarre that report downloads jumble up the fields, so that Males are mixed with females and 5-9 year olds come after 60-64 year olds etc?

Also, could the format of the report downloads be re-examined so that they are easier to form into pivot tables in Excel. As they are, for a basic user like me, I find I need to do a lot of copying and pasting.

I thought I'd post a link to a tool we've had created which allows users to select the postcodes matching any datazone, ward or postcode sector.

We've had a lot of discussion locally about this sort of matching esp. around the authority borders, so I thought it would be helpful to commission Intrepidata to produce a user-friendly tool using the SNS lookup tables (as in their raw format these text files aren't exactly user friendly).

Note: The file is very large (30MB) so will only load slowly. It also won't load unless macro security is set to medium on the Excel tools menu.

Run the file, save the output with a different file name, and then just delete the columns which are not required. For example, some columns will be empty e.g. in West Lothian the datazones are named & matched to settlements & school catchments but these columns will not be filled for other authorities

For file - see right hand menu at:
http://www.wlinfo.org.uk/Geog1.html

I think that the expanding database now represents an invaluable common portal to a wide range of neighbourhood statistics, and is a great help in identifying areas where partnership working is required.

However, with the advent of the Scottish Government Outcome Indicators there will be a need for standard tailored reports focussing on the full range of topics as if we’re seeking to improve outcomes it will be necessary to have small area data for the full range of indicators (in order to identify local areas for improvement).

I’d suggest that there should now be a consultation about establishing a fixed set of core data, the continuity of which will be guaranteed (unfortunately some indicators adopted for local reporting are no longer available). Work can then be undertaken to create a set of core reports around key themes which will be of increasing interest to all.

It should then be possible to transfer this data easily intro local systems using standard protocols based on an agreed inter-operability process, as has been developed e.g. by ScotXed.

I'll kick things off and say that it would be extremely useful to be able directly link to reports. e.g. this should be a ward report for dunblane and bridge of allan but doesn't work: http://www.sns.gov.uk/Reports/Report.aspx?ReportId=2&AreaTypeId=MW&AreaId=42

This would enable us to generate much wider use, awareness and understanding of the SNS site (and small area statistics generally) amongst colleages, and also links to our documents and web pages.

Am I alone in this thought?