Scottish Household Survey: Bulletin No 3

4 Access to neighbourhood services

Introduction

Access to services and transport can vary depending on a variety of factors and the inability to access certain services can impact greatly on levels of social exclusion. This section looks at access to services by households in different types of area to examine the relationship between access and neighbourhood type.

Convenience of, use and satisfaction with services

Financial factors may limit access to services, but there may also be physical factors such as mobility problems. Additionally, work or other commitments, the opening hours of the facilities, access to transport and the distance to travel to the particular facility may have an impact. These factors, as well as the availability of choice all have an impact on the convenience of services. It is this broad measure of convenience that is used in the SHS, combining objective and subjective measures.

Respondents were asked to rate the convenience of using a number of services during their normal opening hours. The services were a doctor's surgery, a chemist, a hospital out-patients department, a bank, a Post Office and a grocers/food shop. As a general rule, people tend to find these services at least fairly convenient. Figure 1 illustrates the proportion of adults reporting these services as being fairly or very inconvenient.

Figure 1: Level of inconvenience of different services
(% saying service is very or fairly inconvenient)

Adult Population, Base=6140

Across all neighbourhood types, a hospital outpatients department is the service that people are most likely to find it inconvenient to visit. Around one in three (34%) say that they would find it very or fairly inconvenient to use one during the normal opening hours of the department. In fact, twice as many people would find visiting an outpatients department inconvenient than would find visiting a doctor inconvenient.

Analysis by neighbourhood type reveals some notable differences in the reported convenience of services between different area types (table 8).

Access difficulties experienced by those in 'country dweller' areas are emphasised in all respects except for their access to doctors' surgeries, for which there is a fairly even pattern of convenience across neighbourhood types. However, it seems that the type of area they live in has a major impact on how convenient respondents find it to make use of a chemist.

In terms of more urban areas vulnerable to social exclusion such as 'disadvantaged council estates' and 'families in council flats', the convenience of these kinds of services does not appear to be significantly worse than in other areas.

Access to public transport

One in five respondents (19%) say that it is very or fairly inconvenient for them to use public transport. This rises to as many as six in ten people (58%) in 'country dweller' neighbourhoods (no table).

A more precise measure of access to public transport (in this case a bus service) is an examination of how near and frequent the bus service is. For the purposes of table 9, 'near and frequent' is defined as 14 minutes or less to walk to a bus stop, with a frequency of service of at least one bus every 20 minutes.

As table 9 shows, 44% of households live in an area where a bus service is 'near and frequent' and 37% of households do not. A further 1% live in an area where there is no bus service at all and 18% do not know about the frequency of the bus service. The high proportion of people who do not know about the bus service is notable as it perhaps indicates either a lack of service availability, a barrier to use or a commitment to other forms of transport. This varies from 13% in the 'renting singles' areas to 28% in the 'country dweller' areas. In particular, lack of knowledge about bus services has a strong correlation with car ownership.

Table 9 shows the variation in accessibility between different area types. Most evident is the difference between country areas and the more urban neighbourhoods. A higher proportion of people living in areas categorised as 'families in council flats' and 'renting singles' have access to a 'near and frequent' bus service. Conversely, as might be expected, only 1% of households living in 'country dweller' areas have access to a 'near and frequent' service and 15% of them have no bus service at all.

The bases in this table are all adults having used public services within the year prior to the survey.

Use of local services and levels of satisfaction

Respondents were asked about their use of local services (Table 10) and the extent to which they are satisfied with those they use (Table 11). Although the services are commonly provided by local authorities, the survey does not distinguish between these and, for example, private sports facilities or national museums.

Libraries - around half of all adults use public libraries at least once a year (46%), although just one in seven (15%) use them as often as once a week. People living in households with children tend to be the most frequent users.

Among those who use public libraries, there are very high levels of satisfaction with the service. As many as half say that they are very satisfied, and a total of 90% are either very or fairly satisfied. Just 6% express any level of dissatisfaction with the quality of local libraries. There was no variation by MOSAIC area, with those in 'high income areas' reporting similar rates of satisfaction to those living in 'low income owners' and 'country dwellers' areas.

Museums and galleries - although most people (72%) say they have visited a museum or gallery at some time, just a third say that they have done so in the last year (33%), while one in ten say that they have in the past month. People living in property rented from the council are less frequent visitors (just 3% in the past month) compared to those buying with a mortgage (12% in the past month).

As with libraries, user satisfaction with museums and galleries is extremely high. Half say they are very satisfied, and a total of 92% are very or fairly satisfied. Just one person in a hundred is dissatisfied with museums and galleries.

Public parks and spaces - most adults (88%) say that they have used public parks and spaces at some time, with just one in ten (9%) saying they never have. Indeed, over a third (36%) say that they have used a public park or space in the past week. Use is particularly high among households with children; 49% of single parents say they have used the park in the past week, as have a similar proportion of people living in small family households.

The overwhelming majority of users of local parks are satisfied with them -a total of 85%, including 36% who are very satisfied. One in ten is dissatisfied, a feeling that is more common among those living in households with children, and single parents in particular, and among people living in areas where council housing predominates.

Swimming pools - Four in ten adults say that they have been to a swimming pool in the past year, but there are relatively few frequent users. Just 20% say that they have been in the past month, and one in ten in the past week. As with public parks, it is people living in households with children who are the most frequent users of swimming pools, with 37% of adults in single parent households and 45% of people in small family households using them at least once a month.

Around nine in ten users of swimming pools are satisfied with them (88%), with 42% very satisfied. Few (6%) are dissatisfied, with little variation across neighbourhood and household types.

Sports centres - while sports centres are used by fewer people than swimming pools (66% say they use them, compared to 72% who say they use swimming pools), they are used slightly more frequently by those who do visit them. For example, 16% say they have used a sports centre in the last week compared to 11% who say they have used a swimming pool over this period.

Once again, the overwhelming majority of users of sports centres are satisfied with them (91%, including 45% who are very satisfied).