Housing and Communities Committee
Date 12 January 2010
Agenda Item No.
Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2009
Report by: Steve Grimmond, Executive Director (Housing and Communities)
Wards Affected: All
Purpose
This report provides members with information from the Scottish Index of Multiple
Deprivation (SIMD), released on 29 October 2009, and updates on initial
discussions on a Fife response.
Recommendation(s)
Members are invited to consider and discuss the SIMD information and to note the
initial Fife response.
Resource Implications
There are no immediate resource implications arising from this report.
Legal & Risk Implications
There are no particular legal implications.
Policy & Impact Assessment
The purpose of this report is to raise awareness of the SIMD 2009 and what it
reports about Fife. The Index is complex and more analytical work is required to
understand movements within it and the reasons for those movements. Through
that work, we intend to use it to support discussions with partnerships, partners and
their services about their contributions to reducing deprivation in Fife.
Consultation
Fife officers analysing the Index have been consulted on this report.
1.0 Background
1.1
The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2009 (SIMD09) was released on
29 October 2009. It ranks small geographic areas across Scotland from
most to least deprived. It measures relative not absolute deprivation – that
is, how multiple deprivation compares between datazones rather than how
much deprivation is in each. The small geographical areas are called
‘datazones’ – there are 6505 (453 in Fife) in Scotland and each contains
about 700 people on average.
1.2
The Scottish Government’s General Report on the Index explains the term
‘deprivation’, in this context, as “the range of problems that arise due to lack
of resources or opportunities, not just financial. The income domain picks up
the lack of money issue that could be described as actual poverty ... [but] it is
necessary to use data relating to multiple aspects of life in order to gain the
fullest picture possible of deprivation across Scotland”.
1.3
SIMD09 updates previous indices in 2003, 2004 and 2006 – its methodology
is broadly comparable to SIMD06 with 38 indicators in seven thematic
domain indices and one overall combined multiple deprivation index. The
seven thematic domains (and their weighting within the combined Index) are
Income (28%), Employment (28%), Education (14%), Health (14%), Access
(9%), Crime (5%) and Housing (2%). Appendix one provides further detail
on SIMD09 composition and methodology.
1.4
Some caution is required in interpreting the Index:

as it is a relative index changes elsewhere in Scotland can impact on Fife
rankings;

it measures concentrations of multiple deprivation so population dispersal
or clustering will be reflected in it even if there has been no absolute
change in the circumstances of individual households;

minor changes in methodology mean that care needs to be taken in
comparing with previous indices, particularly at the domain level;

small changes in underlying data for thematic domains can
disproportionately affect domain rankings;

not all deprived people live in deprived areas and not all the people who
live in deprived areas are deprived (for example, 69% of Fife’s income
deprived people live outside the most deprived 15% datazones); and

Most data is from 2008, only picking up the start of the economic
downturn.
1.5
Although these limitations are important to note, the SIMD is now a well
developed and robust tool. It shows how poverty and inequality varies
between communities across Scotland and how geographical patterns are
changing over time. It should be used to see where and in what ways
inequalities exist and so help to explain why. We can then decide what we
can do about it with our policies and resources.
2.0 Issues and Options
2.1
This section highlights the main ‘headlines’ at national and Fife levels. It
does so in the main by concentrating on the 15% most deprived datazones,
used most often for policy or funding purposes. There are 976 datazones in
the top 15%.
Scottish Headlines
2.2
The Scottish Government has drawn the following headlines from its initial
analysis of the Index:

the most significant improvements are in Glasgow – its national share of
the most deprived 15% of datazones has fallen from 38% in 2004 to
about 30% in 2009;

concentrations of multiple deprivation are becoming more spread out
geographically across Scotland;

the concentration of deprivation in the most deprived datazones has
reduced slightly; and

4 in 5 of the datazones in the most deprived 15% in SIMD 09 were also in
that band for both SIMD 04 and SIMD 06.
Fife Headlines
2.3
As context, Fife has a varied social and economic profile, in many ways
similar to Scotland. The extent of deprivation is fairly evenly spread across
the different datazone bands from most to least deprived. This is not a
typical pattern – although South Lanarkshire and South Ayrshire are broadly
similar. The chart in appendix two shows Fife’s pattern and compares it to
those for Scotland and to some other areas.
2.4
Fife now has 55 of the 15% most deprived datazones – this has risen from
34 in 2004 and 47 in 2006 (Fife’s datazones appearing in the top 15% are
shown in appendix three). Our national share is now 5.6%, joint fourth in
Scotland with Dundee. To give these figures some perspective, 12% of all
Fife datazones appear in that top 15% compared with 43% for Glasgow, 39%
for Inverclyde, 31% for Dundee, 26% for West Dunbartonshire and 25% for
North Ayrshire (and 6 other authority areas have higher ‘local’ shares than
Fife).
2.5
Eight of those 55 datazones feature in the most deprived 5% - an increase of
3 when compared to the 2006 index. Fife’s most multiply-deprived datazone
is ranked 135th in Scotland.
2.6
SIMD09 confirms enduring deprivation in specific areas of Fife – the attached
map highlights the most deprived 15% and the table below shows the
number by Area Committee geography. Movement amongst the most
deprived is largely around neighbouring datazones. It is particularly worth
noting that Glenrothes increases its representation from 3 to 7 and Linktown
from 1 to 3 in the 15% band.
SIMD09
South West Fife
City of Dunfermline
Cowdenbeath
Kirkcaldy
Glenrothes
Levenmouth
North East Fife
Fife
5% 10% 15%
0
2
1
0
3
2
1
6
4
3
1
9
0
2
5
4
8
3
0
0
1
8
22
25
total
3
5
11
13
7
15
1
55
Change
from
SIMD06
0
+1
-1
+4
+4
-1
+1
+8
2.7
The number of Fife datazones appearing in the 15% most income deprived
datazones has risen from 49 in SIMD06 to 62 in SIMD09. The Income
domain has changed for 2009 through the inclusion of Working and Child
Tax Credit data which enables low income families to be better accounted
for. More people across Scotland are now identified as income deprived.
The total number of income deprived people in Fife has risen from 44,642 for
SIMD06 to 59,065 for SIMD09.
2.8
The number of Fife datazones appearing in the 15% most employment
deprived datazones has remained constant at 67 for SIMD06 and SIMD09.
The number of employment deprived people in Fife has fallen from 28,239 to
27,135 between SIMD06 and SIMD09.
2.9
In the Education domain, Fife has 65 datazones in the most deprived 15%,
up 16 on SIMD06.
2.10
Fife’s share of health deprived datazones is relatively small and
consequently the domain does not have a significant bearing on Fife’s
positioning within the overall Index. The index does continue to show,
however, glaring inequalities between datazones in Fife.
2.11
Of those domains that have less weighting in the overall Index, there have
been a reducing number of datazones in the 15% band for Geographic
Access and Crime. The Housing Domain is based on 2001 census data and
has not changed since SIMD04.
3.0 Conclusions
SIMD Analysis and Dissemination
3.1
The commentary above concentrates on drawing out the headline messages
from SIMD09. Analytical work is continuing on the underlying detail and to
understand the reasons for change. That work engages service specialists
and will also involve local managers, key groups and partnerships.
Discussions are also taking place with other local authorities to discuss their
work on the Index and with Scottish Government on the national perspective.
3.2
There has been wide dissemination of the first analysis and some early
discussion with community planning partnership groups on early conclusions
to feed into their policy discussions.
Developing the Fife Approach
Fife Partnership’s Sustainable Communities Group (SCG) – which provides a
Fife lead on an approach to addressing inequalities, poverty and deprivation
– is looking at the Index as part of its review of the Fairer Fife Framework (it
currently runs from 2008 to 2010), its priorities and how we address a
relatively deteriorating position for Fife. Early conclusions, to be developed
and taken forward in the coming weeks, are:
3.3






the Fairer Fife Framework is conceptually strong and should not be
deconstructed;
there is a need to "crank up the volume" to promote actions to address
inequality gaps in Fife - doing more to engage pivotal services, to draw
on mainstream resources and mainstreaming programme success;
it is recognised that specific attention over coming months should be given
to addressing in-work poverty; a better understanding of what we are doing
to support young people across the partnerships; child poverty; the role of
the physical environment, and the impact of housing policy;
in scanning the evidence and policy context consideration should be given to
recent Scottish Government / COSLA policy statements and in particular
their three joint social Frameworks (‘Early Years’, ‘Equally Well’ and
‘Achieving Our Potential – Tackling Poverty’). The implications of a
forthcoming duty on Scotland’s public bodies to address socio-economic
inequality needs to be better understood too;
action at local area level should be better co-ordinated, particularly for areas
of multiple deprivation; and
the role and membership of SCG, its support arrangements and key
partnership, agency and service relationships should be reviewed
List of Appendices
1. Appendix 1 – Graphic showing composition of the Scottish Index of Multiple
Deprivation
2. Appendix 2 – Chart showing Fife’s pattern of deprivation relative to Scotland
and other local authority areas
3. Appendix 3 – Map highlighting areas of Multiple Deprivation in Fife
Background Papers

Fairer Fife Framework

KnowFife Quick Brief – Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2009: Fife Facts
Report Contact
Robert McGregor
Sustainable Communities Programme Manager
Housing & Communities
Rothesay House, Glenrothes
Telephone: 08451 55 55 55 + 442263
Email – robert.mcgregor@fife.gov.uk
APPENDIX 1
SIMD2009
Most deprived
10%
20%0%
10%
30%
Least deprived
20%
40%
40%30% 50%
50%
70%
60% 60% 70%
80%
100%
80% 90%90%
100%
10
10
SCOTLAND
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
5
Argyll
& Bute3
10
11
20
20
13
6
8
4
Dundee City
19
23
12
9
4
6
4
9
9
4
East Renfrewshire
2
5
3
3
6
6
5
9
18
43
0Eilean Siar0
17
39
31
14
0
0
0
0
Fife
11
12
10
10
12
12
10
11
9
Glasgow
City
47
12
9
7
5
6
4
5
4
2
Shetland
0 Islands0
0
0
3
23
47
17
10
0
South
5 Ayrshire8
11
14
17
7
8
7
12
9
South10
Lanarkshire
12
10
12
10
13
9
8
10
5
3