Donegal County Councils ‘Experience of Developing a Poverty Profile’

1. Donegal County Councils ‘Experience of Developing a Poverty Profile’ 15th /16th May 2006 By Ms Valerie Bryce Community Development Worker Community Culture and Enterprise

2. Outline of Presentation Background What is a Local Anti Poverty Profile? The Process to Building up a Poverty Profile in County Donegal Steps involved in carrying out a Poverty Profile Poverty in County Donegal Difficulties and Challenges Uses and Applications

3. 1. Background

5. What is Poverty? ‘People are living in poverty, if their income and resources (material, cultural and social) are so inadequate as to preclude them from having a standard of living, which is regarded as acceptable by Irish Society generally. As a result of inadequate income and resources people may be excluded and marginalised from participating in activities, which are considered the norm for other people in society’

6. 2. What is a Local Anti Poverty Profile?

7. 2. What is a Local Anti Poverty Profile? A Local Poverty Profile involves systematically identifying gathering and mapping information on social and economic need in your area, it should clearly identify the areas and communities that experience the highest levels of disadvantage and the nature of that disadvantage.

8. 3. The Process

9. The Process Cross Directorate Internal Working Group established in Donegal County Council CPA Consultant assigned to work with DCC on the development of all stages of the Local Anti Poverty Strategy including the development of the Local Poverty Profile Research undertaken by Research and Policy Unit in Donegal County Council - but under taken by Social Inclusion Units in both West Meath and Cork County Councils

10. The Process Learning from Experience of other local authorities that had compiled poverty profiles Indicators identified by CPA - National Poverty Indicators Internal Cross Directorate Working Group Research and Policy Unit Data Gathered and Analysed by Research and Policy Drafts presented to Internal Cross Directorate Working Group, who made the final sign off Copies of final draft sent to SIM and CDB for Information Purposes

11. 4. Steps in Developing a Local Poverty Profile

12. 3. Steps in developing a Local Poverty Profile Selection of Themes Selection of Indicators Data Identification & Collection Basic Data Analysis Mapping (using GIS) Presentation & Review

13. I. Selection of Themes Themes Poverty and people Welfare Dependency and Employment Housing Health and Poverty Educational Disadvantage Quality of Life Physical Environment Infrastructure and Accessibility Local Specific Aspects

14. II. Selection of Indicators Source Indicators identified under the 7 themes of NAPs Indicators and data relating to poverty and social exclusion collected from national and international publications like the CSO, DSCFA, International Labour Office etc. Indicators held by the different Local Authority Directorates on housing, roads, cultural services etc

15. III. Identifying and Gathering Data Finding the most appropriate data is one of the key tasks in building up a Local Poverty Profile this was done: Though Desk Research by the Research and Policy Unit under the direction of the Strategic Policy Manager to identify relevant local, national and international publications and datasets In the Internal Cross Directorate Working Group to identify appropriate indicators Through Consultations with each Directorate of Donegal County Council to identify data or datasets held within each directorate of the council

16. IV Data Analysis Headline indicators were presented to Determine the extent of poverty within County Donegal across a number of thematic areas Allow for relative poverty comparisons between the Headline Poverty Indicators in County Donegal and State Determine the extent of deprivation across the 149 different Electoral Divisions (149) within County Donegal (I.e. by mapping the Trutz Haase Deprivation Index) Examine poverty over a time series ie 1991 – 1996 and 1996 – 2002 in an effort to determine if the situation is deteriorating of improving

17. 5. Poverty in County Donegal

18. I. A comparion of deprivation scores between the State, Border, County and SubCounty Level

19. A Comparsion of Relative Affluence/Deprivation Scores 2002 Source: GAMMA, 2002

20. I. Deprivation Scores at sub county level

21. Note: Relative deprivation in County Donegal in 2002 was –9.6 while in the State it was +2.2

22. II. A comparsion of headline indicators between County Donegal and the State

24. III. A comparsion of poverty levels across counties in Ireland

26. IV. Lower Social Classes in County Donegal vis-à-vis the State 1986, 1991,1996, 2002

27. The percentage of the population falling into Social Class 5 (Semi Skilled) & Social Class 6(Unskilled) Source: CSO, 2002

28. 6. Difficulties and Challenges

29. Lack of a dedicated Social Inclusion Unit in County Donegal Unlike Cork and Westmeath Local Authorities Donegal was capturing data for the first time and not building on the work already done Difficulties in Dis-aggregation of Statistical Information to County Level In some cases the only available data is at national or regional level for example Health Board Data Timeliness of Data There was a reliance on the 1996 or 2002 data, which was only coming on stream when the profile was being developed 6. Difficulties and Challenges

30. Lack of information in some areas on specific circumstances of target groups Early school leavers Literacy Levels Inability to attain specific indicators the number of older people without access to a telephone The number of lone parents or older people who rely solely on state benefits for their income No Primary Research It was not within the scope of the poverty profiles to undertake additional primary research to gather information. Therefore, the poverty profiles are based soely on secondary sources and from existing statistical resources of agencies currently working within the field 6. Difficulties and Challenges

31. 7. Uses and Applications

32. Uses of a Profile Identify key priority or focus areas for the Development of the Local Anti Poverty Strategy Raising Awareness on Poverty Issues across Local Authority Directorates Local Authority Service Planning -By identifying target groups where an integrated service approach is required towards tackling poverty and social exclusion

33. Uses of a Profile Economic Taskforces - by identifying gaps in socio economic infrastructure and highlighting the requirements for investments to fill those gaps External Dissemination – to ensure that appropriate national, regional, local funding and resources can be targeted to areas of greatest need By Area Partnerships in service planning ie DLDC, IRDL, MFG

34. Uses of a Profile By Letterkenny Institute & other institutes to develop and devise educational initiatives to address gaps in service delivery Establishing a baseline against which the progress made in alleviating poverty in the county & can be monitored on an ongoing basis Used by SIM to identify a target group action plan

35. Outline of Presentation What is a Local Anti Poverty Profile? Steps involved The Process to Building up a Poverty Profile Poverty in County Donegal Difficulties and Challenges Uses and Applications