1

Donegal County Councils

‘Experience of Developing a Poverty Profile’

15th /16th May 2006By

Ms Valerie BryceCommunity Development Worker Community Culture and Enterprise

2

Outline of Presentation

1. Background

2. What is a Local Anti Poverty Profile?

3. The Process to Building up a Poverty Profile in County

Donegal

4. Steps involved in carrying out a Poverty Profile

5. Poverty in County Donegal

6. Difficulties and Challenges

7. Uses and Applications

3

1. Background

4

Date Event

1990 Celtic Tiger. Increase in living standards. Proportion of the population in consistent poverty fell from 15.1% to 8.2%

1997 The Government used this as an opportunity to create a more inclusive society in Ireland and this was reflected with the establishment of a National Anti Poverty Strategy

2000 County or City Development Boards were established in each Authority Area – allowing each local authority to work with others to address poverty, social exclusion and disadvantage

2002 ‘Building an Inclusive Society’ – Review of NAPs

2003 CPA invites local authorities to make submissions for the preparation of a Local Anti Poverty Strategy

2003 Donegal, Cork and West Meath applications to Develop a Local Anti Poverty Strategy were successful

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

I. Selection of Themes

II. Selection of Indicators

III. Data Identification & Collection

IV. Basic Data Analysis

V. Mapping (using GIS)

VI. 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

2002

Donegal - 9.6

Donegal Central -5.4

IOWEN -12.0

Donegal Gaeltacht -16.6

Borders -4.8

BMW -2.2

S & E 3.7

National 2.2

Source: GAMMA, 2002

20

I. Deprivation Scores at sub county level

21Note: 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

23

Indicator Year Donegal State

Population Size 2002 137,575 3,917,203

Population Density (per sq km) 2002 28 56

Age Dependency 2002 36% 32%

No of persons in receipt of UB April 2003

4,191 79,868

No of persons in receipt of UA April 2003

5,119 79,530

GMS Entitlement 2001/02 65,869 1,200,000

% of persons whose full time education has ceased with no formal education qualifications

2002 32% 21%

Disposable income per person 2001 €13,347 €15,523

No of Traveller Families 2002 175 families

23,681 ( persons)

No of older persons 65+ living alone

2002 4,812 113,826

24

III. A comparsion of poverty levels across counties in Ireland

25

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)

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

1986 1991 1996 2002

%StateDonegal

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 ResearchIt 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

1. What is a Local Anti Poverty Profile?

2. Steps involved

3. The Process to Building up a Poverty Profile

4. Poverty in County Donegal

5. Difficulties and Challenges

6. Uses and Applications