Project spotlight - Rural deprivation and exclusion
OCSI's programme of work on rural exclusion is helping local, regional and national partners make the case for increased regeneration funding to rural areas, and enabling mainstream services in rural areas to more effectively target services.
The OCSI input has proved of considerable value, and the OCSI model is increasingly being used across the country. John Dixon, Chief Executive, Norfolk Rural Community CouncilWe have worked with many rural organisations to better understand and target rural exclusion, including the Commission for Rural Communities (CRC), Norfolk Rural Community Council, Suffolk County Council and Suffolk ACRE, Oxfordshire Rural Community Council, and South-East Rural Community Councils.
- Identifying pockets of deprivation: Our work with Norfolk and the Commission for Rural Communities has enabled more detailed identification and analysis of 'pockets of deprivation' than is possible with published datasets. We have modelled key deprivation datasets such as the Index of Multiple Deprivation to Output Area level - each of which contains just over 100 households
- Understanding the 'rural share' of deprivation: Our analysis is helping rural agencies identify the volume and pattern of the 'rural share' of deprivation, helping understand whether targeted area-based programmes or broader thematic interventions might be more appropriate
- Identifying access to services issues: Improving service provision is a key issue in rural areas, where vulnerable adults have to travel greater distances to access vital services. Our work in Oxfordshire helped identify:
- Priority areas: those settlements with poor service provision
- Priority groups: people who face particular difficulties accessing services
- Priority services: poor levels of provision of a particular service in rural areas
- Profiling communities in rural areas: Detailed information on communities and settlements can help strengthen the local evidence base for targeting of mainstream programmes; parish and community planning; and developing funding applications.
Please contact us to find out more, or follow the links below for more information.
Further information
Reports
- Commission for Rural Communities
- Deprivation in Rural Norfolk report and Technical Report
- Rural volume of deprivation in the South-East (link to external website)
Articles
- "Hidden poverty in rural areas" (Eastern Daily Press)
- "Rural Deprivation study reveals hidden truths" (Suffolk Scene)
- "Rural poverty fears as numbers revealed" (East Anglia Daily Times)
- "Deprivation in Rural Norfolk" (LARIA News)
Datasets
- Deprivation datasets modelled to Output Area level:
All Areas (This text file contains all data for Output Areas in England. Users with older versions of Excel may need to use the individual region files below)
East Midlands - East England - London - North-East England - North-West England - South-East England - South-West England - West Midlands - Yorkshire and the Humber
Datasets have been updated (1st July 2008) - please see metadata in files for details
- The Rural Share of Deprivation in the South-East (link to external website)