Local Deprivation Indicators (Hansard, 3 February 1999)

§ Mr. Andrew Smith

This Department's policies are central to local activity in addressing social exclusion and in stimulating the regeneration of deprived communities. As well as our mainstream funding of education and employment initiatives, the Department leads on a number of local area-based initiatives which aim to raise educational standards, improve skills and employability and encourage lifelong learning. This Department is keen to ensure that disadvantaged communities benefit, and therefore includes measures of deprivation when selecting areas in which initiatives will operate. As well as using a variety of data sources, including the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions' Index of Deprivation, the Department also recognises that the identification of pockets of deprivation in otherwise non-deprived areas needs local knowledge.

The range of indices used for each initiative varies depending on the policy objectives, as the following examples illustrate. (i) Assessment of Education Action Zones draws on indicators of deprivation at school level, such as eligibility for free school meals. (ii) The second round of New Start partnerships which are focused on areas which show relatively high levels of disengagement from learning by young people. Government Offices also used information available to them on levels of deprivation to select the project areas. (iii) The selection of Employment Zones used indices based on the level of long-term unemployment (12 months and over, and 18 months and over) and the local employment rate.

The selection of successful bids for running most pilots or area-based initiatives is also based on the quality of plans and feasibility of proposals. A final criterion for selecting pilot areas is an assessment of what is already happening in the area to avoid partnerships being overburdened by the bureaucracy involved in participating in different initiatives. This Department is very supportive of the DETR's work in improving the co-ordination of area-based initiatives so that communities can benefit from a coherent approach to regeneration in their area.