Do you use Output Areas?

Posted by Nick Stripe on January 26th 2007

A hybrid solution to the question of stability or redrawing has been offered by one or two people.  This hybrid is arrived at from a viewpoint that sees the merits of keeping Super Output Areas stable, but that is less sure about Output Areas.  I'd like to investigate this a bit.

I'll try and summarise the thinking behind the solution offered.  Apologies if I don't do it justice.  Corrections welcomed!

Apart from the 2001 Census, few data sources have been made available to ONS for publication at the OA level.  Outputs and data definitions for the next Census have yet to be defined.  It is possible that Census indicators of change at a level as small as OAs could be rendered invalid as a result of any changes to data definitions.  Given these points, OAs could be entirely redrawn within stable Lower Layer SOA (LSOA) boundaries and be based on Census 2011 data.  SOA time series data would therefore be safeguarded.

I can see the thinking here, and it could certainly be done.  But I wonder what the benefits of redrawing OAs within a straightjacket as tight as LSOA boundaries would be?  On average each LSOA only has 4 or 5 OAs nested within it.  We wouldn't be redrawing across these boundaries.  Would we merely be changing for changes sake and satisfying no-one, or are there some clear benefits here?

I also wonder whether OAs are being used for other purposes.  If so, these would be undermined by such a solution.  The OA Classification would certainly be affected.  Are there other uses of OAs that would be put at risk?

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Super Output Areas

Posted by Cllr Shirley Legate (not verified) on 11/02/2007 - 23:42

These were particularly helpful in a recent primary school review in my town, as we were able to evidence the relative deprivation in the SOA in which the school and surrounding area was located. Being able to provide the governors and the County Council with the evidence, relating so closely to that particular area, was I am sure instrumental not only in getting the primary school saved, but in having a Childrens Centre allocated to the ward I represent.

I am sure that having information at such a local depth, is beneficial to us in local government being able to target resources and services where they are much needed.

I assume Output Areas, are SOAs broken down even further. I would have thought these were only essential where very targetted information is needed, and I am not sure whether they need to be publicly accessible, if your resources are limited.

But please do not stop publishing SOA level information, it is so helpful.

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Re-drawing OA boundaries

Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on 03/02/2007 - 11:24

For at least 3 years, almost every Fire & Rescue Service in the UK has been using a risk-mapping tool (provided by DCLoG) to predict the relative risk from fires, vehicle accidents and the myriad range of incident types that we respond to. The building block for the risk maps is the Output Area. Re-drawing these will make comparisons of risk trends, and analysis of the relative benefits of the fire prevention strategies employed, somewhere between very difficult and meaningless. We use these risk maps to prioritise initiatives such as home safety visits, to engage and work with partners when comparing risks to communities, and to make longer-term planning decisions about where we need to base fire stations. The risk maps themselves are based upon demographic data (Census 2001), travel times for response purposes over the road network, and XY-plotted incident locations. If a serious fire happened in OA AB1 before (say) 2011, but the same incident is plotted in OA AB2 in 2012, the risk maps will show that AB1 is now a safer place to be, and probably requires less preventative effort. This is not just a case of marketing more efficiently to customers - it is a matter of real-world public safety. Apologies if this sounds somewhat emotive when discussing data boundaries - but you did ask whether OAs are being used for other purposes :)

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Re - Incident Risks

Posted by Nick Stripe on 05/02/2007 - 08:39

Thank you for your comment. This is exactly the kind of use for OAs I wasn't aware of before.

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