December 2006

Thank you to everyone who has posted a comment so far on this blog.  I've been really pleased to see the thoughts of people I've not previously talked to, as well as those of some familiar faces. 

The response to the consultation survey has also been very encouraging.  Please make sure you take the time to complete it so that your views are included on all topics.

You may feel the need to escape the fun for a few minutes over Christmas and the New Year?!  If so, please do carry on posting your thoughts to me.  Although I'm not in the office, I will still be checking the site and will continue to publish your comments.

I want to concentrate this post on one of the topics in the survey: whether there should be an Upper Layer of SOAs, or a layer in any future geography that contains 25,000 - 40,000 people.

I've picked up on a potential area of confusion here from early survey responses.  Some of you have pointed out that you can create your own customised areas from the layers below.  This is true.  But you can only aggregate the data that's already available to you.  

The benefit of having an 'Upper Layer' is that it may enable the release of data that you can't currently get for areas smaller than local authority districts.  I'm thinking about Neighbourhood Statistics now, not the Census.  Data that is too low incidence, or potentially too disclosive to release for Lower or Middle Layer SOAs, or wards, or any other small area geography.  Datasets related to topics like illness and mortality, or ethnicity etc.