Representative
About
The ONS is keen to establish a long term, small area geography policy which will be used for Census 2011 and Neighbourhood Statistics. The aim is to support the production of coherent and useful data that can be used with confidence by all organisations.
The consultation paper is available online. This describes all policy proposals, the background to them, and a number of attendant issues. Please take the time to get involved by responding to the survey and joining in the debate around the blog posts.
Latest Posts
- The consultation has now closed .........
- Consultation period ends this Friday (16th Feb)
- Do you use Output Areas?
- Don't forget the surveys
- How important are postcodes?
- Should boundaries be tied to the real world?
- Festive messages
- Health data? Ethnicity data? Do we need bigger areas?
- Consultation document
- OAs and SOAs - Stick or Twist?
Geography to drive policy
Posted by Neil Bendel (Health Intelligence Manager, Manchester) (not verified) on 11/01/2007 - 09:43
The debate about geography is always interesting but in the drive to achieve the 'purest' statistical geography people tend to forget that a key purpose of creating data for small geographies is to influence where and how services are delivered and in doing so to make a difference to people's life. Hence there has to be a connection between the geography units at which data is OUTPUT and the areas at which services are DELIVERED. Wards may be imperfect from a theoretical point of view (and I agree with much of what is said) but in many local authorities and PCTs they are used as basis for service delivery and democratic accountability through ward co-ordination arrangements etc. The need to monitor the effectiveness and impact of these services means that ward level geography is, and should continue, to be a cornerstone of ONS policy.