Rural England
Help from social services
Key points
- Slightly fewer older people receive help from social services to live at home in rural authorities than in urban authorities but the difference is not great.
- See the UK indicator on help to live at home.
Graph 1: Compared to urban
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Rural/urban ratios (urban = 10)
On most poverty and social exclusion indicators, rural areas have 'better scores' than urban areas. The purpose of the table below is to differentiate between those subjects where rural areas are 'a bit better' and those where rural areas are 'a lot better'. It does so by presenting the rural statistics for the indicator as a proportion of the urban statistics. So, for example, a rural 'score' of 6 in the table below means that the rural statistic is around 60% of its urban equivalent.
| 'Mostly rural' authorities | 9 |
|---|
Definitions and data sources
The indicator
This indicator shows the number older people receiving help from local authority social services to help them to live at home. The data is expressed per 1,000 population aged 75 and over.
Unlike most of the other indicators, this indicator is not a measure of need, so it is inappropriate to take it as a proxy for levels of older people's health or family-support. Instead it is an indicator graphing the level of social services departments' provision.
Level of the data
Upper tier local authorities. Both the classification rules and their results by local authority can be found on the page on rural/urban classification systems. Note that there is no official government rural/urban classification system for upper tier local authorities but that the one used here has been designed to be consistent with the DEFRA 2005 classification system for lower tier local authorities.
Source
Commission for Social Care Inspection performance assessment framework (PAF) reports. The data is for 2006/07.
External links
See Joseph Rowntree Foundation report on Social care in rural areas.
The numbers
| Type of authority | Per 1,000 people aged 75 and over |
|---|---|
| 'Mostly rural' authorities | 154 |
| Other authorities | 168 |