Since the 1970s the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and its predecessors have calculated local measures of deprivation in England. It is based on 39 separate indicators, organised across seven distinct domains of deprivation.
It follows an established methodological framework in broadly defining deprivation to encompass a wide range of an individual’s living conditions.
Source: www.gov.uk/government/statistics/english-indices-of-deprivation-2019
People may be considered to be living in poverty if they lack the financial resources to meet their needs, whereas people can be regarded as deprived if they lack any kind of resources, not just income.
Policy in Practice has created a free tool, below, which explores this data for each local authority district. This offers an initial overview of how your district compares to others.
You can also look at smaller areas within your community for each of the different domains of deprivation.
To get started, select a local authority district from the dropdown box.
Whilst this open data offers a useful starting point, the Low Income Family Tracker (LIFT) tool by Policy in Practice offers insights into similar themes but at the household level and it is updated monthly. It can identify trends and proactively pinpoint support to individual households, even in areas of relatively low overall need.
Contact hello@policyinpractice.co.uk to find out more about how the tool can help you to identify vulnerable households, target support and track what changes over time for the low-income families in your area.