developing social indicators in the uk and eu
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Developing Social Indicators in the UK and EU
Elaine Squires
United Kingdom representative - Social Protection Committee’s Indicator Sub-group
Overview
• Background to social inclusion in the EU
• Developing indicators – UK and EU
• Using UK indicators and the Laeken set
• Lessons to be learned and future indicators
Social Inclusion in the EU
• Need to make a ‘decisive impact’ on social exclusion by 2010
• Strategy for individual member states but
• ‘open method’ of co-ordination allows action to be harmonised across EU– Commonly agreed indicators– National Action Plans– Action Programme
The Open method
• Based on approach adopted for the European Employment Strategy
• Improves national strategy through shared learning
• Supports transnational analysis of social exclusion
• ‘Joint Inclusion Report’ based on National Action Plans
The UK Government’s Strategy
Opportunity for all annual report and devolved poverty reports
UK strategy based on a lifecycle approach– for children, breaking cycles of deprivation– for people of working age, access to work– for older people, security in retirement– for communities, tackling the problems of deprived
neighbourhoods
• Also based on rigorous analysis– wide range of indicators of social exclusion
Developing social indicators
What makes a good indicator?
• Relevant to the Government’s strategy
• Related to the ‘outcomes’ the Government wants to achieve rather than the ‘processes’
• Based on publicly available and statistically robust data
– National Statistics guidelines
• Unambiguous interpretation
EU principles on indicators
• Clear normative interpretation
• Robust and statistically valid
• Responsive to policy but not subject to manipulation
• Comparable across member states
• Timely and susceptible to revision
• Not impose a large burden
Developing the Ofa indicators
• Range of indicators to capture many different aspects of poverty and social exclusion
• Consistency across Government with other indicators
• Reviewed annually - indicators added this year on:– Families in temporary accommodation– Care leavers – destinations– Juvenile reconviction rates
Laeken indicators
• First set of 18 common indicators agreed in 2001:– Low income– Employment– Education– Health
• New indicators agreed on in-work poverty and literacy
Using indicators
Children
• Children more at risk of poverty in UK
• UK strategy based on– Improving family incomes– support in early years (SureStart)– tackling educational disadvantage– help with transition to adult life
• Elimination pledge and related PSA targets
Risk of poverty for age 0-15
Source: Households Below Average Income seriesOfa Indicator
Percentage of children living in relative low income (below 60% median income)
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
1996/97 1997/98 1998/99 1999/00 2000/01 2001/02 2002/03
BHC
AHC
Risk of poverty for age 0-15
Laeken indicator 1a
Percentage of children (0-15 years) below 60 per cent of national median income - 2001
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Denm
ark
Finlan
d
Sweden
Belgium
Austri
a
Germ
any
Nethe
rland
s
Franc
e
Greec
e
Luxe
mbo
urg
EU15 a
vera
ge
United
King
dom
Italy
Irelan
d
Spain
Portu
gal
Source: European Community Household Panel
Policy Transfer - Children
• Measuring child poverty– adopting internationally recognised indicator– looking at measure of deprivation (Ireland)– Ambition to be amongst best in EU
• Also looking at Scandinavian approach– to parental employment – to childcare
Working Age
• Removing barriers to work– making work possible– making work pay– making work skilled
• Support for those for whom work is not currently an option
• Number of PSA targets on employment and worklessness
Individuals in jobless households (0-60)
Laeken indicator 7, 2002 data
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
EU15
UnitedKingdom
Source: Eurostat Labour Force Survey
Individuals in jobless households
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
0-59
0-15
Ofa indicatorsSource: Labour Force Survey
Employment rates of disadvantaged groups
Employment rates for Disadvantaged Groups (GB)
0.0%
10.0%
20.0%
30.0%
40.0%
50.0%
60.0%
70.0%
80.0%
1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
All working age
Over 50s
Ethnic Minority People
Lone Parents
People with disabilities
Source: Labour Force SurveyOfa indicator
Policy Transfer- Working Age
• UK has amongst the most flexible labour markets in the EU
• But still need to focus on vulnerable groups, unskilled and poor areas
• Can use the NAP process to focus on what works well, eg– France is developing new employment policies– regional policies in Germany
New ways of working
• EU has no direct control over UK social inclusion strategy
• Many UK strategies operate at national level
• NAP allows us to work across these boundaries
• Active engagement with EU in this area important– allows us to learn from best practice across 25 countries– Benchmarking UK performance– can help to join up action across UK– supports partnership and participatory ways of working
Lessons for future
• Laeken indicators provide important trans-national comparisons:– Difficult to reach agreement– Need to look at range of indicators to explain positions of MS– Data problems of next few years
• Still need a range of national data– can be more up to date– provides more detail– addresses UK priorities– covers existing UK targets
Future indicators
• EU level work underway looking at:– Pensions– Health care– Housing
• UK:– Continue to review and improve indicators with
better/new data– Child poverty – material deprivation from 2006
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