Good use of information from a variety of sources will allow you to better understand and target your older community. Councils need to make better use of information to understand their communities so that they can plan strategically and target resources where they will have the biggest impact. This will include understanding the demographic profile, making best use of existing information and targeting those who will benefit the most.
Understanding your demographic profile
- Current age and gender profile
The Office of National Statistics (ONS) provide population estimates for UK, England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The zip files contain various tables. You can select either 5 year age groups or individual age.
- Age projections
An excel spread sheet with age projections for every council in England is available to download at the bottom of this page. Also, the ONS provides sub-national population projections.
- Ethnicity
The NOMIS census data website will allow you to produce tables and downloadable Excel spreadsheets of ethnicity by age and gender in your council area or wards. To get this data: on the NOMIS page select wizard query, choose standard tables (council area) or census area (output area), then select your council or area by clicking 'some' in the 'local authorities' or 'output areas' menu, which will allow you to choose it from a list.
- Lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender people
The Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association provide a comprehensive, but by no means exhaustive, collection of links to lesbian, gay and bisexual help lines and support groups in different areas of the country. You may want to contact these directly in order to get an idea of provision for lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender (LGBT) older people in your area, or bookmark your local area page and link to it through your website. It could also be a starting point for compiling a list of local organisations in your area that you can direct LGBT older people towards.
Age Concern has gathered together a collection of useful resources concerning LGBT older people. Your local Age Concern should be able to provide more information on what is available at a local level.
- Life expectancy
ONS provide life expectancy data by local authority.
- Health issues
The Care Services Improvement Partnership provides an interactive program for exploring the impact of demography on health entitled Projecting older people population information (POPPI) (requires registration).
- Employment
NOMIS has an official labour market statistics tool for local authorities, which will help you to profile your older working population
Making use of information you may already have
We suggest that you explore the following data that your council may already use. Hyperlinks are provided if this data is not locally collected
- GP and A&E data
As well as using your own internal and local contacts, a starting point for health data collection can be the NHS Information Centre, the source of health and social care data for England. To find out about hospital admissions for your area, you may want to look at Hospital Episode Statistics, which is a data store of hospital admissions data.
- Pension Service data
The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) tabulation tool provides statistical information on all things pension-related, which allows you to select the data and analysis you want. They also produce occasional publications on pension data, for example the regular Pensioners' Incomes Series. Both can be accessed through the pension statistics homepage on the DWP website. You may also wish to explore other DWP data such as carer's benefit take up, bereavement benefits and New Deal 50+ information.
Reaching the older people most at risk
Don't Stop Me Now highlights certain factors that can make an older person more at risk of social isolation (ch5; pg 58). The following information will help target these groups.
- Aged 80+
The number of local people aged 80+ can be found in the ONS current population figures by local authority. Local hospital admissions data about people aged 80+, as well as bereavement data, can help identify the more vulnerable people in this age group in your area. For example, an information leaflet about services for older people could be sensitively targeted at those who have recently lost a partner. To find out about hospital admissions for your area, you may want to look at the Hospital Episode Statistics, which is a data store of hospital admissions data.
- Living alone or in rented accommodation
There are significant numbers of older people living alone and in rented accommodation. To target services at these people you may want to contact your housing department to look into profiling locally. In terms of identifying numbers of older people living alone in your local area or local wards, the NOMIS census data website will allow you to produce tables by age, sex and housing tenure/number of people in household. To get this data, go NOMIS, select wizard query, then choose standard tables (council area) or census area (output area). Select your council or area and follow the instructions to select the data you want.
- No access to a car or public transport
You may be able to profile this locally, and you may already know of certain areas where this is an issue. You can find out how many older people did not own a vehicle in the 2001 census through the link to NOMIS above. However, this information is best profiled locally, by sharing data between departments and partners.
- Low income/benefits as main income
You may already have this data, but it is obtainable through the DWP's A-Z list of benefits statistics.
- No access to a telephone
In 2000, around 95% of UK households had a home telephone. However, there may be a small number of older people in your area who do not have access to a telephone, including those who have had the service cut off through not paying the bill. These older people may have unmet needs due to problems contacting the council or other agencies. You may want to contact your local telecommunications providers in order to discuss sharing data about households who do not have a telephone. You may also want to think about how to reach people who cannot, or do not want to use a telephone - for example through council 'drop in' customer services and by post.