Local Statistics Tool User Guide

Vivienne Avery

AgeUKResearch

2013Contact:

research@ageuk.org.uk

Why use local data?

• To deepen your understanding of older people and their needs in

your area

• To understand the key drivers for funders and commissioners

• To complement and support your qualitative expert knowledge

• To support the identification of local priorities and hot spots

• To ensure your services are targeted where they are most needed

• To develop a dynamic planning process

• To help you to measure impact

Benefits of using the tool

At a recent staff away day for a local Age UK I presented the stats tool to staff to demonstrate the level of intelligence that can be called upon from Age UK. This is increasingly important as we move in to a more clinical world of commissioning and have to demonstrate the worth of our services in more quantitative ways. The level of detail that we now have at our finger tips impressed the staff and I am sure they will make good use of this impressive resource.

Alison Waters, Age UK, London & South

I just had the link for the Local Statistics tool forwarded to me and had to comment on what a useful and well-constructed spreadsheet it is. To be able to access so much London borough information with just a couple of clicks is very valuable indeed.

Ben Donovan, Age UK, London

Key features of this version

• Data for all 365 Local/Unitary authorities + Home NationsMore areas

• e.g. Service data (e.g. Health and social services)

• Lifestyle dataNew topics

• Select an area for a profile comparing this to your regional and national averageLocal Area Profiles

• instantly see how your area compares to the national pictureMaps

• Reliable estimates based on official statisticsImproved data quality

• focus on making it user friendly Simplicity

Data themes

• Population

• Living Arrangements

• Life Expectancy

• Health / Health Services

• Social Care & Carers

• Mortality & End of Life

• Pensions, Poverty and Exclusion

• Employment and Lifestyle

Accessing the spreadsheetThe most up-to-date version is on

AGEnet

Updates are announced in the weekly

Signpost bulletin

To access the tool, click on:

Resources

Information and Advice

Information Resources

Local Statistics

Maximising the screen

1. Click the

‘maximise’ button

2. Click the left hand

arrow to all

worksheets are

visible

1. Click the

‘maximise’ button

2. Click ‘’ to go to

the start of the list of

worksheets

Use the Index worksheet to navigate

to where you want to go

• The spreadsheet

contains 9

worksheets

• Click on the ‘Index’

worksheet for an

explanation of each

worksheetClick on the Index worksheet

Finding the Indicator you need

Click on the worksheet ‘List of Indicators’

Scroll down through the list in Column B to find the item of

interest

Click on the link to go to that item in the ‘Data’ worksheet

Browse other columns in this worksheet provide more

information about each indicator

3. Click on a link to go

to the desired indicator

1. Click on the ‘List of

Indicators’ worksheet

2. Scroll down to browse

through the indicator list

Using the ‘Data’ worksheet

The ‘Data’ worksheet lists areas in rows and indicators in columns

Nations and English regional totals are listed first, followed by

local authorities

social care county councils

Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland local authorities/districts

To find your area either scroll down through the list

Or use the ‘search’ function

To search for a local area

• Click at the top of column

D to highlight the column

• Click on ‘find and select’

• Type in part of the area

name

• Click ‘find next’ if a

different area comes up at

first

• Highlight the row for that

area to read across for all

the indicators

1. Click to highlight

Column D

2. Click ‘Find and

Select’ and type in

area name

Using Social Care data

• The areas responsible for

providing social care are a

mix of local/unitary

authorities and county

councils

• In areas where

responsibility lies with the

local authority, the social

care indicators can be

found in the relevant row

• In areas where

responsibility lies with a

county council, data can be

found by scrolling down

where these are listed

below the local authorities

Local Area Profiles

• This new tool provides an

overview of statistics on older

people in your area and

compares this to the regional and

national average

• Simply select an area from the

drop-down list and the profile is

created automatically

• You can print or save the profile

as a .pdf by clicking the buttons

(you may need to enable macros

in your version of Excel)

• Future profiles will allow

comparison of two or more

individual areas

Select chose authority from

drop-down menu

Maps of selected indicators

• A selection of maps provide a

snapshot of how your area

compares with the national

pattern

• To adjust the size for a better

view, either

• use the zoom feature within

excel,

• or click on the map and drag

and corners

• or cut and paste into another

document

• The maps are .jpeg files and

can be cut and pasted into other

documents for your own use

Lower level analysis

• This worksheet tells you

how to get data for

different geographies

including smaller areas

• These include Clinical

Commissioning Groups

and Lower Super Output

Areas.

• Data for smaller areas

provide a more precise

picture but are only

available for a few

indicators

• In future we hope to

include these in the tool

Future plans

• This is part of a longer-term programme to improve the accessibility of local

data on older people

• We hope further releases will include

• More area comparison tools

• Expanded range of indicators drawing on Census 2011 and other data

• Data for a range of different geographies

• Ability to select different age groups e.g. today’s pensioners,

tomorrow’s pensioners, those aged 85 & over

• Training in how to use evidence

• Tools to allow users to create local maps and do more interactive

analysis

New web tool on the Knowledge Hub

• We developed an interactive map

for the Party Conferences showing

data by Parliamentary Constituency

• Received requests from a range of

people including local partners who

find the data useful when dealing

with their MP

• This has been added to our website

• To access use the link below, or go

to the Age UK website, click on ‘For

professionals’ at the top then

‘Knowledge Hub’ from menu at

RHS

http://www.ageuk.org.uk/professional-resources-home/knowledge-hub-

evidence-statistics/interactive-maps-of-ageing-/

Feedback

• There are currently 26,000 data items in the spreadsheet. We have done

some intensive checking but there may still be errors. Please let us know if

something looks odd

• We need your feedback on the content and design of the tool to feed into

our future planning e.g.

• Comments on design and usability

• Comments on the sort of comparison tools that would be useful

• Requests for data items

• Send your feedback to research@ageuk.org.uk or contact me

vivienne.avery@ageuk.org.uk / tel: 0203 033 1381