canterbury-profile - Kent County Council

Kent County Council
Supporting Independence Programme
Area Profile 2008
Canterbury

Introduction & contents
This document is an update of Kent County Council’s Supporting
Independence Programme Area Profile for Canterbury. It presents the
most recently available data and analysis for the Canterbury City Council
area at ward and lower super output area (LSOA) level. It is designed to
highlight the main issues in the areas within this district that are
experiencing the most complex, multiple disadvantage.
The report looks at data which underpins the ten groups or archetypes
highlighted by the Supporting Independence Programme in order to focus
the work of KCC and its partners onto those groups and locations which
require the most concentrated effort. By looking holistically at particularly
disadvantaged areas and taking into account a variety of factors it is hoped
that the issues that are particular to these areas can be tackled more
effectively. Indeed research commissioned by KCC, Her Majesty’s Treasury
and the Department of Work & Pensions carried out by Oxford University
suggests that people who live in those disadvantaged wards that have a SIP
focus are up to 30% more likely to exit benefit dependency than those who
live in other disadvantaged wards in the South East.
The ten groups are:
1. Young people with low attainment and aspiration
2. Young people in care or leaving care
3. Adult and young offenders
4. Lone parents and teenage pregnancy
5. Working age welfare benefit recipients
6. Adults with low qualifications and skills
7. Alcohol and other drug misusers
8. Adults with physical and learning disabilities
9. Transient or seasonal groups
10. Vulnerable older people
Not all the data for these groups is available at ward level or lower. Those
groups which do not have low‐level data are omitted from this report.
Also, some data providers have been unable to update the data they
provide in time, so we have presented the last datasets available to us at
the time of writing (August 2008).
In Canterbury, there are a number of wards which this report concentrates
on, as the data shows that people living in these areas are generally more
likely to experience a range of complex and multiple disadvantages than
elsewhere. This report focuses on these wards and presents information
for Canterbury CC area and Kent as a whole, for comparison purposes. The
wards this report focuses on are:
• Heron
• Northgate
• Seasalter
All figures are rounded to the nearest 5 and counts under 3 are suppressed
to zero (0). Figures marked ~ are zero counts. Percentage figures are
calculated using unrounded numbers. Rankings are based on all 283 wards
in the Kent County Council area. Where LSOA data is presented, rankings
are based on all 883 LSOAs in the KCC area. A ranking of 1 signifies the
most disadvantaged ward or LSOA. Note that for some indicators numbers
are small, so should be used with caution.
Data is available for all Canterbury wards, but is not included in this report.
For data for other wards, or any other queries, please contact :
Kent County Council Supporting Independence Programme
Tel: 01622 696932, Email: sip@kent.gov.uk

The matrix to the left shows the wards which appear in the top 10% most
disadvantaged wards in Kent for each of the different indicators at ward
level (i.e. the top 28 wards). A blue square represents that ward’s
appearance in the top 10%, and the number inside the square represents
the ranking out of 283. The wards along the left hand side are those wards
which would be expected to appear towards the top of the rankings for
most indicators of disadvantage in Kent. It shows that the Canterbury
wards outlined above appear in the top 10% most disadvantaged wards in
the county in several indicators.
Northgate is ranked in the top 10% for five of the fourteen indicators. It is
ranked ninth in the county for two indicators (hospital admissions due to
drugs/alcohol, and Incapacity Benefits claimants). Heron appears in the top
10% wards in six indicators also, it’s highest ranking for limiting long term
illness and poor health (12 th and 11 th respectively). This represents
multiple, complex disadvantage in these two wards in particular.
The rest of this report is laid out according to the archetypes, and presents
the data for each of the four featured wards in this district for the
indicators used to underpin these archetypes.
Please bear in mind that if an individual finds themselves represented in
one of the archetypes, it can be that they may find themselves in others –
they are not exclusive. In fact, it is expected that these who live in
disadvantaged areas are more likely to experience a range of
disadvantages, so may well find themselves in several of these groups.

1. Young people with low attainment
& aspiration
This archetype uses two indicators: 16 – 18 year olds who are not in
education, employment or training (NEET), and young people who leave
school with less than 5 A* to G GCSEs.
Young people not in education, employment or training (NEET)
Selected Canterbury wards, March 2008. Source: Connexions
Ward Pop 16‐18 Count NEET Rate (per
100)
Rank from 283
Heron 287 15 4.9 93
Northgate 231 15 6.5 61
Seasalter 240 5 2.9 150
Canterbury CC 5,411 205 3.8 8
KCC AREA 49,816 2,224 4.5
None of the three wards rank in the top 10% most disadvantaged wards in
this indicator. The highest ranking ward in Canterbury is actually Barton
ward, at 31 st with a rate of 8.9 young people NEET per all 16‐18 year olds.
The highest ranking ward for this indicator in Kent is Folkestone Harvey
Central, with 21.3% of 16‐18 year olds NEET. Of the three wards in this
report, Northgate has the highest rate, at 6.5.
For Canterbury as a whole, 205 young people are NEET, around 4 per cent
of the total target population. This means that Canterbury has the eighth
highest rate of NEETs in the county by district. 4.5% of all 16 – 18 year olds
in Kent are NEET. There has been a decrease in NEET figures across Kent
and for Canterbury – down from 4.8% in April 2006. Rates have decreased
in all four wards.
School leavers with less than five A* to G GCSEs
Selected Canterbury wards, summer 2007. Source: Kent County Council CFE
Ward
All school
leavers
Count

is the third highest number of looked‐after children in Kent – only fewer
than Thanet and Swale. Thanet has by far the highest number with 445.
Of the 238 looked‐after children in Canterbury, 64% were placed by other
local authorities outside Kent, the remaining 34 individuals were placed by
KCC.
3. Adult & young offenders
This archetype uses two indicators: the number of young people aged
between 10 and 17 known to the Youth Offending Service (YOS), and
crimes that are recorded by Kent Police. YOS data is from August 2008, and
the police data is for the financial year 2007‐08.
Number of 10 to 17 year olds known to Kent Youth Offending Service
Selected Canterbury wards, August 2008. Source: Kent YOS
Ward Pop 10‐17 Count
known to
YOS
Rate (per
100)
Rank from
283
Heron 758 15 1.8 39
Northgate 535 10 2.1 32
Seasalter 674 10 1.3 70
Canterbury CC 13,767 135 1.0 7
KCC AREA 140,700 1,416 1.0
None of the three wards rank in the top 10% for this indicator, although
West Bay ward ranks 16 th , with 2.6% of the 10‐17 year old population
being known to YOS (although this is only around 15 people so a small
number). The highest rate is in Cliftonville West (Thanet) where the rate is
6.0%. Northgate ward has the highest rate for this indicator of the featured
wards in this report, at 32 nd with 2.1%.
Canterbury BC area has the seventh highest rate of all the twelve KCC
districts, Canterbury’s rate (1.0%) being the same as the Kent overall rate.
135 young people in Canterbury are known to YOS. Thanet has the highest
rate, at 1.5.
The rate for Canterbury has decreased since the last SIP report with data
from YOS presented at April 06. The district rate has gone down from 1.2%
whereas the county rate has remained the same. Rankings for all featured
wards have improved apart from Seasalter, which has seen no change. This
represents a relative improvement of the rate in Heron and Northgate
compared to other Kent wards.
Police recorded crimes
Selected Canterbury wards, April 2007 – March 2008. Source: Kent Police
Ward Pop (total) Count recorded
crimes
Rate (per
100)
Rank
from 283
Heron 8,900 1,045 11.8 31
Northgate 5,700 910 16.0 15
Seasalter 8,200 335 4.1 217
Canterbury CC 146,000 10,310 7.1 7
KCC AREA 1,383,600 107,530 7.8
Northgate ward ranks fifteenth in the county for total recorded crimes,
with 16 crimes being recorded per 100 people resident in the ward in one
financial year. Note, however, that this is a town centre ward and this will
have a major impact on the types of crimes recorded. Margate Central has
the highest recorded crime rate in Kent, with 44.2 crimes being recorded
per 100 people. That’s more than five times higher than the Kent rate of
7.8 per 100. The Canterbury CC area is the seventh highest ranking district
from the 12 in Kent, with just over 7 recorded crimes per 100 people. The
highest ranking districts are Dartford (10.9%) and Thanet (10.1%).
For Northgate, the most common crimes recorded were:

• Criminal Damage: 22% of all recorded crimes
• Violence against the person: 21%
• Theft offences: 15%
• Shoplifting: 13%
These crimes are commonly found in town centres, and are linked to the
night‐time economy and retail outlets. Most of the other highest‐ranking
wards in Kent are found in town centre locations.
Other than Northgate, Westgate and Barton wards also appear in the top
10% (Westgate 11 th with 22 crimes per 100 people and Barton 25 th with
13).
Total recorded crime rates in Kent have fallen since the previous financial
year – down from 8.6% to 7.8%. Canterbury’s rate has also decreased from
7.8%.
4. Lone parents & teenage pregnancy
The publishing of teenage pregnancy data is considered sensitive and is
therefore not released at a local level, and it is also released two years
retrospectively. We know that the rate and number of conceptions among
under 18s in Canterbury in 2006 was 79 conceptions per 1,000 females
aged 15‐17, and ranks ninth out of the twelve districts in Kent: this
represents 79 teenage conceptions. The county rate is 37.1, which is
slightly lower than the national rate of 40.7 per 1,000. However, the
Canterbury rate has shown the second greatest percentage decrease since
1998 – at 31% it is significantly higher than the rest of Kent’s districts.
England & Wales saw an average increase of 13.7% in teenage conception
rate between 1998 and 2006.
The data from Kent Teenage Pregnancy Unit also tells us that Heron ward
had the highest teenage conception rate in Canterbury in 2004, with rates
of between 50 and 74 conceptions per 1,000 15‐17 year old females. This
rate represents the 22 nd highest rate at ward level in Kent.
For lone parents, we use an indicator showing the number of lone parents
claiming Income Support. This data is provided by the Department of Work
and Pensions, and can be analysed at LSOA level too. Of the 883 LSOAs in
Kent, one LSOA in Gorrell (E01024061) ranks 33 rd highest in the county,
with 50 lone parents claiming Income Support – that’s 7% of the total
working age population of that particular neighbourhood (16‐59 for
women, 16‐64 for men).
Lone parents claiming Income Support
Selected Canterbury, May 2007. Source: Dept of Work & Pensions
Ward
Pop
(WA)
Count lone
parents on IS
Rate (per
100)
Rank
from 283
Heron 4,754 125 2.6 64
Northgate 3,759 130 3.5 37
Seasalter 3,797 70 1.8 102
Canterbury CC 80,812 1320 1.6 8
KCC AREA 795,039 15,480 1.9
The table above shows that none of the featured wards appear in the top
10 wards in Kent, Northgate ranking highest at 37 th with 3.5% of the
working age population being lone parents dependent on Income Support.
This is more than double the rate for Canterbury as a whole, which is the
eighth highest rate of the twelve districts in Kent – that’s 1,320 lone
parents within the city council area.
The rate for Canterbury has decreased by 1.5% since May 2006, and the
rates for all four featured wards have remained virtually unchanged.
No other wards in Canterbury rank in the top ten per cent – indeed, most
of the Canterbury wards are low‐ranking for this indicator. The highest
ranking ward in Kent for this indicator was Stanhope in Ashford, with a rate
of 8% of all working age people being lone parents dependent on IS.

The following section presents data on other individuals who are
dependent on other working age out‐of‐work benefits.
5. Working age welfare benefit
recipients
For this archetype, we can look at Jobseekers Allowance claimants and the
total number of working age people on out of work benefits (Incapacity
Benefits, Jobseekers Allowance and Lone Parents on Income Support).
Figures on Incapacity Benefits claimants specifically are presented in
section 8 below.
All working age people on out‐of‐work benefits (IB, JSA, Lone parents on
IS)
Selected Canterbury wards, May 2007. Source: Dept of Work & Pensions
Ward Pop (WA) Count total
WA benefit
claims
Rate (per
100)
Rank from
283
Heron 4,754 895 18.8 34
Northgate 3,759 835 22.2 21
Seasalter 3,797 510 13.4 94
Canterbury CC 80,812 4,990 6.2 5
KCC AREA 795,039 78030 9.8
Northgate ward ranks in the top 10% for the county and has the highest
rate in Canterbury. 22 per cent of all people of working age in Northgate
are dependent on welfare benefits. Cliftonville West in Thanet ranks
highest for this indicator, with nearly 40% of the working age population
dependent on welfare benefits.
Canterbury ranks fifth of the twelve districts in Kent for this indicator. The
figure of 6.2% represents a decrease of 2.5% from May 2006.
Jobseekers’ Allowance claimants
Selected Canterbury wards, May 2007. Source: Dept of Work & Pensions
Ward
Pop
(WA)
JSA claimants
Rate (per
100)
Rank
from 283
Heron 4,754 170 3.6 25
Northgate 3,759 115 3.1 40
Seasalter 3,797 50 1.3 150
Canterbury CC 80,812 1,325 1.6 7
KCC AREA 795,039 14,935 1.9
One of the featured wards in this report is in the top 10% wards in the
county for this indicator, although relatively low‐ranking: Heron having the
25 th highest rate of Jobseekers’ Allowance claimants for all wards in Kent,
with a rate of 3.6%. Folkestone Harvey Central ranks highest, with a rate
more than five times higher than the Kent average (10.8%).
Canterbury’s rate is the seventh highest in the county, at 1.6% of the
working age population. This represents a decrease of 17% from May
2006. The rate for Kent as a whole has also seen a fall, by 15% from 2.2 to
1.9.
The same LSOAs which rank first and second in the county in Cliftonville
West and Margate Central for total welfare benefit claimants (E01024657
and E01024678) rank second and third for Jobseekers Allowance claimants,
with 14% and 12% respectively.

6. Adults with low qualifications &
skills
We have to rely on Census data from 2001 for this indicator to present
data at a neighbourhood level.
Adults with no academic or vocational qualifications
Selected Canterbury wards, Census 2001. Source: ONS
Ward Pop (16‐
74)
Count – no
qualifications
Rate (per
100)
Rank from
283
Heron 5,730 1,877 32.8 72
Northgate 4,179 1,183 28.3 125
Seasalter 4,930 1,660 33.7 59
Canterbury CC 96,766 25,198 26.0 8
KCC AREA 947,830 268,478 28.3
None of the wards in Canterbury rank in the top 10% for this indicator.
Leysdown & Warden in Swale has the highest rate in the county, with
51.2%, so is significantly higher than the highest rate in Canterbury, which
was 36.7 in West Bay ward. Canterbury CC has the eighth highest rate of
adults with no qualifications, Swale the highest.
More recent estimates from the ONS suggest that for 2006 there were
8,303 19 – 64 year olds with no qualifications in Canterbury – 10.5% of all
19 – 64 year olds in the district. Note the difference in the population
range – hence the difference in rate. This is the seventh highest rate in the
county, and is slightly lower than the 11.4% of all 19 – 64 year olds in Kent.
7. Alcohol & other drug misusers
There is a shortage of data at a local level for this archetype, but we can
use hospital admissions for mental and behavioural disorders due to
psychoactive substance misuse as a proxy.
Hospital admissions for mental & behavioural disorders due to
psychoactive substance misuse
Selected Canterbury wards, 2007 – 2008. Source: K&M SHA
Pop (total) Count – no Rate (per Rank
Ward
qualifications 100) from 283
Heron 8,478 20 0.24 48
Northgate 5,713 20 0.35 9
Seasalter 6,899 20 0.29 17
Canterbury CC 135,278 280 0.21 1
KCC AREA 1,329,710 2,075 0.16
Clearly the numbers are very low so this data should be used with caution,
but the data shows that Canterbury CC area had the highest rate of
hospital admissions in the county last year. Northgate and Seasalter both
rank in the top 10% wards in the county (9 th , with 0.35 admissions per 100
people resident in the ward and 17 th /0.29 respectively), but Wincheap
(ranked 5 th ), Westgate (6 th ) and Harbour (8 th ) all appear in the top 10% too.
This represents a significant issue for Canterbury compared to the rest of
Kent.

8. Adults with physical & learning
disabilities
For this archetype we use claimants of Incapacity Benefits and Disability
Living Allowance as the most appropriate indicators available at a local
level. Incapacity Benefits (IB) are paid to people who are sick and/or
disabled who cannot work, whereas Disability Living Allowance (DLA) is
payable to anybody with a long‐term illness or disability whether they are
capable of work or not.
Incapacity Benefit claimants
Selected Canterbury wards, May 2007. Source: DWP
Pop (WA) Count – IB Rate (per Rank
Ward
claimants 100) from 283
Heron 4,754 460 9.7 27
Northgate 3,759 460 12.2 9
Seasalter 3,797 245 6.5 98
Canterbury CC 80,812 4,990 6.2 5
KCC AREA 795,039 47615 6.0
Northgate and Heron rank 9 th and 27 th in the county for the rate of
Incapacity Benefit claimants – both in the top 10% wards in the county. No
other ward in the Canterbury area ranks in the top 10% wards for the
county.
The city council area ranks fifth in Kent, and has seen a small decrease of
0.2% over the previous year’s figure.
The vast majority of IB claimants are dependent on benefits for a long
time. Around 78% are dependent on benefits for more than 2 years, over
half for more than five. Research suggests that if an individual has claimed
IB for more than two years, they are more likely to die or retire than return
to work. As the table shows, the rankings are not particularly high (at least
relative to other indicators), but there are still significant numbers of
claimants in these four wards.
Disability Living Allowance (DLA) is payable to people who become
disabled before the age of 65, and is payable to claimants whether they
work or not. However, there will be some people with a disability who are
not eligible for DLA (e.g. their disability is not severe enough) or who may
choose not to claim DLA or are unaware of their eligibility, but it is thought
that this is a more comprehensive proxy than IB claimant counts, as those
who are disabled but are in work cannot claim IB.
Disability Living Allowance claimants
Selected Canterbury wards, May 2007. Source: DWP
Ward
Pop (total)
Count – DLA
claimants
Rate (per
100)
Rank from
283
Heron 8,478 460 5.4 58
Northgate 5,713 405 7.1 15
Seasalter 6,899 360 5.2 66
Canterbury CC 135,278 5,910 4.4 5
KCC AREA 1,329,710 55,830 4.2
Just one ward – Northgate – appears in the top 10% wards in the county,
at 15 th with 405 DLA claimants, or 7.1% of the total population having a
severe enough disability to be eligible for this benefit, and who are
claiming it. The highest ranking ward in Kent is Leysdown & Warden in
Swale, with 10% of the population claiming DLA.
Canterbury has the fifth highest rate of DLA claimants at 4.4%, Thanet the
highest of the 12 districts in Kent at 6.1%, this compares to 4.2% for Kent
as a whole.

9. Transient or seasonal groups
There is no known data available for this archetype at ward level, but we
do have data on homeless households that are accepted as
“unintentionally homeless by the local authority and are eligible for
assistance and in priority need”.
Canterbury ranks eighth from twelve in Kent with 76 households accepted
as homeless. This compares with the highest ranking district, which is
Gravesham, with 258 homeless households, and 45 in Swale, which is the
lowest number.
At district level, we can also present data on the number of migrant
workers from outside the UK who were issued with National Insurance
numbers by the Department of Work and Pensions. The figures cover all
foreign nationals registered with a NI number for whatever reason – for
example the figures cover benefit/tax credit recipients as well as those
who are in work. All foreign nationals issued with a NI number are
included, regardless of their length of stay in the UK.
In 2007/08, 1,340 migrant workers were issued with a National Insurance
number in the Canterbury CC area. This represents 1.4 per cent of the
working age population within the BC area. This is the fourth highest rate
in the county, after Gravesham, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells. The
number of NI number issues in the Canterbury area has risen from 510 in
2002/03. Just over 43 per cent of those migrant workers came from the
twelve EU accession states 1 .
Note that these are not snapshot figures, so they do not show the number
of migrants in Kent at any given time – it is the number of NI numbers
issued to migrants within a given year.
10. Vulnerable older people
This archetype is best represented by using the number of older people
claiming Pension Credit as its indicator. Pension Credit is a benefit payable
to people aged over 60 to guarantee a minimum income of £124.05 per
week for single people and £189.35 for people in a partnership. It would
normally be paid to those people who suffer from financial stress due to
insufficient pension payments from elsewhere or lack of savings, so this is
a good proxy measure for those older people who are vulnerable to
poverty.
Pension Credit claimants
Selected Canterbury wards, November 2007. Source: DWP
Ward
Pop (60+)
Count – PC
claimants
Rate (per
100)
Rank from
283
Heron 2,305 755 32.8 18
Northgate 984 300 30.5 28
Seasalter 2,182 345 15.8 179
Canterbury CC 32,868 6,380 19.4 6
KCC AREA 296,816 58,090 19.6
This table shows that two wards rank in the top 10% for the county –
Heron, with 755 people aged over 60 who claim Pension Credit, or 32.8%,
and Northgate with 300 people, or 30.5%. This compares with the highest
ranking ward in Kent, which is Margate Central at 46%.
There’s been a 0.5% increase in Pension Credit claims in Kent since 2006,
but Canterbury has seen no change in the same time period. The CC area
ranks sixth out of the twelve districts in Kent with 19.4% of those aged 60+
claiming Pension Credit, compared to 19.6% for Kent as a whole.
1
EU Accession countries are: Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Latvia,
Lithuania, Estonia, Malta, (Greek) Cyprus, Bulgaria and Romania