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Introduction

In 2018, we were commissioned by Local Trust to develop a quantitative measure of left behind neighbourhoods, as part of this research we developed the Community Needs Index, which measures the cultural and social factors that can impact upon people’s outcomes. It was last updated for England in 2023.

The research led to the formation of the APPG for left behind neighbourhoods, and has been used to allocate resources for the Know your Neighbourhood Fund.

The Community Needs Index is exclusively available to explore for England within Local Insight.

Challenges

The Community Needs Index aims to bring together data on the social and cultural factors that can lead to poorer outcomes in communities – including challenges around a lack of places to meet, poor facilities, poor connectivity and low participation.

This is the first time a comprehensive, quantitative measure of this kind has been produced – and as such, it took work to find the right datasets to include, and ensure that they were appropriately weighted within the domains that make up the overall index.

Solutions

Working with Local Trust, the Community Need Index was formed by standardising and combining 28 indicators under three different domains:

Civic Assets: Measures the presence of key community, civic, educational, and cultural assets (such as pubs, libraries, green spaces, and community centres) in close proximity to an area.

Connectedness: Assesses connectivity to essential services, digital infrastructure, isolation, and the strength of the local job market.

Active and Engaged Community: Examines levels of third-sector civic and community activity and barriers to participation and engagement.

Each of these three domains has its own associated score. In addition, the three domain scores are standardised and combined to produce the overall Index score (Community Needs score). A higher score indicates that an area has higher levels of community need.

Results

Unlike traditional measures of deprivation which are ideal for understanding levels of “bad stuff”, the Community Needs Index was particularly useful in understanding the absense of “good stuff” – helping policymakers target investment in social infrastructure.

This work contributed to the formation of an All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) – a cross-party group of MPs and Members of the House of Lords which was seen as “the first in-depth inquiry into how the government’s levelling up policies are working on the ground.”

The CNI was also used to allocate funding for the Know Your Neighbourhood (KYN) Fund. A package designed to widen participation in volunteering and tackle loneliness in 27 disadvantaged areas across England.

Beyond that, Sport England have used the Community Needs Index within their Place Partnerships work to support low income communities that don’t have the access to the same facilities or opportunities as other more affluent areas.

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