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Social Inclusion

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Social Exclusion is not just about poverty. The main causes of Social Exclusion are:

Poverty and low income
Being out of work and economic exclusion
Poor educational attendance and negative school experience
Poor mental or physical health
Family breakdown and poverty
Crime
Living in a disadvantaged area

The UK National Action Plan on Social Inclusion 2006-2008 identifies the key issues as the economy; child poverty; access to employment and quality services and discrimination. The report is available on The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)

The Social Exclusion Unit identified the 'cycle of disadvantage' which passes down from one generation to another. The Unit produced policies on 'Breaking the Cycle'.

How do we identify and measure social exclusion?

Many of Bassetlaw's communities (including those in rural areas) are working with partners to overcome the challenges of deprivation such as poor health, high benefits dependency, low educational attainment and poor housing.

Opportunity For All Framework

The Government's Opportunity For All Framework was first published in September 1999 and measures progress on tackling poverty and social exclusion. It established indicators of progress which are available on the DWP Website.
It recognises that poverty and social exclusion are deep-seated problems and take time and effort to tackle.
The 9th Annual Report was published in Autumn 2007.

Indices of Deprivation 2004

The Government has divided England into 32,482 small areas so that it can measure and compare deprivation.

There are seven indicators of deprivation: Income, Employment, Health Deprivation and Disability, Education, Skills and Training, Barriers to Housing and Services, Living Environment and Crime.
The district ranks 82nd nationally (of 354 local authorities). Problems in educational performance, crime and health are the main reasons for the overall deprivation score in the district.
Inequality in Bassetlaw - measured by the number of ranking places between the most and least deprived areas within the district - is below average.

More information is available on these indicators.

Other Key Measures

Social Need in Nottinghamshire 2004

Nottinghamshire County Council produced the 4th study of Social Need to compliment the indices of Deprivation 2004. It used 22 indicators including low income, unemployment, poor housing, disability, family difficulties and crime, educational difficulties and lack of skills.

Condition of Nottinghamshire 2005

Condition of Nottinghamshire 2005 provides information on 48 indicators for each of the seven districts in Nottinghamshire.

What is happening in Bassetlaw?

Bassetlaw District Council's Social Inclusion Policy Statement aims to:

Develop community and partnership links in order to tackle poverty and social exclusion and promote social inclusion
Target people and communities who are at risk of the factors that contribute to social inclusion i.e. low income, family conflicts, being in care, school problems, ex-offender, belonging to an ethnic minority, being in a deprived neighbourhood, mental health problems, age and disability.

Unity

The UNITY framework sets out the way that we will tackle all forms of exclusion in Bassetlaw to build local a community where people get on well together, have pride and respect in their area and can achieve a good quality of life with a sustainable future.

We aim to create safe, inclusive communities which offer equality of opportunity for everyone.

The Framework includes four strands: