Anti-Poverty Needs Assessment 2016

The Team Doncaster Strategic Partnership Board members have signed an Anti-Poverty Strategy Statement to demonstrate their commitment in working collectively to tackle the complex causes and effects of poverty on people’s lives. They have agreed to share expertise and adapt activities to promote social and financial inclusion, and to reduce the impact of poverty. This document supports the Anti-Poverty Summit in June 2016. It provides the latest data on key poverty issues within Doncaster, an update on some of the actions that have been taken or gaps that need to be addressed.

Key Themes:

  • Financial Exclusion - Increasing income and access to affordable credit;
  • Employment, Education & Training - Improving access to work;
  • Health & Wellbeing – Reducing health inequalities related to poverty;
  • Housing – Improving access to suitable and affordable quality accommodation;
  • Communities – Supporting families and improving access to information and advice, services and amenities.

Headline Findings:

  1. Doncaster has improved from 39th to 48th most deprived District in England.
  2. It is also the 2nd most deprived district in South Yorkshire and The Sheffield City Region behind Barnsley
  3. The highest deprivation is amongst Employment, Education, Skills and Training, with
  4. Health and Disability, Income and Crime following closely behind. All in the top 50 overall deprivation figures.
  5. 1 in 5 of the Lower Super Output Areas in Doncaster are the most deprived 10% nationally.
  6. Denaby Main, Mexborough, Conisbrough, Hexthorpe & St Sepulchregate West and Balby Bridge are highlighted in the top 10 most deprived areas of Doncaster.
  • Denaby Main has deprivation issues in all categories
  • Mexborough has deprivation issues in all categories
  • Conisbrough has deprivation issues in Education Skills and Training
  • Hexthorpe & St Sepulchregate West has deprivation issues in Employment
  • Balby Bridge has deprivation issues in all categories.
  1. The areas seeing the highest rate of decline from previous years are Hexthorpe & St Sepulchregate West, Moss and Kirk Bramwith, Edlington Central, Bently Church Street and Mexborough Main Street.
  2. The areas with the highest rate of improvement from previous years are New Rossington South, Edlington Broomhouse Lane, Town Centre Chequer Road, Balby Carr Bank and Woodlands Crescent
  3. Qualified residents to level 2, 3 or higher are below regional and national averages Doncaster has a lower rate of young people accessing higher education than national, regional and comparator averages.

The actions taken to tackle poverty in Doncaster, and links to services which can help, are listed below:

Improvements include:

  1. Unemployment rates have continued to decrease across Doncaster, but it is still higher than England, Yorkshire and Humber Region, CIPFA neighbours and Sheffield City Region figures.
  2. Key out of work benefits claimants have continued to decline along with Job Seeker Allowance claimants.
  3. Apprenticeships are up initially but are maintaining a slight decline in achievements from previous years. (Start-ups are high but drop offs are also high)