Trainee Public Health Analyst (12 Month Student Placement)

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a hard-working and enthusiastic undergraduate student to join NHS Warwickshire on a one-year placement to work within the Public Health Intelligence Team and the Warwickshire Observatory.

The Analyst will be responsible for providing specialist public health intelligence input across NHS Warwickshire, Warwickshire County Council and partners. This will include providing analytical expertise, statistical guidance and research advice to support health related commissioning and decision making.

You will ideally be working towards a degree in social sciences with a significant statistical element (e.g. Economics, Geography, Statistics) and be able to demonstrate a keen interest in research and data analysis.

More details, including how to apply can be found in the link below:

Trainee Public Health Intelligence Analyst (Student Placement) 2012 Job Ad

Job Description

Person Specification

Unemployment in Warwickshire falls for a second month

The Job Seekers’ Allowance (JSA) claimant count in April 2012 was 8,584 in Warwickshire; a rate of 2.5% of the resident working age population and 3.2% of the economically active population. This represents a fall of 369 claimants or 4.1% from the previous month.

The fall over the past month has continued the downward trend seen in March however, this follows significant increases in claimants in January and February 2012.

Despite the fall in the overall claimant count, the number of long-term unemployed (over 6 months) claimants in Warwickshire has risen slightly from March to Arpil 2012.

The number of JSA claimants aged 18-24 has fallen in Warwickshire over the last month.

See all the figures in the update below:

Sub-regional unemployment update – April 2012

Student Summer 2012 Placement

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a student to come and work within the Observatory for four to six weeks over the summer (June/July). 

The student will need to be studying in a related discipline (statistics, economics, geography etc.), be highly numerate and willing to work across a range of projects within our team. The main focus for the placement will be working on our high profile ‘Quality of Life in Warwickshire’ report that our team produces annually. In return, the student will gain an insight into working in public sector research and will gain some excellent experience for their CV.

A link to the full details of the placement is below…..

Warwickshire Observatory – Student Placement _Summer 2012_

How does disposable income in Warwickshire compare with elsewhere?

A key indicator of the health of the economy is the level of disposable income households have.  By disposable income we mean the amount of money that households have available for spending or saving after income distribution measures (for example taxes and benefits) have taken effect.  This is very different to earnings, which are measured in a different way. We provide more detail on how disposable income is calculated at the foot of this post

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has just released figures on disposable income for 2010, down to county level.  If we want to compare levels of disposable income in Warwickshire with elsewhere, the best way to do this is on a ‘per person’ basis. In 2010, the GDHI per head in Warwickshire was £16,628.  This is above the UK average (£15,727) and is closer to the average for the South East region than the West Midlands. Figures range from more than £33,000 in parts of London down to £10,700 in Nottingham.  As the graphic illustrates, Warwickshire features comfortably within the top quartile, ranking 24th out of 139 areas.

The Warwickshire figure increased by 3.6% between 2009 and 2010, exceeding the national trend (3.0%).

Since 1997, GDHI in Warwickshire has increased by 62% (not accounting for inflation).  This is broadly in line with the national trend (60%) but exceeds both the West Midlands (57%) and South East (55%) regions.  During the past thirteen years, Warwickshire’s GDHI per head has remained between 5%-8% above the national average and is currently 6% higher.

So how does this information get used? As the ONS describes, “These statistics provide an overview of economic diversity and social welfare at regional, sub-regional and local area levels. They supply information about the availability of disposable income throughout the UK. Disposable income is a concept which can be used to approximate the ‘material welfare’ within the household sector, although the term ‘welfare’ is commonly used in ways that go beyond financial wealth and, as such, cannot be measured by a single statistic…Local authorities [should] use these statistics to facilitate evidence-based policy-making.”

Footnotes:

Gross Disposable Household Income = Balance of Primary Income + Balance of Secondary Income

Primary income is generated through market transactions.  There will be income (e.g. wages) but also expenditure (e.g. mortgages).  Secondary income includes the government redistribution of resources.  Again, there will be income (e.g. benefits, pensions) but also outgoings (e.g. tax, pension contributions). Therefore, the disposable income figures represent what households have ‘in their pocket’ after income redistribution measures have taken effect.  It should not be confused with earnings.

The Warwickshire Observatory is now on Twitter!

You can now follow the Observatory on Twitter.  Our username is @WarksObs and you can either visit our feed here or, even better, follow us using the  button on the right.  We’ll use the account to publicise some of our work and engage with customers – please tell your Twitter friends!

Quality of Life 2011/12 Report – Feedback Survey

The Quality of Life 2011/12 Report, produced by Warwickshire Observatory in October last year, uses analysis of a range of trends and indicators to provide an assessment of the quality of life experienced by residents in Warwickshire, and also assesses how these have changed over time.

The report’s findings contribute to our evidence base needed for the development, monitoring and review of policy and decision making.

We are now turning our attention to this year’s report, and we’d really like to hear your views around how useful and relevant the report is for you, how you use it in your work, and also get your thoughts around aspects such as the design, layout, etc.

We’ve produced a short on-line survey and would be grateful if you could spend 10 minutes completing it for us, by the Friday 11th May. Your views will help shape our work on quality of life this year. The survey can be accessed by clicking on this link > https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/qualityoflifefeedback

If you haven’t yet had an opportunity to look at the Report it can be accessed by following this link > http://warksobservatory.wordpress.com/2011/10/20/quality-of-life-2011_12/

 Thank you for your time.

Coventry and Warwickshire Labour Market Summary

Warwickshire Observatory have just completed the final Labour Market Sumary for 2011/2012.  This is compiled on a quarterly basis and gives headline details on a range of economic data including Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) claimants, vacancies and worklessness. 

The number of JSA claimants was at its highest in August 2011 when 20,141 people were claiming.  In the last quarter the numbers rose in both January and February before falling again in March to 19,464.  The number of notified vacancies has fluctuated throughout the year, reaching their highest in October 2011.  In March the number was just under 7,000.

Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough still has the highest number of claimants per vacancy.  In the last quarter the figure rose in four of the six areas, only falling in Stratford-on-Avon. 

The full summary can be accessed via this link: Labour Market Summary – April 2012

Unemployment in Warwickshire falls in March 2012

The Job Seekers’ Allowance (JSA) claimant count in March 2012 was 8,953 in Warwickshire; a rate of 2.6% of the resident working age population and 3.3% of the economically active population. This represents a fall of 324 claimants or 3.5% from the previous month.

Warwickshire’s claimant count has fallen over the past month after significant increases in January and February.  All of Warwickshire’s Districts/Boroughs have seen a fall in claimants from February to March 2012 albeit to varying degrees.

Places available on Observatory’s Mosaic Seminar…

Warwickshire Observatory are planning to run an awareness raising session on the use of Experian’s customer profiling tool ‘Mosaic’. The session, available for WCC staff,  will be on Wednesday 23rd May 2012 10.00am – 12.00 at Northgate House Conference Centre. To book a place contact research@warwickshire.gov.uk.

The Observatory have previously produced a number of publications relating to the use of Mosaic including a briefing note and more recently as set of Warwickshire Mosaic Profiles. There is also further information and case studies on our website.

New figures on domestic energy consumption in Warwickshire

Each year, the Department for Energy & Climate Change publishes statistics on the amount of energy consumed by households across Great Britain. The figures for 2010 have just been released, and we have carried out an introductory analysis of the Warwickshire data.

Why is this data important?

• The rising cost of energy has an increasingly significant impact on household budgets (see local data on fuel poverty here)
• Links between energy use and carbon emissions (see the Carbon Plan here)
• Dependency on traditional forms of energy needs to change as resources become depleted (see estimates on remaining stocks here)>

The statistics tell us about domestic energy consumption, in kilowatt hours, for every small area in the county (Middle-level Super Output Areas) and splits the use into gas and electricity.  We also have five-year trend data, enabling us to try and identify some short-term patterns in energy use. 

Our analysis is summarised in this graphic.  It is clear that the pattern of energy consumption varies across the county.  For example, the highest energy consumption rates are generally clustered in four areas; Stratford-upon-Avon, North Leamington, Kenilworth and East Nuneaton. These would all be regarded as the most affluent parts of the county.

The analysis also examines the local relationship between energy use and fuel poverty and how consumption has reduced slightly over the past five years.  We also start to consider what the data doesn’t tell us, for example the use of alternative energy sources such as bottled gas, oil, wood, coal or other non-mains based energy types.

The issue of energy consumption will become increasingly important for the residents of Warwickshire as prices continue to rise at a faster rate than earnings and fuel poverty becomes an increasingly likely prospect for many households. 

Contact the Observatory (research@warwickshire.gov.uk) for further details on the energy consumption figures.  For specific information on Warwickshire’s Affordable Warmth Group, click here.   

Act on Energy provides free and impartial advice on energy use and conservation to householders and small businesses in Warwickshire and surrounding areas.  Visit their website here.