2.1 Introduction

The Child Well-Being Index (CWI) is based upon a similar approach and methodology to the Indices of Deprivation and was introduced by Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) in order to reflect a set of Indices for different groups in the population; in this case children and young people.

The age range used is generally 0 to 16 or 18 if in full time education (although this was not always possible in some cases). The indicators relate to data from 2005 with the exception of the housing domain which is solely based on 2001 Census data.

Similar to the Indices of Deprivation the CWI consists of several domains. These are:

• Material well-being
• Health
• Education
• Crime
• Housing
• Environment
• Children in Need

Each Lower Super Output Area (LSOA) in England is assigned a score and rank for each domain, and an overall Child Well-Being Index is produced using weighted scores.

The Index was published in early-2009 and this chapter provides a brief analysis of the Index for the West Midlands region.

Nationally, the West Midlands region has 17% of its LSOAs within the top 20% of LSOAs in England – those with the highest child well-being. The region with the greatest proportion of its LSOAs in this top quintile is the South West (34%).

The West Midlands has a quarter of its LSOAs in the bottom national quintile - those LSOAs in England with the lowest child well-being. The London region has the greatest proportion of its LSOAs in this bottom quintile (34%).

For this chapter, a specific ranking of each LSOA for the West Midlands has been used, based on overall Index score. This has then been used to create quintiles, to identify the number of LSOAs in the best and worst 20% of LSOAs within the region, in terms of child well-being. Analysis of results has been broken down for each primary care trust within the region.

2.2 Child Well-Being in the West Midlands

The regional pattern of the Local Child Well-Being Index, by LSOA, is illustrated in figure Map 2.1, below:

Map 2.1: Regional quintiles for the Overall Child-Well Being Index in the West Midlands

Regional quintiles for the Overall Child-Well Being Index in the West Midlands

The general pattern is similar to that of deprivation measures, such as the Indices of Deprivation; those LSOAs within the bottom quintiles are more prominent in the urban areas of the region. This is particularly noticeable within Birmingham and the Black Country, and other urban centres such as Coventry and Stoke-on-Trent.

2.3 Local Child Well-Being Index by Primary Care Trust

Solihull Care Trust and NHS Warwickshire both have the highest proportions of LSOAs in the top quintile; that is those with the highest child well-being in the region

Table 2.1, below, shows the proportion of LSOAs in the top quintile for all the PCTs. It is noticeable that Heart of Birmingham Teaching, Sandwell and NHS South Birmingham do not contain a single LSOA in this top quintile.

Table 2.1: Summary table showing average change in rank per LSOA for all domains, by Government Office Region

Heart of Birmingham Teaching contains by far the greatest majority of its LSOAs within the bottom quintile in the region for child well being. Birmingham East & North is the other PCT to see a majority of its LSOAs being in the bottom quintile, with Sandwell having just under a half of its LSOAs in this bottom quintile.

Unlike the top quintile, each PCT has at least one LSOA in the bottom quintile:

Table 2.2: PCTs containing the most LSOAs in the bottom 20% of LSOAs in the Region

In addition to regional quintiles, further analysis has been conducted by calculating the average score of each LSOA within each PCT in the West Midlands:

Figure 2.1: Child well-being index average LSOA score for each PCT

Child well-being index average LSOA score for each PCT

Solihull Care Trust, which contains the most LSOAs in the top quintile, performs less well in this ranking based on average score. There is a more evident urban-rural divide when based on average LSOA score, with the rural PCTs (Shropshire, Warwickshire, North and South Staffordshire, Herefordshire, and Worcestershire) now showing to have the best child well-being.

The Birmingham PCTs, most notably Heart of Birmingham, along with Sandwell have again performed poorly and are those PCTs with the lowest child well-being in the West Midlands.

2.4 Summary

The Child-Well Being Local Index is the first attempt, at such a small geographical level, to create a national Index score specifically measuring the well-being of children.

Whilst it is important to remember that the Index measures well-being and not deprivation of children, it does bare many similarities with the Indices of Multiple Deprivation.

The indicator could be used, in addition to, or as an alternative to, deprivation measures (such as the Indices of Multiple Deprivation or Townsend Index) especially when specifically assessing the needs of children and young people.

References and Further Reading:

1. Local Index of Child Well-Being 2009, Department of Communities and Local Government
   http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/communities/childwellbeing2009


2. Indices of Deprivation 2007, Department of Communities and Local Government
   http://www.communities.gov.uk/communities/neighbourhoodrenewal/deprivation/deprivation07/