Good Communities

The age demographic across Suffolk and North East Essex varies widely, and the number of older people is increasing. Data from the 2021 census shows:

• In East Suffolk 14.9% are children aged under 15, 57.3% are adults aged 15 to 64, 27.8% are aged 65 and over; and 4% of the resident population are 85 and over.

In Colchester, 17.8% are children aged under 15, 64.4% are adults aged 15 to 64, 17.8% are aged 65 and over, and 2.3% of the resident population are 85 and over.

Carers

Data from LG Inform shows that in Suffolk and North East Essex 21,900 people are entitled to Carers Allowance. However, almost half (47%) are concentrated in coastal areas, which reflects in part the higher numbers of older people living in those areas.

The Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework asks people who use social care services and their carers a range of questions on their quality of life.

• The proportion of carers who reported that they had as much social contact as they would like, fell nationally from 32.5% in 2019-20 to 28.0% in 2021-22. In the East of England the proportion is slightly lower, at 27.3%.

Fear of crime has a significant impact on communities. The level of crimes in our communities varies widely across Suffolk and North East Essex.

 

Mid Suffolk area has the lowest rate of victim based crime in the East of England:

In contrast, Ipswich has one of the highest rates of victim based crimes in the East of England:

 

 

 

 

 

The most common crimes in both areas are similar:

 

 

Top five crimes in Mid Suffolk in 2022 Q2 (12 months ending)

1. Violence against the person – without injury offences recorded
2. Stalking and harassment offences recorded
3. Violence against the person – with injury offences recorded
4. Criminal damage and arson offences recorded
5. Public order offences recorded

 

Top five crimes in Ipswich in 2022 Q2 (12 months ending)

1. Violence against the person – without injury offences recorded
2. Stalking and harassment offences recorded
3. Violence against the person – with injury offences recorded
4. Public order offences recorded
5. Criminal damage and arson offences recorded

 

Source: LG Inform

Darker areas indicate higher deprivation levels

In his 2020 report ‘Health Equity in England: The Marmot Review 10 Years On’ Professor Sir Michael Marmot considers ‘ignored’ or ‘left behind’ communities, that is communities and places “where multiple forms of deprivation intersect and where deprivation has persisted for many years with little prospect of alleviation”, and where over assets have been lost, funding cut and services lost in recent years. He highlighted that compared with other deprived areas, the most left-behind wards were more likely to:

• Have higher rates of unemployment (more than double the national average), child poverty and lone parent families
• Be in worse health (with worse rates of work-limiting illnesses, lung cancer, worse prevalence of coronary heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity and kidney disease)
• Have a smaller working-age population, lower population growth, lower levels of skills and formal qualifications, and be less likely to have residents pursuing further education
• Have lower levels of home ownership, with residents more likely to live in social rented housing
• Be of White British background
• Have lower average levels of funding per head for local government services, despite higher levels of need

Research published in 2021 by Anglia Ruskin University, ‘Overcoming barriers to health and wellbeing: Community Assets in North East Essex’ defines community assets:

A community asset is defined as any factor or resource which enhances the ability of individuals, groups, communities, populations and/or institutions to maintain and sustain health and wellbeing and to help reduce health inequities (Morgan and Ziglio, 2007).

Community assets can take a variety of forms including activities, support groups, social networks and community spaces/places. A defining feature is that they have their roots in the community with the aim of benefiting community members.

 

The report found a number of key characteristics of positive community assets:

• Social Interaction between members.
• Opportunities for information sharing.
• Safe, accessible and inclusive environment.
• Listening to and acting on members’ preferences.
• Activities
• Opportunities for volunteering
• Support for volunteers
• Holistic and Caring Ethos

The Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework asks people who use social care services and their carers a range of questions on their quality of life. The 2021/22 survey found:

• The proportion of people who feel they have control over their daily life was 76.9% nationally, and 77.3% in the East of England. Nationally, more males felt they had control (79.1%) than females (75.2%).
• The proportion of people who have as much social contact as they like was 40.6% nationally, and 39.6% in the East of England. Nationally, more of those aged 18-74 reported having as much social contact as they liked (45.1%) than those aged 65 and over (37.3%).
• The proportion of people who feel as safe as they like was 69.2% nationally, and 69.9% in the East of England. Nationally, more males felt safe (71.5%) than females (67.5%).

Acts of kindness between people can have significant benefits to our health and wellbeing.

People United’s research on kindness and the potential for the arts to contribute to a kinder society reflects on the various reasons for kindness:

Values – community, citizenship, human kinship, virtue, compassion, empathy and altruism, moral outrage at unfairness.

Relationships – wanting to support those we feel a connection to, including those we feel attached to, people who are part of our ‘in-group’ or social network.

Mutual benefits – economic inequality impacts our happiness.

The arts enable us to create ways to share our feelings and experiences of being human, and can affect us in many different ways.

 

People United highlight that the arts can lead to kinder attitudes and behaviours through:

Emotions – sparking feelings such as empathy, that are key for influencing kindness.

Connections – bringing people together, creating strong connections between individuals and groups.

Learning – opportunities to learn from and about each other and the world.

Values – exploring human values which are key to determining how people live together and behave towards each other.

• Communities and health | The King’s Fund (kingsfund.org.uk)
• Health Matters: Community-centred approaches for health and wellbeing – UK Health Security Agency (blog.gov.uk)
• How do our family, friends and community influence our health?
• Community engagement: improving health and wellbeing and reducing health inequalities (nice.org.uk)
• Major UK study to assess the impact of community organisations on public health | NIHR
• Sharpening-our-Focus.pdf (d1ssu070pg2v9i.cloudfront.net)
• Home | Wellbeing Index (coop.co.uk)
• fair-society-healthy-lives-full-report-pdf.pdf (instituteofhealthequity.org)