Understanding community need in Wairarapa
As we find ourselves still navigating the uncertainty of COVID-19, the team at Planalytics were keen to find out what data was available to understand the level of community need in Wairarapa. This included need attributable directly to the pandemic and also the underlying need prevalent across our communities. Anecdotally, from our work with both clients and community groups, we heard that some segments of our local community weren’t faring so well. We therefore wanted to use data to begin to contextualise and tell this story.
But what data was available?
As noted in our previous journal post regarding COVID-19 monitoring, as a sub-region, Wairarapa often gets absorbed into wider monitoring and reporting for the greater Wellington region. This makes it difficult to extrapolate information specifically relevant to Wairarapa, which is not only geographically separated from the remainder of the Wellington region, but also has its own distinct social, cultural, environmental, and economic profile.
The trick was, therefore, to identify indicators of community need that were attributable to the local Wairarapa level and reported at least on a quarterly basis. This regularity ensured that more ‘real time’ analysis could be undertaken as opposed to annual or longer-term reporting. Quarterly reporting also has the advantage of being able to highlight seasonal trends, such as community need experienced in winter versus summer months.
We reviewed the open source data available and settled on the Ministry of Social Development’s Special Needs Grants (or ‘SNGs’) data as one indicator of community need. SNGs are additional income support provided by Work and Income to address the immediate needs of families and individuals. They are issued for a range of purposes, including for food, emergency housing, dental visits, and health travel costs. We were curious to understand how many SNGs had been issued in Wairarapa over the 12-month period from 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020. Although this timeframe only covered the start of the COVID-19 lockdown period (New Zealand moved to Level 4 lockdown on 25 March 2020), it provided a benchmark for future monitoring of SNG data.
However, we discovered that SNG data was not publicly available at the local Wairarapa level. We therefore requested this information from the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) under the Official Information Act.
So what did we find?
Interestingly, from the information provided by MSD, we found that the largest number of SNGs issued in Wairarapa over the 12 months ending 31 March 2020 were for food. Some 3,924 food grants were issued over this period, comprising 68% of the total number of SNGs in Wairarapa. Food was followed by 533 SNGs issued for dental treatment and 357 for emergency housing. In terms of the amount ($) of SNGs issued, again the highest amount was for food grants at $422,099 over the 12-month period. This was followed by $391,994 for emergency housing and $150,115 for dental treatment. (Note that these figures represent a count of grants, not a count of clients. A client may have multiple grants in a period and be counted more than once.)
While keeping in mind that SNGs are but one of many indicators of community need, these figures paint a sobering picture. The data tells us that a number of people in Wairarapa are seeking assistance to buy food, and for emergency housing, on a semi-regular basis. It is our opinion that this SNG data indicates a level of community need in Wairarapa that would benefit from further analysis, and soon.
If you are interested in the subject of community need in Wairarapa or if you have any data available that could be an indicator of community need, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at office@planalytics.co.nz. The more accurately we can paint a picture of local community need, the better we can inform decision-making to affect change.