2: Outreach worker visits by gender

Outreach Visits by Gender

74 ₇₀ 73 78 26 30 27 22 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

Heywood Middleton Rochdale Pennines

Townships P e rc e n ta g e o f M a le a n d F e m a le In te rv ie w e e s Female Male

Ethnic profile of older population: Rochdale Borough

It is useful to consider the ethnic profile of POPP members in the context of the ethnic profile of the older population of Rochdale Borough. The most recent statistical evidence for this is provided by the 2001 Census, and although this data is not very recent, it is considered unlikely that the ethnic profile of older populations would have changed considerably since that time. The following table illustrates the numbers of people aged 50 and above within different ethnic categories. Note that ethnic categories have been collapsed in the following manner to enhance simplicity of comparison:

 ‘White’ is comprised of ‘White: British’, ‘White: Irish’ and ‘White: Other White’

 ‘Asian’ is comprised of ‘Asian or Asian British: Indian’, Asian or Asian British: Pakistani’, Asian or Asian British: Bangladeshi’, ‘Asian or Asian British: Other,’ ‘Mixed: Other Mixed’ and ‘Mixed: White and Asian’

 ‘Black’ is comprised of ‘Black or Black British: Black African’, ‘Black or Black British: Black Caribbean’, ‘Black or Black British: Other Black’, ‘Mixed: White and Black African’ and ‘Mixed: White and Black Caribbean’  ‘Chinese’ is compromised of ‘Chinese or Other Ethnic Group’ and

‘Chinese or Other Ethnic Group: Other Ethnic Group’

Table 2.1: Ethnic populations of older people in Rochdale Borough (2001 Census)

Age

Categories White Asian Black Chinese

50-54 13,730 603 57 51 55-59 10,342 440 38 39 60-64 8,787 506 48 23 65-69 7,792 408 20 20 70-74 7,499 229 20 10 75-79 6,158 114 14 6 80-84 3,744 70 10 6 85-89 2,134 21 3 0 90 and over 1,085 13 0 0 TOTAL 61,271 2,404 210 155 Population Breakdown (Percentage) 95.7% 3.7% 0.3% 0.3%

Hence it can be seen that the vast majority of the older Borough population is White, with the largest minority population being Asian. Black and Chinese older ethnic communities across the Borough are extremely small.

Ethnic profile of POPP Members: Borough and Township analysis

The ethnic profile of POPP members across the Borough is given in the chart below and is derived from the POPP database. As above, categories have been collapsed to enhance simplicity of comparison as follows:

 ‘White’ is comprised of ‘British’, ‘Irish’ and ‘Any Other White Background’  ‘Asian’ is comprised of ‘Indian’, ‘Bangladeshi’, ‘Pakistani’ and ‘Any Other

Asian Background’

 ‘Black’ is comprised of ‘Black or Black British: African’, ‘Black or Black British Caribbean,’ ‘White and Black African’ and ‘Any Other Black Background’

Table 2.2:Ethnic composition by Borough Townships (from POPP database)

Township White Asian Black Chinese

Heywood 458 0 0 0 Middleton 729 2 2 0 Pennines 413 3 1 0 Rochdale 843 136 2 2 TOTAL 2,443 141 5 2 Population Breakdown (Percentage) 94.3% 5.4% 0.2% 0.1%

It can be seen that most POPP members from minority ethnic communities (predominantly Asian) reside within Rochdale Township. The remaining Townships have almost exclusively White membership. The remaining three Townships have a combined total of only five Asian and three Black members.

Statistical evidence is not currently available on the breakdown of ethnic communities by Township, and so it is not possible to consider the extent to which POPP membership is reflective of ethnic diversity at the Township level.

It can also be seen that the proportion of visits to Outreach Workers is largely in proportion to different ethnic communities across the Borough. Indeed the proportion of older residents from Asian communities (5.4%) is actually higher than the proportion of older residents from Asian communities (3.7%)

living within Rochdale Borough. This reflects well on POPP’s ability to engage with different ethnic communities in Rochdale.

Meeting the needs of POPP Members: Focus on ethnic diversity

An analysis of the extent to which identified needs have been met over the life of the POPP across all Townships appears in a later section of this chapter. To summarise, 87% of expressed needs were met and 13% remained unmet. This indicates that the project has been extremely successful in meeting the diverse needs of older people across Rochdale Borough. However, it is interesting to further consider the extent to which the varied expressed needs of POPP members have been met in relation to ethnic diversity.

Each of the 2,535 POPP members identified on the POPP database has been evaluated in terms of both their ethnicity, and whether or not some or all of each POPP member’s expressed needs were met as a consequence of coming into contact with the Rochdale POPP. This was done through creating an Excel computer file in which all POPP members are listed by their POPP reference number and then meticulously considering each of them in turn, and considering whether all of their identified needs had been fully met (in which case they were discounted) or not fully met.

The Excel file was then reconfigured so that all records were listed by ethnicity. Through adding up the number of POPP members within each ethnic group, the total number of POPP members who had had all of their needs met could be considered. The findings are summarised in the following table.

Table 2.3:Ethnic POPP Members needs met

Ethnicity Total POPP Members: Needs Fully Met

Any Other Asian 2

Any Other Ethnic Group 6

Any Other Black 13

Bangladeshi 20

British 470

Indian 8

Irish 14

Pakistani 42

White and Black 1

Total 576

Ethnic categories were then collapsed to enhance simplicity of comparison as follows:

 ‘White’ is comprised of ‘Any Other White’, ‘British’ and ‘Irish’

 ‘Asian’ is comprised of ‘Any Other Asian’, ‘Bangladeshi’, ‘Indian’ and ‘Pakistani’

The following table indicates the number of POPP members within the two main ethnic categories (i.e. White and Asian) whose needs have been identified, fully met or partially met. The remaining ethnic categories were discounted.

Table 2.4:POPP Members by ethnicity needs identified and met Ethnicity Total Number of

POPP Members: Needs Identified

Total Number of POPP Members: Needs Fully Met

Total Number of POPP Members: Needs Not Fully Met

‘White’ 2443 1946 497

‘Asian’ 141 69 72

The following chart illustrates the percentages of all White and Asian POPP members whose needs have been fully or partially met. It clearly shows that whereas almost 80% of all White POPP members have had all of their

identified needs met, the same is true for roughly only half of all Asian POPP members. These considerable inequalities are representative of a markedly different experience of the POPP among older White and Asian communities in Rochdale, and would suggest that greater efforts would need to be made to ensure that all communities are able to benefit from the project in a more equal fashion. It is felt that more powerful efforts to focus more closely upon the extent to which the unmet needs of Asian POPP members are being addressed may help to narrow such inequalities.