Part 1 - Annex of indicators
Prosperity Index 2022
Ashfield District rankings
The UK Prosperity Index is an annually populated document, developed by the Legatum Institute. It consists of detailed data on levels of institutional, economic, and social well being across the 374 boroughs, council areas, local government districts, and unitary and local authorities that encompass the four nations of the UK. The Index is specifically designed to be a transformational tool that allows citizens, local authorities, regions, and government to sharpen their understanding of what is working, track their progress over time, and hold leaders to account.
The aim is to see immediately where each district is under-performing, indicating where to focus bids for investment to make improvement in these areas. It also should be used to see where performance is higher (and celebrate its success with communities), and how best practice and collaboration can help the districts that have aspirations to improve.
The UK Prosperity Index 2022 outlines Ashfield's ranking as 257 out of 374 local authority areas in the UK, a 40 place decline from the UK Prosperity Index 2021 ranking (217 out of 374).
|
Pillar of prosperity (breakdown) |
Ashfield District 2022 ranking (out of 374 UK local authorities) |
|---|---|
| Safety and security | 205 (up from 247 in 2021) |
| Personal freedom | 281 (up from 315 in 2021) |
| Governance | 274 (up from 300 in 2021) |
| Social capital | 257 (up from 260 in 2021) |
| Investment environment | 239 (down from 124 in 2021) |
| Enterprise conditions | 96 (up from 206 in 2021) |
| Infrastructure | 43 (up from 121 in 2021) |
| Economic quality | 229 (up from 296 in 2021) |
| Living conditions | 174 (down from 74 in 2021) |
| Health | 249 (down from 163 in 2021) |
| Education | 328 (down from 310 in 2021) |
| Natural environment | 252 (down from 204 in 2021) |
As you can see from the rankings, Ashfield has its areas of strength (e.g. Infrastructure – ranked 43, enterprise conditions - ranked 96, and living conditions - ranked 174), which should be celebrated and best practice should be used to support other districts that are under performing in these areas. However, the ranking within the education pillar for the district is low.
Therefore, there is reason for this plan to be delivered in order to improve education in Ashfield across all sectors (pre-primary education, primary education, secondary education, higher education, further education, and adult education).
Our 10-year Education and Skills Improvement Strategy will drive the need for investment within Ashfield’s education sector, hence improving our rankings on a year by year basis.
East Midlands ranking
UK Prosperity Index 2022
The East Midlands are currently ranked 7th out of 21 regions within the UK, averaged across all pillars of prosperity.
Levels of prosperity differ across the East Midlands. As a whole, the region has good enterprise conditions, living conditions, and social capital, while it is particularly weak in the natural environment, infrastructure, and education. There is a wide variation within the region. Rural local authorities, such as Rutland, are much more prosperous than those in urban or dispersed urban clusters.
Overall, this ranking should be celebrated, especially across pillars where the East Midlands have ranked highly (including enterprise conditions - 1st, and living conditions - 6th).
Ashfield ranking in the East Midlands
Ashfield are ranked 27 out of the 35 districts within the East Midlands region. This plan will support our aspiration to move up the rankings within the East Midlands, on a year by year basis.
Education
Education is a building block for prosperous societies; the accumulation of skills and capabilities contributes to economic growth and education provides the opportunity for individuals to reach their potential, and live more fulfilled and prosperous life. A better educated population also leads to greater civic engagement and improved social outcomes – such as better health and lower crime rates.
East Midlands is ranked 15th out of the 21 regions in the UK, across all stages of education. Only Rutland, Rushcliffe and Broxtowe districts are in the top quartile nationally. Less than, pupils in 40% of low income households pass GCSE English and Maths, which is one of the lowest rates in the UK. Furthermore, adults in this region have low levels of qualifications. The most successful aspect of education in this region is the progression of school leavers to both apprenticeships and further education courses.
Ashfield ranking - Education pillar
In the UK Prosperity Index 2022, Ashfield is ranked 328 out of 374 local authorities within the education pillar, so there is a need for this action plan to help improve education within the district.
Education sector rankings in Ashfield
Areas of focus in the plan will be to improve primary education (ranked 316 out of 374), secondary education (309 out of 374) and adult skills (ranked 300 out of 374) within the Ashfield district.
Having a 10-year Education and Skills Improvement Strategy will give us a desired focus, which will allow us to work towards our aspiration of being a highly ranked district for education in the region, and assist in improving East Midlands ranking within the UK for education. The plan will also give us the desired focus to improve our local authority ranking for education within the UK.
The full UK Prosperity Index 2022 document, including more information on each pillar of prosperity, is available online:
- website: UK Prosperity Index 2022
Education sectors analysis explained:
- Pre-primary education - 10%
Captures how well early education is attended and the educational outcomes of early childhood education. It supports the development of linguistic, cognitive, social, and emotional skills.
- Primary education - 30%
Captures the provision and outcomes of primary education in a local authority area, including core literacy and numeracy skills
- Secondary education - 30%
Captures provision and outcomes of secondary education in a local authority, including core literacy and numeracy skills. Attaining level 2 qualification in English and Maths are an important step in an individual’s educational journey.
- Tertiary education provision - 10%
Captures the extent to which students from a particular local authority will go onto further education, either through apprenticeship or university.
- Adult skills - 20%
Captures the level of skills in a local adult population, by measuring the number of adults with different level of qualifications.
Detailed breakdown of industry clusters in Ashfield
(ranked by job count)
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) populate annual surveys to capture how many employees are in each sector within an area. The latest survey was conducted in 2021 for Ashfield.
2021 Ashfield industry cluster table
(By job counts)
| Industry | Job count |
|---|---|
| Human health and social work | 15000 |
| Manufacturing | 8000 |
| Wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles | 8000 |
| Construction | 5000 |
| Transportation and storage | 5000 |
| Education | 3500 |
| Accommodation and food service | 2500 |
| Administrative and support service activities | 2000 |
| Professional, scientific, and technical activities | 1500 |
| Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply | 1000 |
| Information and communication | 1000 |
| Public administration and defence, compulsory social security | 1000 |
| Arts, entertainment and recreation | 800 |
| Other service activities | 500 |
| Real estate activities | 350 |
| Financial and insurance activities | 250 |
| Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities | 175 |
| Mining and quarrying | 30 |
Ashfield's job count is high in industries such as:
- Human Health and social work activities - 15,000 employees
- Manufacturing - 8000 employees
- Wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles - 8000 employees
- Construction - 5000 employees
- Transportation and storage - 5000 employees
- Education - 3500 employees
- Accommodation and food services - 2500 employees
- Administrative and support service activities - 2000 employees
Post pandemic, these are still high-profile sectors in Ashfield and this plan will ensure that residents have the skills to successfully pursue a career within these industries.
Ashfield businesses data
There were 4936 businesses in Ashfield (Source: FAME 21/06/2023).
| Sector | Number of businesses |
|---|---|
| Business Services | 968 |
| Travel, personal and leisure | 739 |
| Construction | 688 |
| Public administration, education, health, social services | 540 |
| Retail | 373 |
| Transport, freight and storage | 360 |
| Wholesale | 337 |
| Property services | 244 |
| Computer software | 95 |
| Metals and metal products | 81 |
| Wood, furniture and paper manufacturing | 56 |
| Banking, insurance and financial services | 52 |
| Agriculture, horticulture and livestock | 50 |
| Industrial, electrical and electronic machinery | 48 |
| Chemicals, petroleum, rubber and plastic | 47 |
| Miscellaneous manufacturing | 47 |
| Textiles and clothing manufacturing | 35 |
| Food and tobacco manufacturing | 33 |
| Printing and publishing | 32 |
| Media and broadcasting | 30 |
| Utilities | 17 |
| Waste management and treatment | 16 |
| Communications | 14 |
| Transport manufacturing | 13 |
| Mining and extraction | 8 |
| Information services | 7 |
| Leather, stone, clay and glass products | 4 |
| Computer hardware | 1 |
| Biotechnology and life sciences | 1 |
Performance measures to improve during the lifetime of the plan
1) Business start-up rate
| Business start-up rate | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
| United Kingdom | 12.3% | 12.6% | 11.5% | 12.4% |
| Ashfield district | 12.4% | 11.9% | 11.8% | 11.5% |
Source: D2N2 Data Centre
This table shows the rate at which new businesses are being formed in Ashfield district, it is expressed as the ratio of new businesses being created to established businesses. For example, if there were 100 businesses, a rate of 10% a year would mean that there were 10 new businesses created each year.
As the table shows, rates have stayed relatively stable in Ashfield with a decrease of 0.9% between 2018 and 2021. In 2021, the start-up rate in Ashfield was 0.9% less than that of the UK.
2) Resident qualification level
| Resident qualification level | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
| NVQ1 and above | 79.1% | 76.8% | 85.0% | 89.6% | 86.5% |
| NVQ2 and above | 59.4% | 62.6% | 72.4% | 77.3% | 70.6% |
| NVQ3 and above | 39.2% | 43.2% | 47.5% | 50.6% | 50.2% |
| NVQ4 and above | 18.1% | 17.0% | 21.2% | 24.5% | 29.9% |
Source: NOMIS
This table shows the proportion of Ashfield residents with NVQ qualifications. Someone who has an NVQ4 will also have NVQ 1-3 level qualifications.
Looking at qualifications held by our residents - while we can see some decrease in those with NVQ1 and above, there has been strong growth in both NVQ3 and 4 and above. From 2018 to 2022, the proportion of people with NVQ3 or above grew by 11%, and the proportion with NVQ4 and above grew by 11.1%.
3) Key Stage 4 (KS4) and Key Stage 5 (KS5) destinations
| KS4 destinations | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
| Sustained education | 78.9% | 80.9% | 84.0% | 76.9% |
| Employment | 5.9% | 5.0% | 4.6% | 5.3% |
| Apprenticeships | 9.6% | 7.1% | 5.4% | 8.0% |
| KS5 destinations | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
| Sustained education | 37.6% | 36.7% | 41.4% | 41.8% |
| Employment | 26.4% | 28.4% | 27.2% | 26.9% |
| Apprenticeships | 14.2% | 16.5% | 12.5% | 14.9% |
Source: Department for Education
This table shows the destination of students in Ashfield finishing KS4 and KS5. This is data that tracks where students go after finishing compulsory education. Where the total of data does not add up to 100% the remaining percentage is those who did not continue to either sustained education, employment, or apprenticeships.
From this data we can see that most of those continuing from KS4 and KS5 continue into education, though this amount is higher at the KS4 Level. In Ashfield, the percentage of 16 to 18-year-olds continuing into either sustained education, employment, and apprenticeships increased from 77.3% to 83.6%. This was because of the growth in those continuing into sustained education, though there has been a small increase in the people continuing to apprenticeships.
4) Participation in FE and training; apprenticeships starts, participation, and completion
| Per 100k residents | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
| Participation in FE and training | 7219 | 5759 | 6767 | 6595 | 7101 |
| Apprenticeship starts | 1587 | 1155 | 1177 | 1359 | 1186 |
| Apprenticeship participation | 2954 | 2770 | 2628 | 2752 | 2734 |
| Apprenticeship completions | 708 | 605 | 612 | 553 | 587 |
Source: Department for Education
This table shows that the rate of apprenticeship starts in Ashfield has been gradually growing following a decrease between the 2018 and 2019 figures with the 2022 number being almost the same as the 2018 number.
The table also shows that apprenticeship participation rate has remained fairly static between 2018 and 2022. However, the completion rate has been slowly dropping over a 5 year period from 2018 to 2022.
5) Claimant rate and 50+ claimant rate
| Claimant rate (yearly average) | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
| East Midlands | 1.8% | 2.3% | 4.7% | 4.6% | 3.3% | 3.3% |
| Ashfield | 2.0% | 2.7% | 5.3% | 5.2% | 3.9% | 3.8% |
| Average number of claimants (Ashfield) | 1588 | 2099 | 4214 | 4087 | 3067 | 2994 |
| 50+ claimant rate (yearly average) | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
| East Midlands | 1.4% | 1.8% | 3.5% | 3.6% | 2.5% | 2.3% |
| Ashfield | 1.6% | 2.0% | 3.7% | 3.8% | 2.7% | 2.6% |
| Average number of claimants (Ashfield) | 404 | 509 | 976 | 1000 | 725 | 681 |
Source: NOMIS
This table show the percentage of people who are working ages (16 to 64) in Ashfield and the East Midlands claiming unemployment benefits, as well as the percentage in the 50+ demographic. The Ashfield rate is consistently higher than the East Midlands in both the total available workers and the 50+ demographic. The growth in this gap was larger in the overall percentage, growing from 0.2% higher in 2018 to 0.5% higher by 2023. The difference in the rate of over 50 claimants between Ashfield and the East Midlands grew from 0.2% in 2018 to 0.3% by 2023.
6) Rate of employment
| Rate of employment | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
| East Midlands | 74.7% | 76% | 76.2% | 74.3% | 75.2% | 75.1% |
| Ashfield | 70.1% | 74.5% | 78.2% | 78.3% | 78.9% | 67.9% |
Source: NOMIS
7) Levels of economic inactivity
| Rate of employment | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
| East Midlands | 22.0% | 20.5% | 20.4% | 21.6% | 22.4% | 22.2% |
| Ashfield | 28.1% | 23.2% | 20% | 18.2% | 20.2% | 29% |
Source: NOMIS
The term ‘economically inactive’ means people who are not in employment and have not looked for work in the last 4 weeks and/or are unable to work in the next 2 weeks. Some examples of economically inactive people are students, people with long-term health issues and retirees. In the table above we can see in the regional figures there is not much change in the percentage of economically inactive, growing by just 0.2% between 2018 and 2023.
In Ashfield, there are bigger changes that are likely because of the Covid-19 pandemic, which are more visible due to Ashfield's size in comparison to the UK. However, overall, we can see in both 2018 and 2023 the rate of economic inactivity in Ashfield was over 6% higher than the national average. Figures in this table are expressed as an average of monthly economic activity figures.
8) Stem vacancies and jobs
| STEM jobs and vacancies | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
| Number of jobs | 4256 | 3881 | 3912 | 3921 | 3980 | - |
| Compared to UK average | -25% | -30% | -28% | -34% | -35% | - |
| Average monthly STEM vacancies | 73 | 58 | 61 | 94 | 117 | 138 |
| Average monthly vacancies | 848 | 691 | 810 | 1244 | 1437 | 1951 |
Source: Lightcast
This table shows the number of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and maths) jobs in Ashfield and how this compares to the UK average. It also shows the average number of monthly STEM vacancies being advertised in Ashfield.
The gap in the number of STEM jobs between Ashfield and the UK average has been growing. This seems to be because of a slower recovery from jobs lost because of Covid-19 in Ashfield, as well as there being a skills gap among Ashfield residents. We see that although there is a growth in the average number of vacancies being advertised, there is not a similar growth in the number of employees, suggesting that these jobs are not all being filled.
With the number of STEM jobs in 2022 still less than before the pandemic, only growing by around 100 from 2019 to 2022, and the gap between Ashfield and the UK average growing by 10% it seems that losses from the pandemic have not been recovered in Ashfield. This is consistent with other measures that show one of the main issues facing Ashfield, especially in relation to the clean/green economy, is a skills gap.
Additionally, we can see that despite the increase in the number of post-Covid STEM vacancies, this growth is slower than the growth of the overall monthly vacancies. This suggests that the STEM employment market is growing at a slower rate than the overall Ashfield employment market.
9) Primary and Secondary OFSTED performance
| Primaries rating | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
| Inadequate | 2.6% | 2.6% | 2.6% | 5.3% | 5.3% | 0% |
| Needs Improvement | 21.1% | 21.1% | 21.1% | 13.2% | 10.5% | 5.3% |
| Good | 55.3% | 55.3% | 55.3% | 63.2% | 73.7% | 81.6% |
| Outstanding | 15.8% | 15.8% | 15.8% | 13.2% | 10.5% | 5.3% |
| AVERAGE RATING | 2.89 | 2.89 | 2.89 | 2.89 | 2.86 | 3.03 |
Source: OFSTED
The above table looks at the OFSTED performance of Ashfield’s primary schools. We can see from 2018 to 2022, there has been an overall improvement in the quality of primary schools that is demonstrated by the rise in the average rating.
In this table each rating has been given a number value, where an Inadequate rating is counted as 1 and an Outstanding rating is counted as 4. Using this scale, we can see the average rating for Ashfield primaries rose above 3 in 2023, making the average score Good. From the individual level breakdown, we can see this has been driven by the increase in the number of schools being rated as good, rather than a growth in the number of outstanding schools.
Between 2018 and 2023, the percentage of Inadequate primary schools fell from 2.6% to 0%, and the share of schools rated Needs Improvement fell from 21.1% to 5.3%. This 5.3% now represents all primary schools not rated good or higher. However, it is worth noting while there has been a large amount of positive movement from Inadequate and Needs Improvement, there has also been a fall in the number of Outstanding schools, falling from 15.8% to 5.3%.
| Secondaries and SEND rating | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
| Inadequate | 11% | 22% | 33% | 33% | 33% | 33% |
| Needs Improvement | 0% | 11% | 11% | 11% | 11% | 11% |
| Good | 78% | 56% | 56% | 56% | 56% | 56% |
| Outstanding | 11% | 11% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| AVERAGE RATING | 2.89 | 2.56 | 2.22 | 2.22 | 2.22 | 2.22 |
Source: OFSTED
The above table is laid out in the same way as the previous table covering the primary school performance. From 2018 to 2022, the average rating attained by secondary and SEND schools dropped from 2.89 to 2.22, meaning the average rating is Needs Improvement.
This is because of the increase in the percentage of Inadequate and Needs Improvement schools and a decrease in Outstanding schools and Good schools. Overall, it is a negative trend.