Lead Partner: The Young Foundation
Description
The Commission on Unclaimed Assets recently commissioned the Young Foundation to create a broad overview of British needs, an assessment of the most pressing unmet needs of 60 million people – urban and rural, marginalised and empowered, rich and poor. Currently there is no regular mapping of priority social needs in the UK.
Young Foundation have developed a distinctive method focused on how people meet their needs through the market, government action, voluntary sector, friends and family, and identifying those needs which are not met through these means. The analysis is also distinctive in taking seriously issues of capability as well as psychological need, which may be becoming more important as material standards of living continue to improve for the majority.
While there is a significant amount of research on the needs of communities in the countryside, there has been little attempt to create a more holistic overview of the social needs of rural Britain. Loneliness, immobility, housing issues, and ageing are all realities that affect many rural communities around the country and intensify in deprived areas with low employment and prospects. Creating a broader overview and mapping unmet needs will allow us to better understand the connections between the needs, who are falling through the cracks and who is experiencing multiple needs.
Needs are complex, and the methodology the Young Foundation has developed for Mapping Britain’s Needs helps to capture this complexity. This research will therefore be based on an accessible combination of what is known about rural needs; qualitative material gathered from interviews with frontline agencies, the public, local councils and academics as well as images and voices.
This report has now been published- a copy of this can be downloaded from our publications section. The findings will feed into the Commission's final report which will be published in June.
Contact Details
Website: http://www.youngfoundation.org.uk