Equality and Diversity Across the Board in Northern Ireland – Methodological Considerations Jim Jamison Richard Buchanan Roy Carr-Hill Paul Dixon

Aims of Research Literature review on indicators of equality and diversity with a particular focus on their relevance and applicability in Northern Ireland. Limited consultation with key “stakeholders” representative of groups within the nine categories identified under Section 75 of the N Ireland Act (1998). To consider the relative strengths and weaknesses of approaches that use univariate and multivariate methods to develop measures of equality and diversity; to comment on the technical and socio- economic interpretations of the indicators suggested in the consultation; to identify gaps; and to make recommendations about future indicator development and monitoring. Research commissioned by OFMDFM as part of the N Ireland Government Departments’ Equality and Social Need Research and Information Strategy

Social Inequalities All societies exhibit inequality A degree of inequality is indispensable to material progress What types of inequality should the state concern itself with trying to ameliorate? Equality legislation concentrates on a small number of categories such as gender and age and a very small subset of ‘welfare’ measures’ such as employment or access to services Legislation tends to be framed in terms of equality of opportunity rather than process or outcome

Domains of Equality The measurement of human welfare or well- being needs to take account of the full range of “domains” of well-being (health, adequate material wealth, security etc). Any set of indicators that fails to reflect the variety of components of well-being may present an incomplete and misleading picture. For example, it is at least arguable that men and women tend to differ in their valuation of domains.

Equality of Opportunity Equality of opportunity, rather than outcome, is the avowed aim of most Western societies. Invariably more difficult to measure than outcome; but Inequalities in outcomes are often, although importantly not always, pointers to inequalities in opportunities and/or process Inequality in outcome may be attributable to individual choice and/or differences in opportunity or process Assumption that the influence of the latter is negligible likely to be closer to the truth in some equality categories than others The available data largely reflect equality of process or outcome rather than opportunity

Statistical Considerations Univariate approaches to monitoring equality may give misleading results Monitoring equality of process or opportunity often involves examining “flows” such as from unemployment to employment Statistical methods such as log-linear modelling may be required Monitoring utilisation of health and other public services across equality groups has to take account of service need (and possibly supply) as well as uptake and may require complex statistical methods

Sets of Indicators (1) Relatively small number of measures Simple and easily understood Readily comparable across settings and over time; but Beware over-simplification!

Sets of Indicators (2) A set of indicators that fails to reflect the variety of components of well-being may present an incomplete and misleading picture Conversely, there is a danger in focusing too much on any one inequality dimension as this will imply causality where none is involved Most sets of indicators proposed in the literature at a high level. Although there would be value in compiling many of these routinely (e.g. to study trends over time) they are nearly all outcome based and do not go directly to equality of opportunity or process.

Data Problems Major difficulties in monitoring equality and diversity in certain equality categories, particularly political opinion and sexual orientation because of the difficulty of obtaining accurate data Problems with household surveys because of the difficulty of substantiating self-report data

Consultation - Purpose “To establish in a systematic way the main areas of concern to interest groups in each of the Section 75 categories about inequality in opportunity. In particular, we wanted to explore: what information might be useful in highlighting such concerns to policy makers; and what information might be useful in demonstrating the extent to which inequalities were or were not diminishing.”

With whom did we consult? (1) Larger umbrella groups and political parties: Carers Northern Ireland Parents Advice Centre CoSO NICVA NICEM NICTU Age Concern DUP Sinn Fein UUP SDLP

With whom did we consult?(2) Religious representatives and some smaller, more specialist organisations: Father Troy, Holy Cross Church, Belfast. Dr Watts, Presbyterian Church in Ireland The Men’s Project Youthlink South Tyrone Empowerment Programme Contact a Family Centre for Social Research, QUB

Key Policy Areas Labour Market Education Crime and Justice Health and Social care Social Security Family and Household Structure Culture/Social Capital Income/Wealth Housing Transport Measures of Quality of Environment

Some General Issues (1) Persons of different religious belief/opinion – Difficult to distinguish between concerns that could be a product of political opinion from those that arose because of political belief. Men and women – Much greater emphasis on women’s equality issues rather than men’s. Many of the former relate to the traditional position of women as carers. Persons of different marital status – How do we establish representative views? Persons with dependents – A wide definition of dependents which included carers as well as people with children.

Some General Issues (2) Persons of different racial groups – Issues arising from the “new” ethnic minorities, particularly in rural areas. Persons of different sexual orientation – Scepticism, based on experience, about Government’s commitment to address issues relating to the rights of lesbian, gay and bisexual people. Persons with a disability – Need for more qualitative data on attitudes of the general population towards the issue of disability and on the attitudes and experiences of people themselves. Persons of different ages – Primary focus on inequalities and disadvantage suffered by older people.

Outcomes of Consultation People generally welcomed the opportunity to help inform thinking in what they regarded as a crucially important matter (the development of meaningful indicators of equality and diversity). There were, however, concerns about the restricted nature of the consultation. Each suggested a menu of areas to be monitored in relation to the key policy areas, totalling over 200 Not surprisingly, labour market issues attracted most suggestions. Our report will reflect what was suggested, rather than what we necessarily believe is useful or feasible.

Emerging Conclusions Measuring and interpreting differences in a range of policy outcomes between groups of individuals along nine dimensions is considerably more complex than the drafters of the legislation appear to have appreciated. This is because: There is considerable overlap across the Section 75 dimensions in their impact Differences between groups may be wholly or partly attributable to differences in the makeup of the groups Individual-level data derived from household surveys are usually highly correlated Making reliable inferences about whether observed inequalities constitute inequity usually involves the use of statistical methods such as multivariate analysis, multi-level modelling and/or log- linear analysis However such techniques often have fatal limitations because of lack of data and intractable problems of interpretation.