Comparison between Newnham and Westminster - Essay Example

?Comparing relevant Health Statistic between Newham & Westminster and HNA Proposal Comparison between Newham andWestminster The Newham borough was formed through the merging of Essex county borough of East ham, the county borough of West Ham in 1965. Woolwich was also incorporated as part of the borough with a small area west of the river Roding. Newham was coined as a complete new name for the borough. Westminster borough was created from the former area of the metropolitan boroughs of St Marylebone, Paddington and the other smaller Metropolitan Borough of Westminster. The earlier metropolitan borough was an amalgamation in the 1900 (NC, 2011, pp. 2-40). Newham is the tenth most populated borough in London. The most recent statistics of the 2001 census show that Newham has a population of 250, 600 people. The population is seen to grow steadily since 1991. There is evidence that the office of the national statistics figures not only underestimates the size and population of Newham but also do not provide an accurate picture of the makeup of the borough’s different communities (NC, 2007, pp. 9-11). On the other hand the city of Westminster has a population of 181,279 according to the census population of 2001. The population was to low according to the city council and political parties. The office of the National Statistics then added a total of 17,500 people to the population bringing the figure to 198,779 (WC, 2005). In Newham there are two main ethnic groups which are the whites and Asians. According to the Office of the National Statistics, the white population is composed of 39% of which 32.6% are British, 1.1% are Irish and 5% from other white backgrounds. 38% of the population is Asian of which 10.2% are Indian, 7% are Bangladesh, 13.9% are Pakistan and 5.1% from other Asian backgrounds (Aston, 2011, pp 2). The Chinese population is 1.6% while 2.6% are other ethnic groups. Most of the population is composed of the younger people about 40% and a low population of the older people about 8.5%. Westminster on the other hand has also two major ethnic groups: the whites and the Asian community. The whites make up 71% of the population with British making up 49%, Irish 2% and other whites 19%. The Asian make up 16%, the blacks 7%, 6% mixed and 4% belong to other racial groups. A high population of Westminster about 45% is aged between 20 and 39 years. It has a small percentage of children making up15% and older people are at 12% (WC, 2011, pp. 5-10). Newham borough is the education authority for the district and provides education in a mix of foundation, community and voluntary aided schools. It also owns an adult education college called Debden House in Loughton, Essex. It also runs the Essex primary school one of the biggest primary schools in London. The University of East London owns two campuses in Newham: Stratford campus and Docklands campus (NC, 2007). Westminster on the other hand operates many community primary and secondary schools through the children services department. There are also other schools in the city run by churches. There are many universities and colleges in Westminster among them University of Arts London, London Business school, London School of Economics, University of Westminster among others (WC, 2005, pp.5-10). Newham has the highest proportion of households with dependent children in England and wales. 15.7% of all the households are lone parents. The proportion for single person households is at 34%. The 2001 census showed that Newham has 2.6 people per household: he highest in London. It has 98127 homes of which 45.7% are owner occupied, 20.7% are privately rented, 20.7 are owned by local authority and 12.6 % are owned by registered social landlords. Westminster has over 110,000 households of which half comprise of single people living alone. The proportion of single adult households is 35% while single parent families account for 5% of Westminster households (WHC, 2005, pp.3-5). Newman’s life expectancy for men stands at 2.5 years lower than that for England. The women have a life expectancy of 1.8 years below the England figure. Mortality rates are higher for the younger people and adults but the figure is dropping on a yearly basis. Infant mortality is higher in Newham than the whole of London and England. The health of people in Westminster is generally better than the rest of England average. Life expectancy in both men and women is higher in the borough with men and women in the least deprived wards living longer than those in the deprived wards. Mortality rates increase with age and vary by gender; they are higher in females than males (Williams, 2010, p. 1). The crime rates in Newham have continued to go down since 2002 but there is still a challenge in achieving crime and disorder reduction. Violent crime levels have increased by 5% in 2007 as compared to 2005. The trend in violent crime is moving up since 2002 although current statistics show it is starting to reduce. Priority areas of combating crime are wounding, personal robbery, criminal damage and theft from Moto vehicles. The crime rate statistics show a downward trend for Westminster with violent crime and property crime decreasing in the past 11 years. The figures show that the violent crime rates were lower by 30.71% compared to the national violent crime rate. The same was witnessed for property crime rate going lower by 3.81% in 2009 (FBI, 2011). Unemployment in Newham is higher as compared to London as a whole. The employment rate is under the average and very poor compared to the national figure. There have been little improvements and the latest figures show that employment rate has increased by 1.3% to 57%. Newham has a higher percentage of working age with qualifications than London and a higher percentage of population with no qualification. The rate of Economic activity of working age people in Newham in is lower than the London average (Aston, 2011, pp 5-8). Economic inactivity in Newham is 11% higher than in London and 14.5% higher than England. In Westminster there is a higher unemployment rate of 3.1% which is higher compared to the overall unemployment rate that stands at 2.4%. There are specific areas within the city that experience higher unemployment as compared to others and have been named hotspots. In overall there are many workplaces in Westminster thus over 547,000 people are employed comprising of 14% of employment in London. The borough has more firms than any other borough in London that offer employment opportunities (WC, 2005, pp. 7-8). In general the health of the people of in Newham is poor and the life expectancy is lower than the rest of England’s average. Over the past 10 years death rates from all possible causes combined have improved but the life expectancy has continued to remain low than that of London. It has been identified that circulatory diseases are the main causes of death in Newham. It has the third highest premature mortality rate from circulatory diseases in London and the figure is more than double the national average. Levels of new cases of Tuberculosis and people diagnosed with diabetes are among the highest in England (Aston, 2011, pp. 5-6). Newham has had the highest birth rate in the country for a number of years. A survey carried out in 2010 showed that Newham is the 12th least active local authority population in England and the least active in London. In 2008/ 2009 14% reception class children and 24.6% year 6 children were classified as obese. Newham has high rates of HIV infections, with the numbers increasing yearly. Between 200-2009 it witnessed a 10% in the number of new infections. 65% of the people infected are the black African population. About 27% of people living with HIV in the borough of Newham are undiagnosed. Those who went for late diagnosis are shown to improve form 34% in 2007 to 38% in 2008.The frequency of serious mental illness in the population remained low at 0.9% in 2007/2008 to 2009. The admission ratio of for affective disorders and schizophrenia is consistently and significantly higher than London and England Averages. There many factors affecting the health of people in Newham and these include: genetics, lifestyle, the social and physical environment. All these play a part in affecting the health outcomes of people in Newham (Smith, 2009). The impact is bad as seen from the discussion above where there are continuous new infections with the number being high in almost all sectors of health compared to the larger England. The council provides many health services and these include Adult social care, Adult abuse services, Emergency services, self-direct support and HIV/AIDS support among other programs aimed at preventing the spread of diseases (NC, 2011). The people want better health services as they think the current facilities are inadequate and the services are still poor to address their healthcare needs (WC, 2008, 5-10). The current priorities for health in London are the reduction of people with circulatory diseases, reduce mortality rates and increase access to health services. Local priorities for Newham include: Improving life expectancy, reducing deaths from heart disease and stroke, helping people live healthier lifestyles and tackling the broader determinants of health (NHS, 2007, p.2). HNA proposal As seen above there are many factors that are prevalent in the borough of Newham of which need to be addressed. The solutions to these problems can only be arrived at with the help of the people and the government in addressing them. Health statistics show that the general health is poor and therefore measure should be put in place to address this issue. There is also a huge problem of unemployment, crime rates are high, housing problems with many dependent children and the problem of inadequate education facilities. This is in comparison to the Westminster borough that has shown significant progress in the mentioned areas. The first objective is to foster access to health care facilities by bringing these facilities closer to the people of Newham. The aim of this is to provide evenly distributed access to medical services at all times to the people. The second objective is to reduce the level of crime rates so as to prevent cases of injury and death in the borough. Crime has an impact on the health well-being of the people such that if this is prevented the rates of injuries will go down. A third objective is to improve housing facilities in the borough by providing cheap accessible housing facilities in partnership with the council. This can be done by building of quality houses which can then be rented to be people at subsidized rates. This will go a long way in ensuring that the people live in a conducive environment, have good sanitation and chances of getting preventable diseases will be low (NC, 2008, pp.10). In order to achieve these objectives a number of stakeholders will be involved. These are the people who are responsible for services in the borough and they must be included if the project has to succeed. These include public bodies such as the council, the police, health and employment services as well as the, voluntary, community and faith organizations that exist in Newham. It is also important to involve local businesses and business people, education institutions and youth organizations. The youth make up a great percentage of the population and therefore they must be involved in one way or another if the objectives are to be achieved (NC, 2008, pp. 13). In implementing the project a number of resources are required to ensure that intended objectives are achieved. These include support from the community in terms of good will so that the project is sustainable, financial support from various bodies including the council and the government in helping support the community. Other well-wishers and non-governmental organizations will also play a big role in providing financial support in order to boost the lives of the community. Another resource is the people to be engaged in various activities that will lead to social change. All projects for them to succeed must begin with community involvement and participation. Without this it is very difficult to achieve any positive outcome. In order to begin a project, background information is necessary in order to find out which project will be of benefit to the people or the community. Newham is a borough that has got a lot of information about its population on health, crime, housing, social services and employment among others (NC, 2011). This information is easily available at various public bodies that continuously carry out surveys in order to improve the living conditions of the people. One such pace to find information is the City council of Newham, the national statistics bureau and many other non-governmental institutions. We can also find first-hand information from the people themselves by conducting a survey to identify their needs (NC, 2011). The first immediate problem that faces most projects s funding. To get people to support the project you must prove that the project is worthwhile and not a replica of other projects being undertaken. Government support is not easy unless there is a big problem that needs to be addressed. The second problem is that of participation from all the stakeholders. Many people fear participation thinking that they may be forced to contribute financially and therefore opt out. The third problem is the people themselves as they may have different needs from what the project proposes to solve. These divergent needs may make them not to participate in the projects (Kober, 2003, pp,10). To solve these problems it is important to have a detailed proposal explaining what the project is all about and how it is going to benefit the community. This will draw the various people including the government to fund the project (Shapiro, 2003, pp. 10-23). The second problem can be solved by popularizing the project through the media so that various stakeholders understand their roles so that they are able to join in and help in solving the various needs of the community. The third problem can be solved by first going to the people and finding out what problems affect them and how they will want them to be addressed. In this way first-hand information is gathered about people’s needs making it possible to begin a project that will be sustainable (Jennings, 2000, 2). List of References Aston. (2011, February). Newham Key Statistics. Retrieved November 25, 2011, from Aston Mansfield: http://www.aston-mansfield.org.uk/pdf_docs/research/newham-key-statistics.PDF Aston. (2011, January). Newham-Key statistics. Retrieved November 25, 2011, from Aston mansfield: http://www.aston-mansfield.org.uk/pdf_docs/research/newham-key-statistics-summary.PDF FBI. (2011). Westminster Crime rate Report. Retrieved November 25, 2011, from City Ratings: http://www.cityrating.com/crime-statistics/california/westminster.html Jennings, R. (2000). Participatory Development as New Paradigm: The Transition of Development Professionalism. Retrieved November 25, 2011, from USAID: http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/cross-cutting_programs/transition_initiatives/pubs/ptdv1000.pdf Kober, C. (Ed.). (2003). Black and Ethnic Minority Children and poverty: Exploring the Issues. London: National Childrens Bureau. NC. (2007). London Borough of Newham Local Area Agreement 2007-2010. Retrieved November 25, 2011, from Newham Council: http://www.newham.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/4D248EAD-BD55-4A68-BA7F-CE3A53E212D2/0/LocalAreaAgreement07.pdf NC. (2008). Newham Sustainable Community Strategy. Retrieved November 25, 2011, from Newham Council: www.tblp.localknowledge.co.uk/GetAsset.ashx?AssetId=3200 NC. (2011). Newham Info. Retrieved November 25, 2011, from Newhan London: http://www.newham.info/ NC. (2011). Newham: Health and Social Care. Retrieved November 25, 2011, from Newham Council: http://www.newham.gov.uk/healthandsocialcare/ NC. (2011). The Newham Story:A Short History of the London Borough of Newham. Retrieved November 25, 2011, from Newham government: http://www.newham.gov.uk/nr/rdonlyres/52364e5a-4560-4650-86ad-da699bf7224e/0/newhamstory.pdf NHS. (2007). Newham Health Profile. Retrieved Novemeber 25, 2011, from www.apho.org.uk/resource/view.aspx?RID=51670 Shapiro, J. (2003). Writing a funding Proposal. Retrieved November 25, 2011, from CIVICUS: http://www.civicus.org/new/media/Writing%20a%20funding%20proposal.pdf Smith, J. (2009, December 9). Newham Health and Well being Strategy. Retrieved November 25, 2011, from Newham Council: http://mgov.newham.gov.uk/mgConvert2PDF.aspx?ID=26349 WC. (2005). Local Socio-Economic/Demographic context. Retrieved November 25, 2011, from Westminster Government: http://www3.westminster.gov.uk/docstores/publications_store/chap1.pdf WC. (2011). A profile of westminster. Retrieved November 25, 2011, from Westminster NHS: http://archive.westminster.nhs.uk/pdfs/phar0405_chapter1.pdf WHC. (2005, September). Background paper 2: Westminster Housing Markets. Retrieved November 25, 2011, from Westminster Housing Commission: http://www.westminsteronline.org/housingcommission/downloads/papers/Background%20Paper2-2.pdf Williams, T. (2010). Older People: Westminster City Partnership. Retrieved Novemeber 25, 2011, from Westminister Joins Strategy Needs Assessment: http://westminstercitypartnership.org.uk/Partnerships/Health%20and%20Wellbeing/JSNA%20%20Completed%20Needs%20Assessments/Poster%20-%20Older%20People.pdf Read More