Best Start Foods: evaluation

Annex A: Additional statistical information

Notes which apply to more than one statistical table are presented at the beginning of Annex A, as can be seen below. Notes which apply to only one statistical table are presented underneath the relevant table.

Notes – all tables

• Figures are rounded for disclosure control and may not sum due to rounding.
• Figures have been rounded to the nearest one percent – figures may not sum due to rounding.
• Most results are presented to zero decimal places. '0%' should therefore be interpreted to mean less than 0.5%. If no responses were given then this is denoted by '-'.

Notes – tables 1-9

• This supplementary analysis was carried out using the same data used in the production of the Social Security Scotland client diversity and equalities analysis to May 2021.

Notes – tables 10-13

• This supplementary analysis was carried out using the same data used in the production of the Best Start Grant Official Statistics publication.

Notes – tables 11-13

• Financial Year 2019-2020 includes the months from 12 August 2019 to March 2020. Financial Year 2020-2021 includes the months from April 2020 to March 2021. Financial Year 2021-2022 includes the months from April 2021 to February 2022.

Notes – table 7

• In Social Security Scotland client diversity and equalities analysis Urban Rural data is presented based on the Scottish Government Urban Rural Classification, 8-fold. In Table 7 it is based on the Scottish Government Urban Rural Classification, 6-fold. The 6-fold data in Table 6 has been calculated by aggregating the following items from the 8-fold data:
  • '4 - Remote Small Town', and '5 - Very Remote Small Town'
  • '7 - Remote Rural Area', and '8 - Very Remote Rural Area'

Notes – table 8

• In Social Security Scotland client diversity and equalities analysis SIMD data is presented based on SIMD Deciles. In Table 8 it is based on SIMD Quintiles. SIMD Quintiles data in Table 8 has been calculated by aggregating the following from the SIMD Deciles data:
  • Deciles 1 and 2 data, for Quintile 1
  • Deciles 3 and 4 data, for Quintile 2
  • Deciles 5 and 6 data, for Quintile 3
  • Deciles 7 and 8 data, for Quintile 4
  • Deciles 9 and 10 data, for Quintile 5

Notes – table 10

• Whether an applicant is assumed to be lone parent or not is based on the presence (or absence) of a data field called "Partner Flag". Since it is possible for applicants to not fill in information about their partners, overestimation of lone parents can occur and thus caution is needed when interpreting these figures.
• Whilst the vast majority of applications are from parents of children, some of the applications counted in these tables are from applicants with a different relationship to the child (e.g. grandparent, kinship carer etc.)

11. Number of approved applications for kinship carers, per financial year (rounded)

Notes – table 11

• An applicant is considered to be a kinship carer if at least one child attached to their application has a kinship relationship status. Data regarding relationship status was missing for roughly 2% of children and thus these figures may slightly undercount total number of kinship applicants

Notes – table 12

• Where application channel has been manually entered incorrectly, application channel has been classed as 'unknown'.

Notes – table 13

• Processing time is calculated in working days, and public holidays are excluded, even if applications were processed by staff working overtime on these days. Processing time is only calculated for applications that were decided by 28 February 2022, and does not include any applications that are flagged as having had a redetermination request. The number of applications processed in this table is therefore lower than the number of decisions shown in other tables. Both Best Start Foods and Best Start Grant applications are being processed at the same time.
• Median average has been used. The median is the middle value of an ordered dataset, or the point at which half of the values are higher and half of the values are lower.

How to access background or source data

The data collected for this social research publication:

☐ are available in more detail through Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics

☐ are available via an alternative route

☒ may be made available on request, subject to consideration of legal and ethical factors. Please contact social_research@gov.scot for further information.

☐ cannot be made available by Scottish Government for further analysis as Scottish Government is not the data controller.