IMPROVEMENTS, BY USING A NEW SET OF DATA, TO THE ENGLISH STANDARD SPENDING ASSESSMENTS - THE 1991 CENSUS OF POPULATION SAMPLES OF ANONYMISED RECORDS

A critical examination is undertaken of a new set of data-the 1991 Cen sus of Population samples of anonymised records (SARs)-as an instrumen t for improving the quality of the indices used in the English Standar d Spending Assessments system for the allocation of central government funds to local authorities. The 'additional education needs' index is used as a case study. Application of the Department of the Environmen t's existing methodological approach in conjunction with the SARs prod uces significant improvements in the explanatory power of the regressi on-based models. It is concluded that the SARs represent an invaluable source of data to supplement or replace the databases currently utili sed in the standard spending assessment indices. The implications of t his for the 2001 Census of Population are also identified and discusse d.