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As the Welsh Government yesterday released statistics on deprivation across Wales, the Minister for Communities and Tackling Poverty, Lesley Griffiths, has set-out her continued commitment to supporting Wales’ most deprived communities.

The Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation (WIMD) 2014 measures relative deprivation for 1,909 small areas in Wales and identifies areas where there are the highest concentrations of several different types of deprivation.

The index measures eight separate types of deprivation - income, employment, health, education, access to services, community safety, physical environment and housing.

WIMD 2014 shows pockets of high relative deprivation in the South Wales valleys, large cities such as Cardiff and Swansea and in some North Wales coastal and border towns.

The Local Authority with the highest proportion of areas in the most deprived 10% was Blaenau Gwent, while Monmouthshire had no areas in the most deprived 10%.

The Welsh Government is supporting Wales' most deprived areas and helping the people who live there through a wide range of programmes from across the Government, including:

• Communities First which has provided £75 million to support Wales' most disadvantaged and vulnerable people and narrow the economic, education and health gaps between people living in our most deprived and more affluent areas.
• Supporting children, families and deprived communities is at the heart of the Flying Start programme. The Welsh Government has provided over £282 million to the programme which enhances the life chances of our most disadvantaged children. 
• Families First identifies families living in poverty and provides early and sustained support to the whole family to improve skills, develop aspiration and improving levels of household income. The programme operates across Wales providing over £178 million of support grants.
• The £1.5 million Lift programme has provided 782 training and employment opportunities for people from households where no-one is in work since its launch in March 2014. The programme provides one-to-one support to people who have been out of work for more than six months and face barriers to employment.  
• The Vibrant and Viable Places programme has provided £102 million to regenerate towns and cities across Wales, while the Vibrant and Viable Places Tackling Poverty Fund provides an additional £7 million help to regenerate some of the poorest areas in Wales. 
• Since the introduction of the Pupil Deprivation Grant in 2012, the level of funding has increased each year, with the Welsh Government investing over £300 million in the scheme by 2016/17 to help close the attainment gap. 
• The Schools Challenge Cymru programme, rolled out in schools in September 2014, will inject up to £20m funding to deliver a package of support which is tailored to meet the needs of 40 of our most challenged secondary schools in deprived communities across Wales.
• Deprivation Grant which provides a £22 million support package to local authorities each year.

Speaking about the Index, the Minister for Communities and Tackling Poverty, Lesley Griffiths, said:

"We are committed to tackling both the causes and effects of poverty.

"Our Tackling Poverty Action Plan sets out our targets for improving the outcomes of families living in low income households.  We are also continuing to invest in our most disadvantaged communities to help improve people's life chances. We are working hard to narrow the economic, education and health gaps between our most deprived and affluent areas through our tackling poverty programmes - Communities First, Flying Start and Families First.

"Regeneration also plays a vital role by providing a boost to our towns and cities, strengthening their prosperity, improving the appearance of where people live and creating more jobs and training opportunities.

"I recognise the scale of the challenge ahead, however, as the Minister for Communities and Tackling Poverty, I want to reassure people I am doing all I can to improve the lives of those in our most deprived communities."

Finance Minister, Jane Hutt, who has responsibility for statistics, said: 

"We've published these statistics so that we, as a Government, can understand the underlying factors that lead to deprivation. This is vital to informing our approach to tackling poverty and ensuring we do all we can to address both its causes and effects.

"The European Social Fund programmes, which we have recently announced, will continue to play an extremely important role in supporting those living in low income households to access employment and training opportunities and to secure in work progression."

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