Using SEIFA to Target Areas for Services

The indexes are of interest in their own right as summaries of area characteristics. Areas with different index values have different socio-economic characteristics. This information can be used by itself or in conjunction with other (more targeted) information to assist in determining the allocation of services.

Example:
A government agency responsible for funding aged care facilities wants to ensure resources go to those localities which need them the most. It decides to allocate funds to areas with low ratios of existing aged care places to population aged 70 years and over.

In reviewing the allocation of funding, the agency used the 2006 Index of Relative Socio-Economic Disadvantage (IRSD) to check that relative socio-economic disadvantage localities have been given adequate funding. They want to recheck the distribution using the 2011 IRSD.

SLAs across Australia could be divided into five quintiles according to their ranking in the Index of Relative Socio-Economic Disadvantage. The ratio of existing aged care places to population aged 70 years and over could be calculated for each quintile. For example, the lowest quintile would contain the 20% of SLAs in Australia with the lowest disadvantage index values.

The average ratio of aged care places to population aged 70 years and over for each quintile could be graphed to look for systematic bias in aged care place funding with respect to socio-economic disadvantage.



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