As a student at the University of Manchester studying criminology I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to work on a project with the UK Data Service as an intern calculating Townsend Deprivation Scores for the UK and importantly, learning work environment skills that will be useful once I graduate. My fellow intern (Sanah) and I came spain rcs data with a thirst to learn and an ambition to make the project a success which has made the exciting aspects more rewarding and the obstacles we need to come much more bearable.
Amy and Sanah have agreed to write blogs about the project, which we’ll publish over the coming weeks, together with the resources that Amy and Sanah created, to include the raw data and the scores.
I went through what felt like an endless number of attempts to replicate another’s scores. Each time I would attempt to follow the often-limited detail of the methodology. Each time I failed I’d attempt a slight variation in the calculation to see if this would work with no success. Eventually, I found a source of results calculated for 1991 by Paul Norman. Included with the results was the data used to calculate the scores as well as the Z scores for each of the indicators. The materials provided with these scores were very useful as I could ensure the scores were the same based on the exact same data. It also meant that I could check if the z scores were right before ensuring that the Townsend Deprivation Scores were correct. Success was found with this dataset and meant I could go onto calculating deprivation scores for 2011 knowing that the calculation would be correct.