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Hello, my name is Mr. March.
And I'm here today to teach you all about the challenges of living in rural areas.
So grab everything that you need for today's lesson and let's get going.
By the end of today's lesson, you will be able to use knowledge about the area of Eden to explain the challenges facing the area and their impact on the young and elderly.
There are three key terms for today's lesson.
Those are quality of life, primary employment, and depopulation.
Quality of life refers to the wellbeing of individuals or groups of people measured by criteria other than wealth.
And this can include things such as housing, employment, and environmental factors.
Primary employment refers to jobs involving extraction of raw materials, including farming, fishing, and mining.
And finally, depopulation refers to the reduction of people living in an area.
There are two learning cycles for today's lesson.
We're gonna start with learning cycle one, which is all about the characteristics of Cumbria and Eden.
Cumbria is the third largest county by area in England, and it's located in the northwest of England and borders Scotland.
And you can see that via that very helpful map in the bottom left hand corner.
Now, until 2023, there were six districts inside the county of Cumbria.
And as you can see on the map on the right hand side, these included Carlisle, Eden, South Lakeland, Barrow-in-Furness, Copeland, and Allerdale.
But it is Eden which is the largest by land area.
Carlisle is the only city in Cumbria.
You can see that located on the map there in the northern part of Cumbria.
There are a number of towns along the coast, including Whitehaven.
And there are a number of different inland towns, such as Penrith, which is in the county or district of Eden.
England's largest national park, which is called the Lake District, covers a massive 40% of Cumbria.
Cumbria is classed as 74% rural.
So 74% of Cumbria is essentially countryside, which is making it one of the most rural counties in England.
The Eden area has the highest percentage of green space anywhere in England at 97.
9%, which indicates a very high level of rurality.
And the image in front of you does a great job in actually illustrating what Cumbria and Eden is exactly like.
Travel within Cumbria is mainly by road.
There are a number of different A-roads as, once again, the map on the right hand side does a great job in actually illustrating.
But there are also a number of smaller B-roads, which connect upland areas with the low lying areas that surround it.
Cumbria has around 4,700 miles of roads.
And Devon, which is a similar size county, has 8,000.
So we're beginning to get an idea perhaps of the limited amount of infrastructure in this very rural part of England.
Rail connections are found around the periphery of the area around more the Lake District which, as we said before, is a national park within Cumbria.
Eden's economy includes a mixture of sectors, such as agriculture, retail, business and services.
And really, tourists are attracted to the wonderful landscapes across Eden.
Over 4 million tourists visit the Eden area each and every single year, and the tourism sector is worth a lot to the local economy.
In 2018, for example, it contributed 660 million Pounds and supported 6,500 jobs in the local area.
So a quick learning check and it says, who is correct? Now, you can see you've got three different statements on the screen there, one by Sam, one by Sofia, and one by Alex.
What you need to do then is pause the video here, read through their statements, and decide who you think is correct.
And the correct answer is Sam.
Sam says that Cumbria is a rural county, which is absolutely true.
It is predominantly countryside.
And it's found in the northwest of England, which again is absolutely correct.
A very rural area within Cumbria is Eden.
Absolutely correct as well.
Really, really well done if you too were able to select Sam as the correct answer.
Now, the population across the county of Cumbria is not spread evenly across those different districts, as the graph actually does a great job in actually showing.
So for example, we can see that Carlisle is the most populous district of Cumbria, with 108,000 people living there.
Whilst the district that we're looking at, Eden, has the smallest population, down at just 53,000.
So we're talking then about a really sparsely populated area of the country.
England has a population density of 434 people per kilometre squared.
Remember, this is an average figure.
And the map on the left hand side, which is showing us the population densities across the UK, really highlights where people are and where people are not living.
Now, the darker the colour of red, the more people that are living there.
So we're looking towards, remember, the northwest of England.
And straight away, we can see that it seems to be very sparsely populated.
Cumbria has a population density of just 74 people per kilometre squared.
So it is extremely sparsely populated, not many people living there at all.
Eden has the lowest population density in all of England, with just 26 people per kilometre squared.
So even in terms of population structure, Cumbria and Eden really does differ vastly from other areas of England, as the table in front of you does a great job in actually demonstrating.
Let's have a look at that now.
So let's start with the population age 65 and over, we're talking then about pensioners.
While in England as a whole, they account for 18.
8%.
Meanwhile in Cumbria, they account for a quarter of its total population at around 24.
7%.
But in Eden, it's even more at 26.
5%.
So we can see a large section of the population in Eden are those elderly people.
What about then population age zero to 15? Well, once again, the number in England as a whole as an average is 23.
5%.
In Cumbria it's 15.
8%, and in Eden it's 15%.
So once again, we're seeing a lot less young people living there and more older, elderly people living there.
So in both Cumbria and Eden, there is a greater percentage of people aged 65 and over than the national average.
It has what we call an ageing population.
In both Cumbria and Eden, there is a smaller percentage of children than the national average.
Time now for a learning check, and it says to complete the following facts about Eden's population.
So what you need to do then is pause the video here whilst you read through those four statements, then try to complete the facts that you can see in front of you.
Best of luck.
And the correct answers were, so the total population in 2021 was 53,000 in Eden.
Population density was 26 people per kilometre squared.
The population structure of Eden shows a higher than average percentage of people age 65 and over.
And finally, D, the population structure of Eden shows a lower than average percentage of people age zero to 15.
Really well done if you were able to get those answers correct.
In England, every three to four years, data is actually collected at a district level to calculate something called the Index of Multiple Deprivation.
And basically, it ranks the 317 districts across England by deprivation.
And the helpful illustration in front of you really allows us to understand which districts have high levels of deprivation, versus districts which do not have much deprivation there at all.
So when we look at the six districts that make up Cumbria and we look at the Index of Multiple Deprivation as of 2019, we get some really interesting insights.
For example, we can see that Carlisle ranks 117th in terms of deprivation.
So it has rather high levels of deprivation.
Eden has slightly less, it's ranked 186th.
So it's doing slightly better in terms of its deprivation score.
South Lakeland is doing the best in terms of deprivation.
And it has very little deprivation there, being ranked 250th across England.
Unfortunately, Barrow-in-Furness is doing the worst in terms of deprivation, being ranked 31st.
Copeland too is ranking quite highly in terms of deprivation at 85th, and so to Allerdale at 104th.
So what we're seeing then across the county of Cumbria are a real range of different scores in terms of deprivation, some more and some less.
In 2019 then, Eden was ranked 186th for deprivation in England.
And this places it in the low middle category, in the 50% least deprived districts and the bottom 50% for deprivation.
So a quick learning check, it says, which of the following statements about Eden's level of deprivation is correct? So what I need you to do then right now is pause the video here, read through those three statements and select what you think is the correct answer.
And the correct answer was C, Eden is in the 50% least deprived districts in England.
Really well done if you were able to recall that piece of information.
Now, you may rightly be wondering, how is the Index of Multiple Deprivation even calculated? Well, it's calculated by measuring seven different indicators.
And you can see them on the screen in front of you.
They are things such as income, employment, health, education, barriers, crime, as well as environment.
Let's try and break this down a little bit further.
So income and employment are considered to be the most important.
So they're given the most or the highest amount of weight.
The number of people with limited access to essential services due to distance, affordability, and poor transport.
That's what barriers is all about.
Environment refers to the number of people living in housing in poor conditions.
Eden's rank in the lower half of deprived districts in England is an average, and actually masks the full picture of deprivation.
What I meant by the fact that it masks the full picture is, when broken down, Eden is amongst the most deprived for living environment and barriers to housing and services, but has really high scores for employment and income.
And that really does mask the level of deprivation across the county.
We can see that now by just breaking it down.
So again, for income and employment, Eden is doing really, really well.
And also with regards to health and education, it's also doing pretty well.
But look at that, barriers to housing and services and living environment, it's doing really poorly.
It's really deprived in those two different areas.
Whilst in terms of crime, it's actually doing really, really well.
So again, it's sort of masks the true levels of deprivation in certain areas of this calculation.
Time once again for another learning check, and it says to complete the blanks.
So what you need to do right now then is pause the video here whilst you read through that statement, and do your best to complete or fill the two missing words.
And the correct answers were average.
So it needed to have read that overall rank on the Index of Multiple Deprivation is an average.
To be fully informed about the level of deprivation of a place, you need to look at each of the seven different indicators.
Really well done if you were able to get those two answers correct.
And our next learning check says, which two of the seven indicators record very high levels of deprivation in Eden? So once again, what you need to do then is pause the video here, read through those four options, and select what you think is the correct answer.
And the correct answer was B, barriers to housing and services and the living environment.
Really well done if you were able to select B as the correct answer.
Time now for our two practise tasks for our first learning cycle.
And the first one says to complete the fact file about Eden by annotating its location on the map, and adding data about its population and levels of deprivation.
The second one says, explain why Eden's overall rank at 186 on the 2019 Index of Multiple Deprivation could be considered misleading.
So what I need to do right now then is pause video here whilst to attempt these two learning tasks, best of luck.
In terms of feedback then, this is what your fact file should have looked like.
Let's start with Eden's location then.
Well, Eden has the highest percentage of green space of any area in England at 97.
9%.
Eden is located in the eastern district of the county of Cumbria.
You can see that as being the largest district in the county of Cumbria.
Let's now look at Eden's population and economy.
While its population then is 53,000 people, the population density is 26 people per kilometres squared.
The population growth from 2011 to 2021 was up at 4.
1%.
The population age zero to 15 was 15%, whilst the population aged 65 and over was 26.
5%.
In terms of the amount of money generated via tourism in 2018, it was 660 million Pounds.
Let's now look at Eden's level of deprivation.
Its overall score then was 186th.
In terms of barriers to housing and services though, it ranked 42nd.
And in terms of living environment, it ranked up at 7th.
The second question then, your answer may have included something like this.
I've said that Eden's overall rank of 186 on the Index of Multiple Deprivation places it in the less deprived half of England's 317 districts.
This could be considered misleading as this overall ranking is an average, hiding significant variation across the seven indicators that actually make up the index.
The district scores very well in areas such as income, employment, and crime, indicating low levels of deprivation.
In contrast, it experiences some of the highest levels of deprivation nationally in barriers to housing and services and the living environment.
Eden ranks 42nd in England for barriers to housing and services, and 7th for the living environment.
So really well done if you were able to include anything like that in your own answer.
We're on now to our second and final learning cycle, and this is all about the challenges affecting Eden.
The context of Eden helps us to understand the challenges its residents are facing, and the impact that they may actually have on the quality of life.
Let's start then in terms of the decline in primary employment, the provision of education, the provision of healthcare.
And finally, the affordability and availability of housing.
The young and elderly are more likely to actually be affected by these challenges due to the dependency on parents, as well as the state for income.
Decline in primary employment, we're talking then about things such as farming and agriculture.
Well, global competition and mechanisation have actually cut primary employment in Eden.
And with agricultural jobs falling by around 20% between 2001 and 2021.
What has been the impact though on the quality of life of the people that live there? Well, of course, that means there's been a reduction in the number of job opportunities.
This has led to depopulation, as people leave the area in search of employment.
This then weakens the local economy, as fewer people are actually there to spend money.
It also means the closure of services, as they become harder and harder to sustain with less people living in the area.
And less people willing and able to spend money.
This then impacts young people because it means a reduction in school choices, as well as recreational facilities.
But it also impacts the elderly because it means there's gonna be a reduction in local amenities, such as shops, and public transport, such as buses.
Time once again for a learning check.
It says, between 2001 and 2021, by how much have agricultural jobs declined in Eden? Now, you can see you've got four different options on the screen there.
What you need to do then is pause the video here whilst you consider and then select your answer.
And the correct answer was A, around 20%.
Really, really well done if you were able to recall that piece of information.
So affordability and availability of housing has changed massively in these sorts of years.
High house prices and a limited supply of affordable, as well as social, housing makes it really difficult for lower paid workers to afford those homes.
Which, again, is contributing to depopulation and increased competition for homes.
So people are being forced to leave this area, as house prices and perhaps even rental prices are basically pricing them out of the market.
But what again is the impact on quality of life? Well, a lack of affordable housing reduces some people's ability to find homes.
People can't afford the upkeep of homes.
And finally, it also means a reduced housing stock and quality means people leave the area in search of perhaps a rental or perhaps buying a property.
Again, this impacts young people drastically because incomes are lower for younger people, incomes are lower when starting work.
So it disproportionately affects the numbers of young people.
Time once again for a learning check and it says, a limited supply of affordable social housing makes it difficult for low paid workers to afford homes.
What other factor is a barrier within this? So what I need you to do then right now is pause video here whilst you try to recall that piece of information.
And the correct answer is high house prices.
Really well done if you were able to get that answer.
Now, with Cumbria and Eden being such a rural area, the provision of education is really affected and challenged by that, because pupils in rural areas can actually face really long travel times due to the road network and the fewer number of schools.
The recruitment and retention of teachers is also challenging due to the isolated nature of this area, as well as limited career opportunities and lack of affordable housing.
So it's really difficult to attract and keep teachers teaching in this area.
What though is the impact of this on quality of life? Well, staff shortages leads to lower educational standards.
Education is also linked to future income, so perhaps a worse education and perhaps worse grades as a result has real links to the possible future income of those children.
Communities with lower educational levels experience higher rates of poverty and poorer health.
So you can see how lower levels of education can really impact people's lives in a number of different ways.
Again, what is the impact on young people? Well, long journeys impact on wellbeing.
Reduced choices can limit future qualifications and access to well-paid jobs.
And once again, in terms of provision of healthcare, being a rural area really does limit and challenge the amount of healthcare that can be offered in these areas.
Eden has fewer medical facilities and poorer funding compared to urban areas.
Residents have to travel long, long distances, and have limited transport options in order to be able to reach those areas where healthcare is being provided.
Eden also struggles with a shortage of healthcare professionals for similar reasons as that we mentioned for educational professionals.
Again, what is the impact on the quality of life of this lack or challenge to the provision of healthcare? Well, it means there's going to be delays in treatment and poorer health outcomes, which lowers the overall quality of life.
Facilities then close due to depopulation.
Remember, people are sort of being forced to leave this area, which again means that there's less need perhaps for those GP services to remain open.
Simply because there aren't enough people in order to keep those places open.
What is the impact on elderly people then? Well, age increases likelihood of ill health, meaning the elderly need to access healthcare more often.
But if that healthcare just isn't available or readily available then, of course, that is going to impact those elderly people significantly.
Time once again for a learning check, and it says to complete the blank.
So what I need you to do right now then is pause the video here, read through those two statements you can see on the screen.
And try your best to complete the four gaps that you can see there.
And now the answers.
So pupils in rural areas can face long travel times due to the road network and fewer schools.
Eden has fewer medical facilities and poorer funding compared to urban areas.
Residents often have to travel long distances with limited transport options.
The area also struggles with a shortage of healthcare professionals.
Really well done if you were able to recall the four answers to complete those gaps.
Now, these challenges are often interconnected and it can cause something called the cycle of deprivation, which you can see on the screen in front of you.
So a decline in primary employment, by which we referred to before as agriculture, can trigger depopulation.
Employers then find it more difficult to recruit people for those businesses and that causes less money in the local area.
As a result, services and business close.
And as a result, quality of life declines.
And thereby triggers or causes even further depopulation.
Healthcare and education provision is reduced as a result.
And people struggle to afford housing.
Quality of life in the Eden area is impacted by these challenges, as seen in the scores for the indicator of barriers to housing and services, which we looked at before, ranking 42nd in terms of deprivation across the 317 different districts of England.
Distances to services can be long due to those fewer roads which are available in the county and district.
Public transport is also expensive, and services often are limited.
Furthermore, services are closing even further.
This could mean such things as banks, different shops, and other services which are critical to the local area.
And finally, high house prices and the limited supply of affordable and social housing make it difficult for lower paid workers to afford those homes.
They're essentially being priced out of their local area by perhaps rich people coming from other districts and other counties buying up those homes in a very pristine, beautiful part of the world.
Time once again for a learning check and it says, who is correct? So what you need to do then is pause the video here, read through those three statements on the screen in front of you, one from Sam, one from Sofia, and one from Alex, and decide who you think is correct.
And the correct answer is Sofia.
Now, Sofia says that a decline in primary employment, by which we mean agriculture in the case of Eden and Cumbria, impacts on the quality of life for everyone in a rural community.
And she is absolutely correct, because whilst the young and old are especially affected, everyone in that area is impacted to some degree.
Whether it's via a loss of business, whether it's via an increase in rental price that perhaps they can't afford, or the property price to buy may increase outside of their budgets.
Whatever it is, everyone in that local area will be, to some degree, affected.
So really well done if you too were able to select Sofia as the correct answer.
We're on now to our four practise tasks for our final learning cycle.
And the first one says to list four challenges that affect rural areas like Eden.
Number two says, explain why the young and elderly are especially impacted by the challenges.
Number three says, explain how a decline in primary employment can lead to a decline in quality of life in rural areas.
And I'd like you to consider the following in your answer.
Depopulation, access to services such as education and healthcare, affordability of housing.
And the fourth and final question says, explain Eden's high score for barriers to housing and services on the 2019 Index of Multiple Deprivation.
So please then pause the video here whilst you attempt these four practise questions, best of luck.
And now for some feedback.
So your answers could have included the following.
For first question, you could have included decline in primary employment, provision of education, provision of healthcare, affordability, and availability of housing.
For the second question, your answer may have included something like this.
The young and elderly are more likely to be affected by the challenges due to dependency on parents, as well as the state or government for income.
The third question, your answer may have included something like this.
Rural areas like Eden have seen a decline in primary employment, with agriculture alone losing 20% of its jobs between 2001 and 2021.
This decline drives depopulation as people move away in search of work.
As a result, other sectors such as education and healthcare struggle to recruit staff, and less money circulates in the local economy.
This contributes to the closure of services and businesses, which further reduces the quality of life.
Falling incomes also make it harder for residents to afford housing, which deepens the challenges faced by the community.
For the fourth and final question, once again, your answer may have included something like this.
Eden ranks 42nd nationally for barriers to housing and services, which indicates high levels of deprivation.
This is a result of the distance to travel between services due to fewer roads and limited public transport.
Services are also closing, so people have to travel further.
High house prices and a limited supply of affordable homes for those on low incomes mean that it is difficult for lower paid workers to afford homes.
So really well done if you were able to include anything like that in your own answer.
We're on now to our learning summary, and what do you need to know from today's lesson? Well, Eden is a rural area in the county of Cumbria with the lowest population density anywhere in England of just 26 people per kilometre squared.
Two of seven indicators of the Index of Multiple Deprivation evidence significant deprivation.
These are living environment, where it ranks 7th most deprived.
And barriers to housing and services, where it ranks 42nd.
This deprivation is a consequence of challenges faced by Eden and the impact they have on quality of life, such as decline in primary employment, provision of education, provision of healthcare.
And finally, affordability and availability of housing.
Now, for young people, education and lack of facilities are a significant challenge.
Whilst for the elderly, limited access to local services can also be a significant challenge.
So really well done during today's lesson, it was a pleasure teaching you.
And I will see you again on the next lesson, goodbye.