Spatial inequality refers to the inequality distributions in terms of various geographic regions. Socio-spatial inequalities often map spatial phenomena regarding resources, opportunities, and outcomes. The word ‘inequality’ is often method interchangeable in literature “disparity”; more recently, similar topics are discussed by mentioning “equity” (e.g., Todes and Turok, 2018; de Castro Mazarro et al., 2022; Sikder et al., 2023). Apart from the underlying debate in academic literature, understanding these inequalities is crucial for policymakers in public policy evaluation as they seek to develop effective strategies and actions to address the underlying causes and reduce their adverse impacts (Talen et al., 2018). Recent research offers valuable findings that can inform policy development in this context. Socio-spatial inequalities are closely connected to differences in income and wealth. The concentration of poverty and wealth in specific areas underscores the importance of policies encouraging inclusive economic growth, ensuring access to quality education, and implementing targeted social support programs (Zhang et al., 2021). Engaging communities and stakeholders in decision-making is crucial for effectively addressing socio-spatial disparities. Policymakers should prioritize participatory approaches, empowering marginalized groups and involving them in shaping policies that directly affect their lives (Falanga and Nunes, 2021). Above all, recent research underscores the multifaceted nature of socio-spatial disparities and provides valuable insights for policymakers. Decission-making in the deployment of permanent deacons in catholic communities is such an issue that needs to consider socio-spatial inequalities (or equalities) for better serving the communities.

The word “Deacons” came from the Greek word “Diakonos,” meaning servant. They are called to serve the people of God (Diocese of Salford-DoS, 2023). Men ordained as deacon by the Bishop of his diocese to serve the Church through (i) the Ministry of the Altar, (ii) the Ministry of the Word, and (iii) the Ministry of Charity (Diocese of Salford-DoS, 2023; Diocese of Westminster-DoW, 2023). Deacons are also involved in other ministries, e.g., school, prison, and hospital chaplaincy at the parish level. A deacon can be (a) transitional, “usually seminarians in the last stage of training before being ordained into the priesthood,” or (b) permanent, “ordained into the diaconate to remain in that role” (Diocese of Salford-DoS, 2023). Permanent deacons support their parish priest, engage in the life of their parish, and work to serve and exercise some leadership roles within the community (Diocese of Westminster-DoW, 2023). So, a permanent deacon must actively serve the poor and needy people at the community level through charity. Therefore, a permanent deacon’s deployment must be need-oriented and evidence-based, following the local community.

Theoretically, a permanent deacon is assigned to the parish and tasked by the archbishop, considering the diocese’s needs (Diocese of Salford-DoS, 2023). Practically, that might not be the case. The deployment of permanent deacons in St Helens Deanery (Figure 1) in the Archdiocese of Liverpool is investigated to examine such a statement. Spatial inequalities of socio-economic conditions are studied to understand the rational deployment of permanent deacons in St Helens Deanery.

Geographic Information System (GIS) is widely used to investigate spatial inequalities of socio-economic factors (e.g., de Castro Mazarro et al., 2022; Kadi et al., 2022; Lynam et al., 2023; Roy et al., 2024c, 2024b, 2024d). However, the application of GIS to investigate spatial inequalities in the allocation religion religion-related services is unique. There were no such studies found in our literature search boundaries and accessibilities. Therefore, this research provides a unique methodological contribution to the existing literature on religious sectors as a service provider. This research is a two-fold study. Our first objective is (i) to identify socio-economic inequalities of St Helens Deanery on a spatial scale by applying GIS. Based on the results of objective (i), a rational location of deployment of permanent deacons in the deanery is proposed by applying a multi-criteria decision-making tool using GIS (e.g., Ng’ethe and Jalilinasrabady, 2023; Önden et al., 2023), a second objective (ii).

St Helens Borough Council (SHBC) (St Helens political boundary in Figure 1) is about 13,600 ha [hectares] and is home to over 180,000 people in 2021, is 4.5% higher than in 2011, with 4,800 businesses and has a strong identity and cultural history linked with industrial heritage (Office for National Statistics, 2021; St Helens Borough Council-SHBC, 2022). 49.2% of the population of St Helens are male, and the remaining 50.8% are female, where 18% are children aged <16 years and the rest of 61 and 21% population are working age group 16–64 years and elderly 64+ years, respectively (St Helens Borough Council-SHBC, 2022). Ethnically, St Helens is less diverse as 98% of residents claim to be White British than England’s average, e.g., 85% (St Helens Borough Council-SHBC, 2022).

The multiple deprivation index in 2019 suggests that St Helens is England’s 26th (out of 317) most deprived local authority. Almost one-fourth of St Helens inhabitants live in the country’s 10% most disadvantaged neighborhoods. The children (<16 years) are affected the most in the central part of St Helens due to income deprivation. About 22% of the people in St Helens are economically inactive. In the education and skills domain, St Helens is the country’s 72nd most deprived authority (out of 317), with the most deprived areas in the central city. Life expectancy for males and females in this area is 77.5 years (79.4 years in England) and 81.0 years (83.1 years in England), respectively (St Helens Borough Council-SHBC, 2022; St Helens Public Health Team, 2020). Again, the highest 20% (first quantile) of vulnerable people live in the central part of the city (St Helens Public Health Team, 2020).

However, St Helens, as a Deanery of Liverpool Archdiocese (Roman Catholic Faith), has a slightly different geographical shape and aerial coverage of about 12,475 ha (Figure 1). It consists of 15 Parishes. Nine deacons live and serve the deanery. Two parishes have four permanent deacons (two for each), and five parishes have five permanent deacons (one for each). The rest of the eight parishes have no deacons (Figure 1), which might be because of limited resources and an inappropriate process of deployment.

The study proposed an evidence-based approach to deploying permanent deacons using open and accessible government datasets. Applying an evidence-based approach is unique research in Roman Catholic communities in the deployment of permanent deacons. The UK is well advanced in open data publication; however, it is still challenging to analyze the multilevel spatial phenomena considering factors such as - population density, long-term health conditions, housing ownership, economic and social grade.

In the UK, particularly in the Archdiocese of Liverpool, parish-level population information (e.g., number, density) was not available. Estimation of parish-specific population and density (Figure 6; Table 3) in St Helens Deanery from the population in the civil boundary unit was a great success. Further, it was used as a strong factor in the MCA process (Table 2). Using parish-level population information and comparing it with the existing number of deacons and their location, the authority of the Archdiocese can easily gain insight into the inequality of deacon distribution, and, therefore, inequality of service allocations was expected. It may help the archdiocese in decision-making in better research allocation.

Hot spot analysis was conducted to study the spatial inequalities of socio-economic factors. Getis-Ord Gi* (ESRI, 2023) was applied for the identification of spatial inequalities (autocorrelation), which are objectively derived from attribute values (data). It is superior because of its ability to distinguish local event clusters of high and low features as suggested by Braithwaite and Li (2007) and Alam and Tabassum (2023), which is widely applied in the research communities in a similar context (e.g., Hassan et al., 2022; Roy et al., 2024c). Alam and Tabassum (2023). The spatial ranks from coldest to hottest cluster are generated along with statistics that clearly understand the need for deacons and their essential services in a spatial context (see sections 3.3 and 4.2).

MCA has been a widely used technique to identify suitable and optimal locations for service provision (e.g., Ampofo et al., 2023; Gamboa et al., 2023; Moisa et al., 2022; Zhou et al., 2022). MCA was applied to identify the deprived area where a permanent deacon or deacon’s services were most needed. Systematic analysis (evidence-based) for deploying permanent deacons is a unique study. It also allows human intervention through weighting the criteria, which could have both positive (e.g., applying weight based on local knowledge) and negative (e.g., considered a biased weighting) impacts during the evaluation process. This study involved weight values based on the opinion of experts who have complete knowledge about the local socio-economic conditions and internal as well as external factors of deployment of permanent deacons in the study area. However, this process ensures stakeholder participation in policy-making (e.g., Falanga and Nunes, 2021).

The geographical unit problems were one of the significant challenges for the parish-wise direct comparison of inequality in the St Helens Denary was a challenge. So far, no studies have been found on socioeconomic disparities in parish-specific geographical units. The central part of the deanery is dominated according to the case study results in terms of the long-term health condition (Figure 7a), low ownership of a house and rental housing system (Figures 7c,d), high unemployment (Figure 7g), high non-qualified people (Figure 7j), families with low social grade (grade 3–4) (Figures 7m,n). Other studies also suggested that the central part is the most deprived area in terms of life expectancy, health condition and disability, education and skill, high suicide rate, under-18 conceptions, adult obesity, alcohol misuse and smokers, and diabetes register (e.g., St Helens Borough Council-SHBC, 2022; St Helens Public Health Team, 2020). Multiple deprivations in 2019 dominated the central part of the deanery (St Helens Borough Council-SHBC, 2022), which is equally found in our study even though this case study only could use the old census data from 2011 (Figure 8). On the other hand, the central part is the densest area, dominated by children (up to 16 y) and young adults (16–34 y) (Figure 6).

The interrelated factors are the level of education, social grade, income, house ownership, and long-term health conditions. Inequities in accessing essential services, e.g., healthcare, and education, also significantly contribute to socio-spatial disparities (Swope and Hernández, 2019). Policymakers can address these disparities by investing in underserved areas, enhancing and ensuring an equitable distribution of public services, thereby guaranteeing equal access to essential resources for all communities (Ravallion, 2001), which is equally suggested by St Helens Public Health Team (2020).

However, permanent deacons are appointed from the local communities and support their parish priest in religious activities. Besides, they engage in the life of their parish, and work to serve and exercise some leadership roles within the community, e.g., operating a food bank, involvement, and facilitating the education system (Diocese of Westminster-DoW, 2023). Among many, they can play an active role in sustainable development goals (SDGs); SDG 1: no poverty, SDG 2: zero hunger, SDG 3: good health and wellbeing, SDG 4: quality education, SDG 11: sustainable cities and communities (UNDP, 2024). Therefore, the appropriate number of permanent deacons from appropriate locations of deprived communities (as in Figure 8) can be directly involved in resolving socio-economic inequalities on a spatial scale.

This study was based on freely available open-source data. Combining multi-dimensional open-source data sets is challenging for policy-making considering spatial–temporal resolutions (e.g., Franklinos et al., 2020; Islam et al., 2023). The uncertainty in estimating such open-source data might be an issue, e.g., parish-wise population provides a close approximation estimated from density (section results: population and density, Table 3). Estimating the ranks of deprived areas is expected not to be affected by the data issue in this study. However, the results of this study reflect the reality that satisfied the expectations of the local stakeholders. This statement was confirmed by cross-checking the comments from a participant who attended the workshop and said, “this is what we see in our deanery.”

The study gathers the best available dataset for assessing the local resource distribution and local leadership. The spatial equality has been addressed by applying an established spatial algorithm. This study provides statistical attributes and visual maps, which should be helpful for geovisual communication with the concerned stakeholders in deacon deployment. Transparency in decision-making will also be improved if the proposed approach has been adopted after being applied to more empirical case studies, even in other geographical contexts. However, the data harmonization method has been applied to harmonize the input dataset, which can pose some uncertainty. Therefore, expert opinion-based validation of the results is relevant for reducing some degree of confidence in the empirical results.

Note that several limitations exist in this study. (i) One such limitation is the limited data used in this study to explore spatial-socioeconomic inequality. For example, household income and life expectancy at birth were significant factors in decision-making to identify needs for permanent deacons or deacons’ services, which were not used in this study. However, it is a start to conduct such a study and provides a pipeline where more data layers can be filled in. A new data set from the Ordnance Survey, 2021 might offer more insight into the conditions. (ii) Constraints were estimated considering a certain distance along the road network, which did not consider the density, which might be another issue. (iii) Weighting might be a bias depending on how the researchers see the influence of factors in the decision-making process (Heywood et al., 2011, p. 247). In this study, the weighting was expected to be judged, derived from expert respondents who were full of knowledge in both context and content. However, specific interview respondents (e.g., students, unemployed, rental house owners) from the local area (St Helens) with sufficient samples might have different opinions and thus different results. Further study might consider these issues to investigate the scenarios.

Investigation of the evidence-based allocation and deployment of permanent deacons was a challenge due to the different geographical unit (parish) of the St Helens Deanery of the Archdiocese of Liverpool and data used based on political boundaries (Figure 2). However, this study explored the scenarios that were in line with others, particularly the inventory of the St Helens Council. Socio-economic inequality and gross and age-specific density suggest that the central part (St Anne & Blessed Dominic, Holy Cross, SS Peter and Paul, St Teresa, Blessed English Martyrs, St Mary Immaculate Parishes) is the most deprived area. The study also provides the rank of the depravedness of the study area, which can be taken into consideration by the Archdiocese of Liverpool in the deployment of permanent deacons to meet the needs of the people. However, most importantly, this study offers the methodology of how socio-economic factors can be considered in resource allocation in the religious community which makes this study unique.

However, for further research, the following issues may be considered for the deployment of permanent deacons and allocation of related resources.