North Lincolnshire Council commissioned SMSR to recruit and manage a community panel on its behalf. The panel contributes to the council’s community engagement processes by helping in the identification of needs and priorities, implementing the new duty of best value and reviewing service quality. The panel has now been surveyed twice, both times by post. Overall, 675 responses to the second survey were received, which represents a 45% response rate. The key responses to the second survey are set out in this executive summary, under the six main headings of the questionnaire.
One of the council’s priorities is to ensure that North Lincolnshire residents have access to the council and its services in the easiest and most convenient way. The survey asked panel members various questions about how they got in touch with the council and what this experience was like. A resounding three-quarters of all respondents (75.6%) indicated they would prefer to use the telephone when contacting the council.
The council has established a network of one-stop shops referred to as Local Links. The panel was asked whether it had heard of Local Links. Almost half of the respondents (47.1%) had heard of Local Links; out of those 43.3% said they had actually used a Local Link. However, out of those panellists who had used Local Links, the vast majority (91.9%) were satisfied with the way in which their enquiry was dealt.
In line with the ever increasing use of electronic forms of communication (i.e. the Internet and e-mail), the council is keen to identify how many panellists actually have access to the Internet and e-mail and use this form of communication. Although over a quarter of respondents (27.5%) stated they had access to e-mail on a computer, only 1% said they had contacted the council via the Internet. Four out of ten respondents indicated that they would be interested in using shared Internet facilities, if available at local community facilities.
The survey asked panellists whether they had experienced any problems accessing any council buildings. Only 1.7% of the respondents stated that they had experienced any difficulty.
Finally in this section, the panel was asked which out of a list of actions it perceived to be an effective way of getting a complaint about a council service properly considered. The top three most effective ways were contacting another organisation (e.g. Citizens Advice Bureau), writing to the chief executive and writing to the local newspaper. The least effective way was perceived to be contacting the mayor.
The council has to publish and make widely available information about its services and how they are performing. This section of the survey asked what sort of information panel members thought the council should provide and the level of information they would like to see. The panel considered the three most important types of information to be how much the service costs, how quickly it is provided and who is able to access the service. Three quarters of all panel members were interested in knowing how the council is performing compared with other councils. The respondents’ top three preferences for how the information should be published were: in the local newspaper, a summary leaflet form to all households and a summary leaflet available in council offices, Local Links etc.
The third section of the questionnaire asked panellists various questions about social services. Panel members were asked if they found themselves in a state of distress, illness, or experiencing personal or family problems would they know whom to contact for help. Just over half of the panel members (52.9%) said they would not. Out of the panellists who said yes they would know, the majority (88.1%) said they would go to a health provider, whilst 43.3% would go to the local council and 26.4% would go to a local voluntary organisation.
Panellists were asked which services they thought were provided by council social services. The top three services that most respondents were aware of were practical support to older people and people with disabilities, protecting children from abuse or exploitation and substitute family care for children not able to live in their own homes. There was least awareness that social services can help people when they are choosing a residential or nursing home.
Almost three-quarters (72%) of respondents said they had never applied for any social services either for themselves or for another person. Of the respondents who had applied for any social services, the majority (64.7%) were satisfied with how their enquiry/request was managed. Panel members were asked how comfortable they would feel about applying for social services. Three-quarters of respondents said they would be comfortable with filling in an application form, making an enquiry, receiving the services and making an appointment with a social worker.
Finally in this section of the questionnaire, panel members were asked how the council should make information about social services available. Almost a third of respondents (29.3%) said that the council should make information available by producing leaflets/letters and sending them to homes. However, the local press/free paper and leaflets/notices in public places (e.g. doctors’ surgeries and libraries) were almost as popular.
The council has various responsibilities for roads, pavements, street lighting and safety issues to do with road networks. Panel members were asked various questions relating to this area. When asked how much the council spends on maintaining the highway network the responses were fairly evenly divided between £5, 10 and 15 million, but slightly more respondents thought that spending was around £10 million. When asked how they thought the standard of road maintenance in North Lincolnshire compared with other areas of the country, just over half (53.4%) said some things were worse and some things were better. Only 13.8% thought that the maintenance of North Lincolnshire roads was worse than in other parts of the country. The majority of respondents (89.7%) said they would like to see one point of contact at the council for dealing with any lighting, pavement or road maintenance complaint or query.
Panel members were informed that central government expects councils to reduce the number of cars used to transport children to and from schools to ease ‘rush hour’ traffic. More than three-quarters of the panel (77.8%) indicated that they liked the idea of reducing the number of car journeys. Further analysis showed this to be true for 69.6% of respondents with primary school age children and 87.8% of respondents with secondary school age children. Of the respondents who answered yes, developing ‘safe routes to school’ were felt to be the most effective way of achieving this aim.
This part of the survey focussed on the way councils currently make decisions. For over a century councils have carried out most of their business through committees, which are made up of elected councillors, open to the media and public. Most of a council’s final decisions are actually agreed before committees meet. In an attempt to speed up decision-making and give councillors more time to represent their areas, the Government has published plans to change the way councils do business. The survey asked a number of questions relating to these proposals.
When panellists were asked whether they felt that they understood how councils currently made decisions the majority of respondents (70%) said no. Almost half of respondents (48.9%) felt that they needed more information before being able to say whether replacing committees would make councils more responsive. Of the panellists who felt able to express a view 35.1% thought that replacing the current committee system would make councils more responsive.
Panel members were asked to comment on how much importance they attached to various councillor roles. All the roles were felt to be important but the three most important were dealing with people’s complaints, promoting the interests/concerns of local communities and participating in council committee meetings. When asked how effectively the panel thought these roles were being carried out, the top three were participating in council committee meetings, acting as representatives on outside bodies and representing the council at regional and national levels. The role felt to be carried out least effectively was dealing with people’s complaints and problems.
The Government has stated that the existing committee system must be replaced by other arrangements and that local people should have a say in what replaces this system. Under new arrangements some councillors might have a different role (e.g. the mayor might get more involved in the running of the council and some leading members might form a local ‘cabinet’).
To help to indicate the type of arrangements that people might like to see replace the committee system the panel was asked who should take a lead in proposing the budgets and policies that full council ultimately has to approve. Most respondents (28.8%) said that the local cabinet elected by members of the council should carry out this role. When asked what type of role the mayor should have a high proportion of respondents (48.8%) said mayor should have a functional role (i.e. day-to-day involvement in the running of the council). A ceremonial role for the mayor was favoured by 27.9% and a political role by only 7.4% of the respondents.
When panellists were asked how much involvement the public should have in various sorts of council decisions, three-quarters of the respondents thought that the public should be involved in these decisions. More respondents felt that the public should be involved in the closure of facilities and secondly in helping to prioritise council services and spending. Other suggestions for involvement included planning/redevelopment, traffic/transport/car parking and environment/green belt issues.
Finally in this section, panel members were informed that the council might use in-depth discussion groups to gain more insight into the public’s views on specific issues. When asked if panellists would like to take part in such discussion groups 39.7% indicated that they would like to participate.
October 1999