North Lincolnshire Residents’ Panel

The North Lincolnshire Residents’ Panel is made up of people who live in North Lincolnshire. Members of the panel are recruited to be broadly representative of the wider population of the area, in terms of their demographic profile and geographic distribution. Panel members are invited to participate in surveys throughout the year to:

• Feedback on local services.
• Give views on any new proposals.
• Help identify future needs and priorities.

Most surveys will consist of a one-off set of questions that are predominantly quantitative in nature. Occasionally surveys or questions will be repeated in order to track topics over time. Panel members may be asked for views on specific issues rather than through a survey.

The minimum age requirement to be a member of the panel is 16, there is no maximum age limit. No previous experience is necessary. Panel members will require access to a computer or mobile device and internet, as surveys will be primarily online. There are free to use computers in all North Lincolnshire community hubs and libraries.

Access to participating should be inclusive, therefore applicants are asked to express their preferred method of communication and how they are able to participate. We will strive to ensure we can meet these requests.

Applications are invited from anyone over the age of 16 in North Lincolnshire who wants to join the panel. However, it may take time to process applications and we will communicate with the applicant as soon as possible to confirm their application status.

Analysis of responses from surveys will be conducted via the Assurance and Performance Team.

Membership of the panel will be reviewed on a regular basis to ensure that it remains broadly representative of the local population. Specific groups may be targeted in an attempt to ensure the balance of the panel is broadly representative.

Employees of North Lincolnshire Council are welcome to apply to join the panel if they are resident in North Lincolnshire. However, the registration form asks for this to be disclosed in order to segment as necessary depending on the nature of surveys.

Staff members who join the panel are expected to answer/participate as a resident and not an employee.

North Lincolnshire Council reserves the right to withdraw membership in the event of any abuse or derogatory language or, if members do not respond to any surveys within a 12 month period.

Elected Members of North Lincolnshire Council and anybody who has been deemed to be a persistent complainant under the councils customer complaints and comments policy is excluded from being a panel member.

Panel members will be invited to participate in surveys which consider subjects relevant to all residents of North Lincolnshire and as well as on specific subjects. There is no obligation for panel members to fill out every survey. However, the more responses we get for each survey the better the results.

On occasions, panel members may also be invited to attend focused discussion groups in person to talk about things in more detail or be invited to participate in follow up telephone feedback. In all cases panel members will be able to opt in to these and any face to face or telephone interviews will be arranged at a time to suit members.

The council is committed to providing accessible services to the people and communities of North Lincolnshire. To ensure everyone’s needs are met and not discriminated against and in order to ensure the panel is demographically representative, prospective panel members will be asked to provide personal information as set out in the privacy notice.

For some questions there will be a prefer not to say option and applicants will be advised to only provide information they are comfortable disclosing.

All information will be treated in the strictest confidence in line with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). All responses will be anonymised so that they do not identify any participants.

In order to administer the panel personal data of panel members will be collected, held and used. A privacy notice has been prepared and can be found here Residents’ Panel Privacy Notice

Panel membership is a voluntary role and therefore no payments will be made. Panel members will be helping to achieve the ambition for North Lincolnshire to be the best place for people to live, work, visit and invest.

Individual feedback to Residents’ Panel members will not be provided although the Council will update on the website throughout the year on Panel activity.

Membership of the panel is totally optional. If at any time members decide they no longer wish to be contacted, they can simply email residentspanel@northlincs.go.uk and asked to be removed, you will then receive notification that you have been removed from the panel.

The council is not looking to withdraw membership from any panel members. However, it reserves the right to withdraw membership in the event of any abuse or derogatory language or if members do not respond to any surveys within a 12 month period.