Are you being served? Benchmarking resident satisfaction data
Question set and guidance
Understanding resident's views is a key element of assessing the effectiveness of an authority, alongside cost and performance information. Furthermore, understanding resident satisfaction and being able to make informed comparisons can strengthen local accountability and be a key part of the sector's approach to managing its own performance.
This document outlines a set of resident satisfaction, crime and cohesion questions that councils can choose to use in their local surveys, and guidance on the conditions that must be met to enable the results to be benchmarked against other authorities who follow the same approach:
1: Question and Guidance document (PDF, 20 pages, 158KB)
2. Annex A: Example Questionnaires Final (PDF, 16 pages, 204KB)
This is a flexible approach, designed to suit local circumstances and minimise the cost to councils of collecting the data. The approach allows councils to use only those questions that are of interest locally and to fit these questions in with existing survey plans, whilst also helping to maximise the benefit and insight that can be gained from this data by making it broadly comparable.
Local Government Inform (LG Inform) will provide the mechanism by which councils can undertake these comparisons. LG Inform is a free data service from the LGA to provide easy access for local authority staff and councillors and, eventually, the public, to key data about their council and its area. For more information and to register please see: http://www.local.gov.uk/about-lginform.
Submitting results for benchmarking in LG Inform
We will be ready to start accepting uploads of completed resident satisfaction survey results in April.
A web upload form is currently in development, which will look similar to an online survey. This will involve going through and ticking boxes to confirm that the various quality criteria have been met, and then writing in the total number of respondents that selected each answer option for each question. Details of how to access this form will be posted here once it is ready in April.
The first batch of results will then be uploaded to go live in LG Inform in June.
Background
The guidance is based on the findings of a review by Ipsos MORI, which identified a set of conditions that would need to be met to ensure that any comparisons being made are robust, fair and valid, and that each council's data is of a good quality that will stand up to scrutiny. The criteria were then refined on the basis of an extensive consultation with local authorities.
This document summarises and addresses the key issues raised by consultees and explains the changes that have been made to the guidance as a result of the consultation: Residents' Satisfaction: Final consultation Response (PDF, 26 pages, 173KB)
The consultation is now closed, however the consultation document can be accessed here for information: Are you being served? (PDF, 23 pages, 174KB)
The background report from Ipsos MORI can be found here: Are you being served technical review (PDF, 110 pages, 923KB)
Further information
If you have a query on any aspect of this guidance, please email research@local.gov.uk.
Please first check the LG Inform Knowledge Hub group wiki, which includes a record of questions that other councils have asked and our response to them. Click here to register and access the group: https://knowledgehub.local.gov.uk/group/lginform
8 March 2013
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