Agenda item

Residents' Satisfaction Survey 2021

Each year the Council undertakes a Residents Satisfaction Survey as part of the Council’s performance framework.

The Residents’ Satisfaction Survey for 2020/21 was undertaken between 28 June and 25 July 2021.  The Council instructed BMG Research to undertake the survey.

This report sets out the main findings of the survey for review by Members.

Minutes:

In the absence of the Group Head of Policy, the Chair invited the Interim Chief Executive to present this report. He confirmed that the Council did undertake a residents satisfaction survey annually and this was treated as a key tool for the Council to use in assessing the effectiveness of the services that it provided. The Interim Chief Executive confirmed that it was an aim for the Council to steer towards achieving private sector excellence in terms of service delivery and this was a key tool used to achieve this as the results of the survey would inform service development over the next twelve months.  Plans were already underway looking at how next year’s survey would be delivered to include methods to increase returns.

 

            The Interim Chief Executive highlighted that the survey returns for 2020 had shown a significant upturn in terms of improvement of services with the survey being viewed very positively despite the challenges of the pandemic. The results for this year had shown a return to pre-pandemic levels and so this provided the Council with an opportunity to strive to return to achieving the same satisfaction levels shown for 2020. It was pleasing to see how this reflected the excellent performance of the Council’s staff during lockdown and in meeting the challenges of the pandemic.

 

The Committee in discussing the survey results for 2020 felt that in terms of distribution, this had not been representative of the whole District as the western side of the District had been under-represented with the eastern side being over-represented. This could have affected the results shown, it was felt that the results of this year’s survey were a far more accurate representation. Concerns raised were over the cleanliness of residential roads which were often littered due to seagulls splitting open refuse sacks. Was there a way this could be addressed? The Director of Services acknowledged that this was a big issue and as the Council still collected its refuse using black sacks which sat on streets on collection day. This would be a matter for negotiation when the Council retendered its waste contract.

 

Another issue raised was that of communication and how the Council listened and communicated externally.  It was felt that there was a significant difference in satisfaction between non homeowners and homeowners and whey this could be?

 

The Interim Chief Executive responded agreeing with these points made. He outlined that the Council needed to work very hard to ensure it achieved a positive perception of what it did. This would be a key issue that it would focus on over the coming months. The Director of Services acknowledged that many areas in the District were deprived areas facing many challenges and this was why satisfaction was lower as this correlated around social housing and the rented sector. There was a lot of work for the Council to tackle on wellbeing issues to address in adopting a new Council Vision.

 

The Chair alerted Members to an issue of concern in the survey results which confirmed that 41 per cent of people were using or dealing with drugs in the area that they lived. This was a disturbingly high number and he hoped that the Housing & Wellbeing Committee could add this as an item for its Work Programme to address in the future as this was not acceptable.

 

As this was an update report there were no recommendations for the Committee to consider.

 

 

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