Agenda item

5.1  The Chair opened the meeting by thanking Glen Watson and Ian Cope from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) for attending the meeting.

 

5.2  The officers from ONS began by saying that they attached a lot of importance to the Southwark Census counting process and that they were pleased that they had been invited to come and talk with the sub-committee about it.

 

5.3  The officers presented the work they had been doing to date for the 2011 Census count for England and Wales. (See Appendix 1)

 

5.4  The presentation covered the background to and lessons learned from previous Census counts which took into consideration the changes now taking place in Southwark’s communities.  The presentation also looked at the proposals for a review of the procedures for 2011 which included the various adjustments necessary and improved stakeholder engagement.

 

5.5  Officers told the sub-committee that the primary purpose of a Census is to get as clearer picture as possible of our communities to ensure we have the proper level of funding for the PCTs and local authorities.  It also allows government and the associated businesses to plan their investments and plan decision making on appropriate training requirements.  Officers highlighted the importance of counting ethnic groups as accurately as possible because this monitors the success of equal opportunities schemes and ensures that resources are appropriately allocated.

 

5.6  The logistics of coordinating such an operation is very complex.  There are 24 million households in England and Wales with 70,000 field staff needed to make 2.6 million calls.

 

5.7  There have been problems in a few local authority areas.  Despite the 94% response rate, (forms returned) some areas have fallen below 70%.  There has been, up to now, no central form tracking system with pockets of poor enumeration going undetected.  Also there have been problems recruiting and retaining field staff with payments subject to difficulties because of problems with the payroll system.

 

5.8  Nowadays it is increasingly the case that there are more people living alone and there are more single parents with a child or children who live part time with each parent.  This ‘transient’ arrangement makes it harder to track and count people.

 

5.9  The challenges for Southwark is that there is increasing mobility and migration with 25% of people aged over 85 by 2011.  The complexity of family structures and living arrangements further complicate the picture.  It can be problematic gaining access to controlled buildings (those with security doors) in multiple occupancy dwellings.

 

5.10  The changes that have taken place since 2001 have included:  Checking addresses before the Census day along with the systems that support the post out and post back (sending out and returning questionnaires).  There is now an on-line facility to make returns and there is also a questionnaire tracking system in place to show up areas of non-response enabling subsequent follow up on those who do not respond.

 

5.11  The officers from ONS acknowledged that in Southwark there was a low response rate in 2001 with the highest number of unprocessed forms in the country.  There had been insufficient ‘dummy’ forms (which should help to predict numbers) created by enumerators which meant that the coverage of the borough had to be adjusted to add 66,808 people.  In the 2004 study, 6,522 had been added.

 

5.12  Members were surprised to learn that Dulwich seemed to have quite a low level of returns. It was thought that these kinds of anomalies could be addressed with more effort to engage with the Southwark communities.

 

5.13  In 2005, ONS started to consult with local authorities.  There was a £150 million for a new processing contract to begin.  In March 2009 the census rehearsal began and the recruitment of field staff was undertaken with Capita.  In October the final rehearsal is scheduled to start with test boroughs, Lancaster, Anglesey and Newham.  The Census field operation consists of 20 – 30 regional managers, 120 area managers, 1,800 Census Coordinators, 25,000 Collectors.  There will also be address checkers, hand delivery staff, special enumerators and specialist staff working on non compliance.

 

5.14  The ‘targeted follow’ up will include the improved allocation of field staff - based on the estimated initial response rates.  The data which was used were from the Department of Work and Pensions and income support statistics.  Field staff have been allocated a Census coordinator which should increase the response rate and assist in minimising the variability in staff workloads. This enable more scope to use the teams more flexibly when spending time on follow up work.

 

5.15  The census forms are in a variety of languages which vary according to the individual needs of the communities within the borough. It was highlighted by Members that forms should include versions in Vietnamese for the borough of Southwark.

 

5.16  Questions on the forms are usually around the following topics:

 

·  Basic demographic questions

·  housing

·  identity (ethnicity, national identity, language, religion)

·  migration

·  health/caring

·  qualifications

·  occupation and employment 

 

New questions about migration, citizenship, second residences, languages and national identity, have now been added.

 

5.17  2009 is the year for the rehearsal.  There should be fully integrated rehearsals of field operations including the supporting systems such as data capture and coding which underpin the work.  There will be testing of the quantity and quality of the estimated initial response rates and an evaluation of how well all aspects of the system performed.

 

5.18  The process will take a selection of random post codes which will be followed up by a doorstep exercise to ascertain how well the questions have been understood.

 

5.19  The coverage and adjustment process deals with the imputation of households along with an approximation as to how many persons have been missed.  It also uses the CCS to characterise the households and persons missed; these add up to the census estimates at Local Authority level.

 

5.20  The census business case will be on the ONS website in the next month.  Their target is to maintain a 94% response rate; whilst attempting to do better in the worst performing areas.  It was acknowledged that the total population estimate is only as good as the information inputted into the system in the first place.

 

5.21  Members wanted to know if there was a mechanism to calculate and record the non returns, refusals and/or invalid addresses.  ONS Officers said that more was being done to improve the overall picture of data collected.  There will also be data collected from GPs surgeries and the Local Authorities Local Land and Property Gazetteer.

 

5.22  It was felt that Local Authorities could assist with providing more accurate data.  That their data sets are kept up to date as much as possible.  Local Authorities could also help by identifying HMO’s and multiple occupational dwellings and, if possible, assist with information on properties where there is possible subletting.

 

5.23  There is effort being undertaken by ONS to ensure there is more stakeholder engagement with the increased utilisation of data from local authorities and community partners.  Integral to this is the intention of ONS to assure participants that the information provided on the Census forms is not being used for any other purpose but for the Census count.  It was confirmed that the field staff do, as a matter of course, make this plain at the doorstep.

 

5.24  There are continued efforts to include new builds on the relevant ONS data bases. However, it was felt that perhaps Councillors could assist ONS with providing local knowledge of their areas to minimise any mistakes during the pilot scheme.  This would also assist ONS with identifying any problem areas where field staff may be at risk.

 

5.25  The role of the Census Liaison Manager is responsible for accessing the decision makers and championing Census work within the Local Authority.  It is also their responsibility to provide guidance information to ONS.  The Assistant Census Liaison Manager will be responsible at a more operational working level, providing the day to day communication between the Local Authority and ONS.  Local Authorities could provide assistance with ensuring the publicity of Census work is in the local media and displayed in public spaces usually used by the Council.

 

5.26  The input of information provided by Local Authorities will add to the enumeration intelligence which will hopefully reduce the under-coverage problems and help to target field resources where response rates are expected to be low.

 

5.27  ONS expect Southwark to assist with the Census work by:

 

·  Providing an accurate address register

·  Contributing to the LA Communications Advisory Group and publicising key census messages.

·  Providing knowledge of our community

·  Providing data from Council Tax and Electoral Registration and

·  Ensuring that our Local Land and Property Gazetteer is up to date.

 

5.28  In response to Members questions, Officers from ONS said that Census forms will be delivered by hand to prisons and care homes.  It is now also possible to fill in a return via an online completion method.

 

5.29  Members were concerned that there will be a good standard of quality control.  Diagrams of the area where there are poor returns could assist with the coverage of the operation.  At present there is some confusion over which areas in Southwark are under returning.  Dulwich and Lyndurst seemed to be areas where Councillors would expect a higher return but the opposite is shown in ONS figures.

 

5.30  Members felt that those sitting on ‘expert panels’ should not be seen to have a vested interest in the process.  Integrity and objectivity should be maintained throughout.

 

5.31  Members expressed considerable concerned that Southwark’s figures are not a true representation of the population and therefore in danger of not receiving the proper amount of funding.  Southwark were deprived of funding because of the inadequate Census data collected in 2001.  ONS Officers acknowledged that the key objectives this time were to maximise the returns and felt that there was a need for the 76.8% returns to grow by an extra 3%.  Members were unhappy that the aim was only for a 3% increase and felt that ONS should be aspiring for a much higher lever of return.

 

5.32  Members were concerned about how we can identify hidden communities and hard to reach individuals.  There are concerns about the current strategy and its effectiveness.  It was agreed that stronger working between all parties is the way forward especially in regard to ensuring there are clear lines of communication between all and a willingness to share information and data.

 

5.33  It was acknowledged that the DCLG were not listening to ONS regarding their out of date ONS estimates.  This situation needed to be improved to find the gaps in data and the possible impact of non returns.

 

RESOLVED:  Members agreed that a set of recommendations would go to the Southwark Executive and further recommendations would be added for setting up mechanisms to enable effective joint working between the Executive and the ONS.