Calderdale Place Survey 2008

1. Calderdale Place Survey 2008 - “a new focus on improving outcomes for local people and places”

2. What is the Place Survey? • a mandatory postal survey to be conducted every 2 years by all Councils. It will provide comparative data to measure public services and identify local area improvements. • covers views about local area and public services • boosted in Calderdale to provide more robust data for Area Forums and different population groups, to enhance its value in understanding our communities • also boosted by 600 in-house interviews across the 3 Neighbourhood Management Initiatives to enable monitoring of progress in these areas • a strict format determined by the Department of Communities and Local Government.

3. What does the Survey ask about? • How people feel about their local area, belonging, community, priorities for improvement • Views on public services e.g. PCT, Police – satisfaction with particular services; broader impact and performance of public services in general • Satisfaction with Council and certain Council services – waste collection, cleanliness, leisure & recreation • Residents’ information needs and their ability to influence decisions The Place Survey will be the source for 18 National Indicators A number of questions repeat those in previous BVPI General Surveys Many questions are new

4. How can the survey help you? Unlike previous years (BVPI) the Place Survey questions focus more on the local area and public services. The examples below demonstrate how the ‘Safer and Stronger’ theme is woven into a number of questions, including: Q22. How safe or unsafe do you feel when outside in your local area after dark? Q3. How satisfied are you with your local area as a place to live?’ Q25. Do you agree that the police and other local public services seeks people’s views about these issues? Q5. How strongly do you feel you belong to your immediate neighbourhood ?

5. Who will benefit from the Survey? • service providers through an understanding of what improvements, or interventions identified, may result in the right outcomes for local people • local and central government through collection of a wide range of national indicators enabling comparison between Councils • public sector partners through a better understanding of the views and needs of their customers • local people through improvements made as a result of the survey, making their local area a happier, healthier and safer place to live

6. How can the Survey help you? The results will enable partners to identify the different perspectives and priorities of the ‘Calderdale community’, and will provide the basis for identifying improvement priorities to make Calderdale a better place to be.

7. When can we have the results? • the fieldwork for the survey closes on the 19th December 2008 • during January the fieldwork results are submitted to the Audit Commission for weighting and validation • overall results by local authority will be published by the Audit Commission on the 9th March 2009 • Ipsos-Mori will provide a comprehensive report in late March which will be available to you • further analysis can be discussed with the Partnership Support Officer and the Research & Consultation Team

8. Calderdale – a better ‘Place’ to be!