Scottish Borders Council

Agenda item

Household Survey 2018 - Results

Consider report by the Service Director Customer & Communities presenting the results of the Scottish Borders Household Survey 2018.  (Copy attached).

Minutes:

7.1       There had been circulated copies of a report by the Service Director Customer & Communities providing the results of the Scottish Borders Household Survey 2018.  The key results from the perception based survey were highlighted, alongside relevant performance information and current pieces of work.  The Scottish Borders Household Survey 2018 asked questions about life in the Borders and a range of services provided by the Council.  905 responses were received of these 800 were online and 105 were paper copies.  The Household Survey had been used since 2006 to gather customer perception/satisfaction on a range of Council Services and was one of the tools available to the Council for collecting such information.  The Council also used service specific customer surveys, engagement events and feedback mechanisms, such as our complaints process, to gather information on how well the Borders’ community felt the Council was doing in meeting its needs.  This was used alongside a range of performance information which was presented to Executive Committee on a quarterly basis.  The 2018 survey included the following themes which were covered in the report:

(a)       Life in the Scottish Borders

(b)       Scottish Borders Council

(c)       Household Waste Collection, Recycling and Waste Services

(d)       Local services provided by Scottish Borders Council

(e)       Local services managed by Live Borders

(f)        Involvement in local decision making

(g)       Community Safety

(h)       Health & Wellbeing

(i)         Transport

(j)         The Internet/Web

(k)       Future use of the Internet

 

7.2       Over the three years since the last household survey the Council had continued to face major financial challenges and had worked to maintain high quality services with reducing resources.  During this time some services had had to be reshaped which almost certainly had an impact on levels of customer satisfaction.However, the majority of respondents had told us that their neighbourhood was a good place to live (95%) with 50% saying it was a ‘very good’ place to live.  Feelings of personal safety were also high with 97% saying they feel safe walking alone in their local area during the day and 94% saying they feel safe alone in their home at night.  The Service Director Customer & Communities gave a brief introduction on the detailed report and advised Members that the last survey was carried out in 2015.  Due to the change in methodology, comparisons could not be made with the results from previous years but a benchmark was being set for future survey results. The Strategic Community Engagement Officer, Ms Malster reported that the results showed strong positive statements that people were satisfied with living in the Borders and that it was a good place to live.  An overwhelming opinion in response to this survey was that 90% of respondents would like to be more involved.  This would be a great opportunity to build on through the Area Partnerships and People Panels. The report highlighted that SBC also gave a high quality service.  Members reported that the survey gave a good indication of life in the Borders with the need to get more community involvement to strengthen the Area Partnerships.  There was concern raised on the result that 33% respondents did experience the feeling of loneliness or isolation.  Ms Craig reported that progress would be made to work closely with local Area Partnerships and Community Councils.  Detailed information on the number of contacts from each of the locality areas would be incorporated into the report.

 

DECISION

NOTEDthe results of the Scottish Borders Household Survey 2018

 

Supporting documents:

 

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