Place Survey

Place Survey Update – All Information Now Out!

We are pleased to tell you that CLG have now released all the information you need to get started on your first Place Survey. The full manual and the questionnaire have been emailed to those authorities who registered as a Primary Contact with the Audit Commission. If you haven’t yet received this information, you can now download copies from the CLG website

The Audit Commission are currently working with a contractor with the aim of launching the official Place Survey Website in early August. Apart from housing all Place Survey material, this will also include the 'sampling tool' required for each local authority to download a random sample of postal addresses for their area.

In addition, CLG and the Audit Commission are currently making preparations to hold a roadshow on the Place Survey and will give out more information on this shortly.

What is Included?

The manual provides full guidance on delivering the Place Survey in line with the 8 common standards set out by CLG:

• Adhere to the timetable
• Use the questionnaire template
• Use the sampling method
• Use the sampling frame
• Use the designated method of data collection
• Take all reasonable steps to maximise the response rate
• Achieve the designated statistical reliability
• Use each of the data submission templates and tools for submitting your survey results and metadata and ensure they are completed correctly and submitted by the required date

(Place Survey 2008 / 2009 Manual, CLG)

The accompanying Technical Annex gives more detailed advice on how to meet the 8 common standards, providing practical information and things to consider throughout the process.

A template questionnaire has also been released, incorporating all the compulsory questions for the Place Survey. The Technical Annex again provides guidance on including additional questions from the question bank and creating your own bespoke options where desirable.

This now means that all the necessary information you need to undertake your survey is available, therefore your authority is in a position to move forward with the process you will need to go through, whether that be individually or collaboratively.

Further information

In mid July the Audit Commission will be launching a Place Survey website where all the information and documentation regarding this survey will be stored. Through this site local authority employees can also access the templates and tools necessary for the survey process, which should be used in conjunction with the Place Survey manual.

Next Steps

The timetable dictates that you should now be identifying how you will run the survey, and be considering options for contracting out some or all of the work. Some authorities will carry out this work ‘in-house’, utilising their own research teams, others will seek the assistance of specialist research providers. Advice on options for contracting out some of the work and how you might go about it is available in the Technical Annex.

The next point for consideration is selecting the sample of residents who will receive questionnaires. The sample should be taken at random from the sampling frame, which includes all residents of the local authority who are aged over 18. The Place Survey manual states that the sampling frame is the Post Office small users Address File (PAF), which will be available to download for free from the Place Survey website when it is launched .

Authorities will need to decide how many residents they need to mail out to in order to receive at least 1,100 completed questionnaires. The manual advises authorities to refer to previous BVPI user satisfaction surveys for an indication of likely response rates.

How can ENCAMS help?

As a Place Survey provider ENCAMS is able to assist you throughout this process. With significant experience of carrying out research with residents, specifically their views of the local area, neighbourhood issues and their impact on their quality of life, we are confident that we are well placed to take on the role of your sub-agency to conduct the Place Survey on your behalf, and ensure that the eight common standards referred to in the manual are met.

The service we can provide ranges from scoping and fieldwork to analysis and recommendations. We also have an exceptionally broad team of expert consultants, specialising in neighbourhood issues, who can help you utilise the findings of this survey in the most effective way. We are keen to ensure that Place Survey findings are not only used as a reporting mechanism, but that they are able to make a real difference to the places where people live whilst at the same time ensuring excellent National Indicator (NI) scores.

Further Updates

To help you stay informed ENCAMS can regularly update you with the latest Place Survey news. If you are interested in joining our mailing list please complete the contact form