Resident Satisfaction Survey

In 2006 local authorities all over England, including Leicestershire, carried out a survey to measure how satisfied people are with the services provided by their Councils.  Please scroll down the page for a breakdown of the Leicestershire survey results, or click on one of the links below to be taken to the relevant section.

The services provided by the County Council have a direct impact on your quality of life, for example, through the school your child or grandchild goes to, the care you or your older relatives receive, the quality of local bus services, the condition of local libraries and the state of the environment.  

To gauge how well Councils are doing, the Government collects information about whether local people are happy with their Council services through a residents' satisfaction survey carried out every three years.  The results from this survey tell us how well we are doing and where we need to improve our services in the future.

Last Autumn we asked a random selection of 5,000 residents living in Leicestershire their views on the county, the County Council and the services we provide.  Over 2,500 of you responded, a great response - so thank you.  Here is what you had to say.

Nearly 7 out of 10 of you are satisfied with Leicestershire as a place to live.  A slight fall since 2003.  

You said:

1. Low level of crime
2. Clean streets
3. Affordable decent housing
4. Health services
5. Education provision

You said:

1. Activities for teenagers
2. Traffic congestion
3. Level of crime
4. Clean Streets
5. Public transport

Over 50% of residents felt that Leicestershire was an area where people from different backgrounds get on well.  Only 1 in 10 feel this is not the case.

Leicestershire generally scored well for the perceived low level of anti-social behaviour compared with other areas.  Nevertheless the highest areas of perceived problems relate to:-

- Parents not taking responsibility for their children's behaviour (48%);

- Teenagers hanging around on the streets (48%);

- People not treating each other with respect or consideration (39%).

A three part question on the fear of becoming a victim of crime was included in the 2006 Local Government User Satisfaction Survey. The first part of the question found that 31% of respondents said that they had felt fearful of becoming a victim of crime in the last 12 months. Further analysis is being carried out to determine how often people felt this way and how afraid they were.

The previous round of the Local Government User Satisfaction Survey. (in 2003) phrased the question on fear of crime slightly differently so it is not possible to make a direct comparison. In 2003 the findings were that 49.1% of respondents in Leicestershire felt afraid when outside in the dark and 10.3% felt afraid when outside during the day.

Just under half (46%) of residents who responded are satisfied with the way the Council runs things and a further 4 in 10 say they were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied.  13% of you are dissatisfied with the County Council.  Similar results to 2003 but with a slight reduction in satisfaction in line with trends nationally

Over 60% of residents thought the Council was making the area a better place to live, 64% thought it was making the area cleaner and greener and 53% making the area safer.  47% think the Council treats all types of people fairly.

For residents that have contacted the Council 7 out of 10 were satisfied with the helpfulness of staff.  68% were satisfied with staff competence and 67% with finding the right person.  64% were happy with the length of time involved, 63% with the information given and 62% with the final outcome.

Of those of you that expressed an opinion, 43% of you feel well informed about the Council, whilst 50% do not feel very well informed.

Just over 300 people said they had made a complaint to the Council in the last 12 months but interestingly the majority of these related to services not provided by the County Council.  Around a third of people were satisfied with the way the complaint was handled.

Of those of you that expressed an opinion, 25% of you agree that you can influence decisions, 2 in 10 neither agree nor disagree but over 50% disagree.  21% of people would like to be more involved in the decisions that affect the area.

Overall, over 8 out of 10 of you are satisfied with your local tip and nearly 50% felt it had got better.  More than 8 out of 10 are satisfied with the location of the sites, their opening hours, recycling facilities at the tip and how clean the site is.  71% of you are satisfied with the helpfulness of the staff.

41% of you are satisfied with the provision of public transport information although 24.5% are dissatisfied.  10% felt information had got better and the same number felt it had got worse.  In terms of the amount of information 43% of you are satisfied , the clarity of information 45% are satisfied and the accuracy of information 46% of you are satisfied.

35% of you use the bus at least monthly but 25% have never used the bus.  In terms of satisfaction with the service, a significant proportion of you responded "don't know", but of those who expressed an opinion: 70% are happy with the number of the bus stops and 54% with punctuality; 62% are satisfied with the frequency of buses; 56% are satisfied with the state of bus stops and 67% with ease of access to the buses.  54% of you are satisfied with your local bus service overall but this rises to 62% for bus users.  14% think the service has got better but the same number felt it has got worse.

Over a third of you are satisfied with the Council's museums and theatres but this rises to 60% for service users.  7 out of 10 are satisfied with libraries and country parks though 84% of library users are satisfied with the service.  Just over 50% are satisfied with sports and leisure services.  24% of people think libraries have got better and 16% think sports facilities and parks have got better.  Just 5% think museums and theatres have got better.  

The Government has published some information that shows nationally, overall satisfaction with local councils has fallen since the last survey three years ago.  Overall the County Council compares reasonably well against the national averages and the average scores across all county councils.

The results are positive in a number of ways but also suggest areas for improvement. In order to understand the key drivers of resident satisfaction the County Council commissioned IPSOS MORI to undertake a review of the results and other satisfaction data. You can view MORI's conclusions on the key drivers of satisfaction by viewing the Summary and Implications of this Analysis document.  The councils cabinet considered the results of MORI's analysis on 2nd October and approved an Action Plan for targetted service improvement and recommendations for improving partnership working and communication. If you wish to view the full cabinet report and the appendices mentioned above, please click on the relevent links below:

If you want copies of the full final results please contact Andy Brown on 0116 265 6096.