Harrow Council consults about the Way Ahead with Quantify!

Harrow Council is seeking residents’ views about its new Vision statement which sets out the Council’s 11 new corporate priorities. The consultation will be conducted among the 1,200 members of the Council’s Residents’ Panel, which is managed for the Council by independent research consultants, Quantify.

For nearly ten years, Harrow Council has maintained a representative panel of residents willing to join in consultation surveys and focus groups. This is a cost-effective way for the Council to keep in touch with local opinion on policies and satisfaction with services.

More than 500 new members have recently been recruited to bring the active size of the panel to over 1,200 and Quantify, which has managed the panel for the Council since its inception, has now been instructed to carry out the first survey among the new panel.

“The Panel is a group of people selected so that it represents the local population,” explained David Lusty, Quantify’s principal consultant. “The Council and its public sector partners - the local health authority and the police - are committed to listening to local people about the decisions that are made on their behalf.

“Panel members may be sent postal surveys or, perhaps, invited by mail or telephone to attend focus group meetings to give their views on Council services, health or policing matters. Over the years, the Residents’ Panel has proved itself to be a highly cost-effective way for the Council to keep in touch with public opinion on policies and satisfaction with services,” he added.

Quantify, which is bound by its professional Code of Conduct and treats all the information collected in the strictest confidence, recruits the panel and holds the data it generates. When they join, panel members provide personal information which allows Quantify to:
• ensure that the panel is representative,
• send some surveys only to people for whom they are relevant,
• summarise responses to see if different groups of people have different views.

“Of course, the panel is used only for research purposes by or on behalf of the Council or its public service partners,” Lusty explained. “Nobody receives commercial ‘junk mail’ as a result of joining the panel.

“If a member receives a survey in the mail or is invited to attend a meeting, there is no obligation to reply or to attend. S/he can always choose not to participate and no questions will be asked.”

Membership of the Residents’ Panel is open to any resident of the London Borough of Harrow over 18 - and a phone call to 08452 41 41 60 to request a registration form is all it takes to join.

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Notes for Editors

About Quantify! Ltd

Quantify's services include:

• Employee satisfaction surveys
• Customer satisfaction surveys
• 360° Feedback
• Internal customer satisfaction surveys
• Course assessments
• Leaver survey

Further information from:
David Lusty, Quantify! Ltd: 020 8704 1296/ 07956 518070