The 2007 Test:
The Camden Experience
BSPS Conference, St Andrews
12 September 2007
Introduction to Camden
Location
>Central London borough
>Fringes on the City to the South
London University, Tottenham Ct Rd …
>Main London rail termini
King’s Cross-St Pancras, Euston
>Town Centres: Camden Town, Kilburn (½)
> Leafy suburbs: Hampstead, Highgate
>And … the other bits
What is Camden like …
>Like no other place!
>Part ‘employment hub’ …
>Part ‘university town’ …
>Part ‘Inner City’ …
>Part ‘leafy suburbia’…
>Part ‘retail centre’
Why Camden? …
Large scale undercount in 2001
> 1991 - 6%
>2001 - 23% people
- 24% households
>7th worst in England & Wales despite active involvement of the
Council
What happened in 2001
What went wrong in 2001?
>Visitors not counted (some were residents)
>Logistical problems
- post back
- shortage of staff
- shortage of forms!
- late sorting
- poor management information
>Publicity/public perception
What went wrong in 2001? (2)
>High proportion ‘hard to count’ groups:
- students
- mobile/24hr population
- gated estates/mansion blocks
- language/cultural barriers
and …
- people who didn’t want to be counted!
Camden was chosen as a
Census Test area because
>Poor 2001 Census response rates
>High proportion of ‘hard to count’ areas
and households
>Proven liaison (e.g. 2001 feedback)
>Good address list (LLPG)
>Experiencing high population turnover
>Applicable to other London Boroughs
and metropolitan areas
What Camden signed up to
>1 of 5 Test areas: with Liverpool, Stoke
Bath & NE Somerset, Carmarthenshire
>In Camden: a Test involving c.25% of
addresses (in small clusters)
>A voluntary test of new procedures
designed to overcome 2001 problems
>A trial of ONS/Local Authority liaison to
boost enumeration
>If successful, use tested systems in the
2009 rehearsal (not Camden) & in 2011
Build up to Test
Establishing Census Liaison Manager and
Assistant Census Liaison Manager
>Raising Profile
- Meeting with Chief Executive
>Service Level Agreement
- Eventually …!
>Information gathering
- Area Profiles  background info for each area
Build up to Test (2)
Information gathering
>Communal establishments (5% in 2001)
>Electoral Registration statistics
response rate, large HH (6+), advice
>Enumerator safety
>Council Tax (exemptions info)
- Holiday/2nd homes - Student exemptions
- Lone occupants
- Vacant
Build up to Test (3)
Information gathering…
>Housing Change
- Development monitoring
(GIS -> individual sites, address, change)
>Languages
- Schools survey & Language/Translation Service
>HMOs (lots)
>Mobile homes etc (very few)
>Hotels, B&Bs (from LLPG)
>Community contacts (Cindex listing)
Build up to Test (4)
Information gathering…
>Gated communities
47% purpose-built flats, 41% Council
>Address checking
- Found 6,000+ additional properties (though
Camden LPG Team think most are in the LLPG)
Build up to Test (5)
Field force
- Census Area Manager ONS selected a member
of their staff (Emma Wood) to cover Camden
- Census Team Managers and Enumerators were all
recruited by Hays agency
Census Team Managers
- Recruited, in post and assigned to their EDs
- Liaison meeting with field managers 19 March
- Camden attended Team Manager meetings – liaison role
Build up to Test (6)
Field force …
- Enumerators
- 87 delivery + 97 follow-up
- Advert circulated to main community groups
- Early feedback from Hays suggested:
Good quality (interest in stats/census)
Some were Camden electoral canvassers
Recruitment was on track …
… enough, with a reserve list (contingency)
Census Test Field Operation
> Questionnaire delivery
- 50% Post-out
- 50% hand delivery from 23 Apr
> Census Test Day was Sunday 13 May 2007
> Follow-up
- Follow-up unreturned questionnaires from 23 May
- Follow-up continued until 22 Jun
Camden was not involved in the field operation
Evaluation
Assistant Census Liaison Manager assessment
>For the LA Liaison Manager - Busy!
- Census Test work in addition to normal job
- Plus … covering for vacant post
- CLM is titular, ACLM does the work!
>Data gathering: went well
- Good response from all Camden data providers
but …
- Camden used to data-sharing/collaborative work
- Will other LAs be ready to do the same?
Evaluation (2)
Assistant Census Liaison Manager assessment...
>Local Land & Property Gazetteer (LLPG)
- Camden has an excellent LLPG. We were able to
provide full address lists for all Census Test EDs
- ONS followed-up with a visit to understand how
Camden’s LLPG is compiled
>HMO data
- Only partial. Database started Apr 06. Not fully
populated by Test (50%), so no more data given.
- This is viewed as important as will contain people
often missed by censuses. Will promote for 2011.
Evaluation (3)
Assistant Census Liaison Manager assessment...
>Census Area Manager
ONS: late idea to trial an LA sourced manager …
Camden: ideal person in mind, but major issues:
- Timing: afterthought, and just before Christmas!
- Managing: Secondment to ONS? Camden
internal? Responsibility to recruit/manage?
- Financing: inadequate to cover suggested post
- Bad-timing: major restructure with job losses!
Result: ONS staff-member selected.
Suggest: LA sourced manager should be trialled.
Evaluation (4)
Assistant Census Liaison Manager assessment...
>Release of Camden staff
- Agreed, but too late for Census Team Managers
- Period of staff reduction/high burden of time
- Some staff eventually took up enumerator posts
>Publicity
- ONS: No Publicity! Only for Test ED households
- Camden Councillors informed (+ve responses)
- My Camden web check ‘do I live in a Test area?’
- & some general information on Camden website
Evaluation (5)
Census Team Managers’ assessment
>Generally gone well!
>Gave detailed feedback in a full and
candid debriefing on all aspects of the
Test in Camden.
>Identified problems and offered solutions
to improve future enumeration.
>One single improvement – the Public to
better informed about Census.
Evaluation (6)
Census Team Managers’ assessment …
>Management Info needs to improve
>Area Profiles useful and mostly accurate
>Community contacts more from Council
>Final Comments:
- Refusals not as big an issue as expected
- Language not as big an issue as expected –
there is usually someone to interpret
- Illiteracy (inc questionnaire illiteracy!) –
underestimated as a big problem
Evaluation (7)
Local Authority Liaison
>Data gathering. Successful/worked well. All
services in Camden (incl. Council Tax, Electoral
Services, GIS/LPG and District Housing Offices)
work to the same address list and share data.
Recommend: ONS contact LAs ASAP for the
information required in the run up to 2011. Perhaps
a rolling programme of approaching/inducting LAs
to spread the work? Important job is to set up the
requirement – it is relatively simple to update.
Evaluation (8)
Local Authority Liaison …
>Community contacts. Seen in Camden as an
area for improvement. Lots of organisations and
addresses, but need prioritising and developing.
Recommend: LA works to identify key community
contacts in order to channel publicity and to foster
understanding of the needs and uses of the
Census (to improve enumeration and foster higher
levels of inclusion) and to utilise the Planning in
Schools and Community Regeneration officers.
Evaluation (9)
Local Authority Liaison …
>Local Land and Property Gazetteer Key to
a successful post-out strategy. Camden’s confident
our LLPG is the best address list available and
should be used in preference to national products.
Recommend: ONS pick an address product that
can be applied nationally as a fall-back position.
Where it can be proved that the local address list
(LLPG) is better, i.e. more complete, up-to-date
and accurate, then that should instead be used.
Outstanding Issues
>GIS ONS/OS © copyright!! If liaison is going to be
effective, need to get over constant hurdle.
>Outsourced field force recruitment OK, but
can quality/quantity be upheld? Ramp up for all LAs?
>Release of staff Under staff code … but, change
in attitude due to efficiency drives means no slack!
Outstanding Issues (2)
>Publicity strategy ONS has no plans, but …
need to start NOW for 2011 to beat general ignorance
- whose responsibility? ONS/Central Gov’t/LAs?
- a programme in schools?
- informing new migrants/migrant workers?
- community development/inclusion
And …
- stress confidentiality!
- stress no record linking!
- stress public duty!
Issues (3)
>LAs will need to gear up to do the work
before 2011 – and there’s a lot to do …
Recommend All LAs need to:
>identify and nominate the most appropriate person
to act as Census liaison
>take the Census seriously and to earmark
resources to set against 2011 Census
preparation in 2009, 2010 and 2011 for local liaison
and data gathering to ensure a positive outcome in
2011.
Contact details
Neil Storer
Planning Policy and Information
Forward Planning Service
Culture and Environment
LB Camden
020 7974 5561
population@camden.gov.uk