Citizens' panel - background information
The panel is a consultative panel of residents run by us, the council. The panel is your chance to influence life in the borough and let us know what is important to you in your local area.
The panel is not the only way we seek the views of local people, but it adds an important form of communication. It does not need to take a lot of your time – what we ask is for you to respond to a few surveys a year.
There are also opportunities to participate in live events such as workshops and discussions but there is no obligation to attend these kinds of events. Above all, we want you to be able to give us your views on things that matter to you.
We are proud of the borough's diverse communities and their contributions to making Barnet an excellent place to live. One of our priorities is to consult and engage with all our communities and we therefore ensure that also our communities and faiths are represented on our citizens' panel.
When did it start?
Barnet's Citizens' Panel was set up in November 1997. The panel is made up of approximately 1,000 Barnet residents, selected to be representative of the adult population of the borough based on:
- ward
- age
- gender
- ethnicity
- socio economic status
- employment status
- housing tenure
- faith and disability.
The aim, therefore, is to have a panel that produces an accurate picture of Barnet residents' views.
- Postal and internet surveys explore
- residents' views on various aspects of council services
- their experience of living in Barnet
- their perceptions of the council and
- anything else that may affect Barnet residents.
Approximately three multi-topic surveys are sent out to the panel each year. Other panel uses include focus groups and consultative conferences.
Advantages of the citizens' panel
The panel provides a ready made borough-wide sample to consult on key issues rather than having to approach new participants for each survey. This improves response rate, the accuracy of the results and makes the panel very cost effective.
As well as being used for one off consultations, the panel can also be used to track change in residents’ attitudes to particular issues over time. The panel facilitates partnerships with other public sector agencies. Partners in the police and health services have used the panel on numerous occasions.
The panel involves a relatively large number of people and therefore forms an important source of dialogue between residents, other stakeholders and the council.
Recruitment of the panel
A core panel is made up of 1,000 residents aged 18+ and is recruited using the following methods- random recruitment (addresses selected at random across all wards from the Local Land and Property Gazetteer); telephone recruitment –using random dial; and on street face to face recruitment, set to quota
Additional panel members are recruited among hard-to-reach groups via the following methods:
- Black and minority ethnic groups (150 panel members recruited via postal surveys targeting ethnic groups in Super Output Areas and using targeted face-to-face interviews)
- Residents with long-term illnesses or disability (100 panel members) recruited through postal surveys, targeted face to face interviews and also through Community Barnet the umbrella organisation for voluntary organisations in Barnet
Panel members have a membership of three years and therefore a third of the panel is replaced each year.
Weighting
Weighting is used to tackle the issue of over representation and under representation from certain groups in the sample. The data is weighted to the Census 2001 profile.
Accuracy of survey data
Accuracy of survey data - the Panel is a sample (not the entire population of residents living within the borough of Barnet). The sample size of the Panel means that, with a typical response rate of 65%, any percentage error derived from Panel data will be approximately +/-5%, and often less than that.
Email this pageLast modified by: Webmaster on 17/08/2011