Ealing councillors' survey 2009

Feedback process

We circulated a questionnaire to all London Borough of Ealing councillors during the summer of 2009 and collated the responses received in the Autumn.
We acknowledged all responses and provided all councillors with a resume of the findings.

Feedback results

15 out of 69 councillors responded to our survey - 21.7%.
Of those 15, 10 were fully aware of our service and 5 partly aware. Most found our leaflet useful and had signposted constituents to our service or intended to do so in the future.

We asked where we should be advertising our service.
All respondants suggested advertising in the Ealing Council monthly publication 'Around Ealing' so we therefore arranged, through the Council's Community Safety Unit, to feature in their January 2010 article.
Other responses together with actions we have taken/intend to take were as follows:-
- all libraries, community centres, places of worship and local residents/tenants associations (publicity was sent to all of these in 2008. Libraries and community centres received EMS ambassador visits in 2010 and we are seeking an ambassador for places of worship),
- all Ealing Council offices and Police Safer Neighbourhood Teams (publicity, in the form of leaflets/posters is regularly provided to these agencies),
- community websites (we have started linking in with local community websites since October 2009),
- ECVS/Ealing Community Resource Centre (we wrote an article for their newsletter in 2010 and provide regular supply of leaflets),
- ward forums and ward forum newsletters (we contacted Ealing Council's 'my ward matters' team to pursue this and have provided packs for ward forum meetings),
- local press (to advertise in the local press is too expensive but two of our Management Committee members were interviewed in 2010),
- doctors' surgeries, health centres, sports clubs, advice centres (EMS ambassadors are delivering publicity to GP surgeries, publicity was sent to health centres and NHS establishments in 2010),
- schools (all schools were contacted summer 2009 and sent information about our peer mediation project, followed up by a letter outlining progress on the peer mediation project. An article was written for the schools intranet in summer 2010).

Their overall impression of the service was 'excellent', 'very good' (2 responses), 'good' (3 responses), 'very impressed/service is efficient', ' good concept but confidentiality affects feedback', 'can work but sometimes issues have gone too far before they are referred', 'heard good things', 'good, as I referred someone and they were happy with the service', 'unsure'.

Thank you to those Ealing councillors who responed to our survey, your responses have assisted us with our future priorities.
Another survey is scheduled for 2012.