Council increases census preparations

As the six month countdown to the census begins, Southwark Council is stepping up its preparation to make sure as many people as possible take part in the poll.

The borough is sending a team of 15 community champions - ethnic minority volunteers who will take the census messages into their own communities, with help of new multi-lingual guides to the count.

Shanu Nehir and Hadia Begum, two of the council's Bengali community champions from the Rockingham Estate, will be spreading the word about the 2011 census in their community.

"We have the advantage of being able to reach out on a personal level. People might see something about the census and not understand it; working as a community champion we can explain it. Then if they find out they will tell other people. We will tell people and they will pass it on", said Shanu. "We feel like we are helping the future of the community."

Her neighbour, Hadia, is also happy to be helping with the census preparations: "I feel very pleased that I can tell people about the benefits that they will get if they fill in the census. I didn't know about the census before. Now I do and I am pleased that as a volunteer I can promote it, talk to people one-to-one and let them know too."

The 2011 census will take place on 27 March next year. The way councils understand their population, design their services and the amount of funding the council, the NHS, police and other public services receive depends on the population counted during the census.

At the last census in 2001, approximately one in four residents in Southwark did not respond.

Southwark Council is working hard alongside the Office for National Statistics to encourage as many residents as possible to complete the census.

The census will primarily be returned by post or online, with a team of field staff following up on some of the addresses where there may be difficulties. Engaging with hard to reach groups is crucial to making sure as many people as possible take part in 2011.

At the same time as the community champions mobilise their peers, the council is preparing to launch a publicity drive. The authority is also kicking off a raft of activities to engage locals in the census. Some examples are listed below.

Councillor Richard Livingstone, Southwark Council cabinet member for resources, said:
 "We've got to make the census count. The 2011 census will influence the funding the borough will receive for the next ten years - and there is still a huge amount of work to be done to ensure that it captures as many people as possible.

"We estimate that having inaccurate figures cost the council more than £5 million every year in lost government funding.  Given the massive cuts that government wants to make to our budget in the future, we're determined to make sure that we maximise our grant following next year's census."

Southwark Census work

• Publicity drive - including a local history event at John Harvard Library on 19 October, the distribution of multi-lingual leaflets, special recorded messages for the call centre phone lines and local history school packs

• Community engagement - Southwark Council has created a team of community champions who will be going into specifically targeted hard to reach groups to explain how the census works and why they should get involved

• Support for the ONS - Southwark is backing the 2011 Census' recruitment drive for a wide range of temporary to fulltime job opportunities ranging from managerial positions to roles working in the field interacting with the public. www.census.gov.uk

Notes to editor

The 2001 Census counted Southwark's population at 256,700. We estimate this missed approximately 9,300 people. According to London Councils research, this could have cost the borough as much as £5.6m (as they calculate that every person missed represents £600 per person, per year).

Work is underway to ensure a more accurate return for the 2011 census including creating an accurate address list of all homes in Southwark to make sure that everyone receives a census form. Southwark has recently been awarded a gold standard for the accuracy of the local land property gazetteer (LLPG) database, a comprehensive list of all residential properties in the borough.