Welsh Government
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‘You’ve spoken and we are listening’ says Minister

A unique survey that asked thousands of people across Wales about their experiences of services like health, local government and education has found that between 70-90% of the Welsh public have positive views about the public services they use.

The results of the Living in Wales Survey – which is thought to be the first of its kind in the UK - were made public for the first time yesterday (Wednesday 5th March). 7,500 households in Wales were questioned face-to-face about their experiences of:

  • Social Services
  • Housing Services
  • GP Surgeries
  • Hospital Services
  • Bus Services
  • Early Years Education
  • Primary Schools
  • Secondary Schools
  • Recycling Facilities
  • Sport Facilities

Launching the findings, Andrew Davies, Minister for Finance & Public Service Delivery, said:

Research such as this is essential if we are to put the citizen at the centre of our public services. It shows we are a listening government, and feedback is a crucial element of reforming and shaping modern services that deliver for Wales.

All our services, from the schools we use, through to those delivered by local authorities, must be geared to the needs of the individual, not those delivering the services – citizen focus is everything.

The ‘Living in Wales’ survey is important in finding out what really matters to people and is vital to designing, reforming and delivering efficient public services.

Despite the high levels of satisfaction among the Welsh public, there is still room for improvement. The Minister said:

The overwhelming picture from this study is one of satisfaction, with citizen’s experiences being positive. For example, on the whole those who took part said good things about the way in which they are treated by staff working in public services.

However, the results indicate a number of issues that need further study, particularly around the accessibility of information about services and complaint handling.

The benefits of this process are that it allows us to identify areas that we need to work on and look at what action is required. The views given by citizens will help us improve performance and create even better public services.

Only by taking citizens’ opinions of performance seriously, will we be able to provide the responsive public services Wales deserves.

Key findings of the survey by Service Area

Social Services for Carers

Overall the majority of carers were satisfied with the services they received from social services Departments.

  • around 80% of carers found it fairly or very easy to contact their social services department;
  • over 80% felt that ‘staff had been helpful’ and that they ‘were treated with dignity and respect’.

Housing Advice Services

  • One of the most important aspects of housing advice provision is that service users feel happy with the way in which they are treated by members of staff.
  • A total of 78% of service users thought ‘staff were helpful’ and 84% of service users reported that they were ‘treated with dignity and respect’.
  • The majority of users (85%) were able to use the language of choice at point of last contact.

GP Surgeries

Around 90% of service users were positive about the service they received at first point of contact and the ease with which they could obtain information.

Service users were very positive about the accessibility of GP surgeries and the way in which members of staff engaged them. The latter was found to be heavily associated with a service user’s overall satisfaction:

  • 92% were positive about the ease with which they could get to and from surgeries;
  • around 90% thought ‘staff were helpful’ and that they were treated with ‘dignity and respect’; and
  • around 90% felt that they were involved in decisions.

Hospital Services

  • Around 94% of service users felt that they were ‘treated with dignity and respect’ and that ‘staff were helpful’ when they used hospitals. These are significant findings, as overall satisfaction was found to be most associated with the interaction between hospitals and service users.
  • A total of 87% felt involved in decisions about their treatment.
  • Overall, 87% of service users were either very or fairly satisfied with hospital services.

Bus services

  • A total of 80% were positive about their experience of bus services.
  • A total of 94% of service users found it easy to get to and from their local bus stop.
  • Over 80% felt bus service ‘staff were helpful’ and that they were ‘treated with dignity and respect’.
  • Overall, 80% of service users were fairly or very satisfies with their local bus service.
  • 85% of service users who wished to communicate with bus services in ‘Welsh’ or ‘bi-lingually’ were able to do so.

Early years education

  • Overall, 93% of parents were very or fairly satisfied with their child’s early years education.
  • A total 95% of parents found it easy to get to and from their child’s nursery school.
  • A total of 96% of parents found it easy to contact their child’s nursery school.
  • Around 98% of parents found ‘staff helpful’ and felt that they were ‘treated with dignity and respect’.

Local Authority Primary Education

  • Satisfaction was high for most aspects of primary school education, with 93% of parents reporting to be very or fairly satisfied overall.
  • A total of 95% of parents felt that they were treated with ‘dignity and respect’ and that the ‘staff were helpful’. These are important findings, given the interaction between parent and school was found to be most associated with overall satisfaction.
  • A total of 94% of parents were very satisfied with the ease with which they could get an appointment and 93% of parents found it easy to obtain information about schools.

Local Authority Secondary Education

  • Levels of satisfaction were high for most aspects of secondary school education, with 86% of parents reporting that they were fairly or very satisfied overall.
  • Over 90% of parents felt they were ‘treated with dignity and respect’ and that ‘staff were helpful’ when they last visited the school. Parents’ overall satisfaction with schools was most affected by their interaction with the school.
  • A total of 95% of parents found it fairy or very easy to contact their school.

Recycling Facilities

  • Overall, 86% of service users reported that they were very or fairly satisfied with recycling facilities.
  • The majority of citizens (75%) had used local authority recycling facilities or kerbside collection services (82%).
  • Overall, 82% of users reported that they had a local kerbside recycling collection service.
  • A total of 95% of service users find putting out kerbside collection easy.
  • Nearly 90% of service users find it easy to get to and from local recycling facilities.
  • Over 80% of service users felt that they are treated with dignity and respect when coming into contact with recycling facility staff.

Sport and Leisure Facilities

  • Over 80% of service users are satisfied with sport and leisure facilities overall.
  • A total of 94% of service users found it very or fairly easy to get to and from their sports and leisure facilities.
  • Over 80% of service users felt treated with dignity and respect when coming into contact with staff working at sport and leisure facilities.

Access

In terms of Access, citizens were least satisfied with their ability to get:

  • their children to and from schools.
  • to and from local authority recycling facilities.
  • to and from hospital.

Across all service areas, most citizens are using telephone and face-to-face contact to access and take-up services. Far fewer citizens are using electronic means.

The fewest citizens were satisfied with the ease with which they could obtain information about local bus services, early years education, housing advice services, and social services for carers than any other service area.

Personal Experience

Personal experience was explored by asking citizens whether they felt treated with dignity and respect when coming into contact with members of staff working within public services. Citizens were slightly less positive with their personal experience of:

  • housing advice providers; and
  • sports and leisure facilities.

Responsiveness

In relation to responsiveness, we asked citizens about their ability to use services at a convenient time. Citizens were less satisfied with the convenience of:

  • bus services;
  • social services for carers;
  • sport and leisure facilities; and
  • housing advice services.

In relation to the time citizens have to wait for services, citizens were least positive when asked about:

  • GP surgeries; and
  • hospital services.

Language Options

Citizens were asked about the language(s) they would prefer, or need, to communicate with Welsh local public services. The majority of citizens preferred to access services in English, around one quarter preferred English and Welsh (bi-lingual), and 2% preferred Welsh only.

Only bus services showed a marked increase in those wishing to communicate bi-lingually.

Primary schools, secondary schools, GP surgeries, and housing advice services demonstrated slight increases in the number of people wishing to communicate in ‘Welsh only’.

For the majority of service areas, citizens were able to use their language of choice when last contacting the service. Only for GP surgeries and hospitals were fewer citizens able to use Welsh when they last contacted the service.

Ability to complain

Across all service areas, more citizens wanted to make a complaint than actually proceeded to do so. When citizens did not proceed to make a complaint, that majority said that it was because they did not think it would do any good, they did not know where to go, and/or that they were afraid of recriminations.

Participation

Citizens were asked whether, provided with increased opportunities, they would participate in decisions relating to the running of public services. For:

  • local transport policy and primary schools around one in six said that they would participate more; and
  • secondary schools around one in four said that they would participate more.

Citizens’ awareness of opportunities to participate in decisions relating to the running of public services was the lowest for education services.

For all service areas and the different aspects of citizens’ experiences, a certain type of service user appeared more dissatisfied and not informed than the rest. Service users who did not feel informed about the performance of public services and did not feel that they belonged to their neighbourhood were consistently less satisfied.

Those who did not feel informed were more likely to be:

  • younger than 25;
  • not working;
  • lived in South East Wales.

Those who did not feel they belonged to their neighbourhood were more likely to be:

  • younger than 25;
  • women;
  • did not identify themselves as Welsh; and
  • lived in urban areas.
Related Information

http://new.wales.gov.uk/topics/improvingservices/peoplefirst/research/surveyresults06/?lang=en

http://new.wales.gov.uk/topics/improvingservices/?lang=en

http://new.wales.gov.uk/about/aboutresearch/social/ocsropage/living-wales/?lang=en

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