The annual Local Government Community Satisfaction Survey for 2021 will commence this month in the Southern Grampians Shire.
Independent market research agency National Field Services will contact households and residents over 18 years of age at random over a three week period, in order to collect community feedback on Council performance.
The survey has been designed to assess the performance of Victorian Councils across a range of fields including identifying areas that require improvement and looking at ways services may be delivered more effectively to residents.
Southern Grampians Shire Council Chief Executive Officer Michael Tudball said the survey provides significant insight into how Council measures against other municipalities.
“The survey is a useful tool to assess Council performance, not only to reflect on how we can improve for our local community, but also providing us an avenue to benchmark ourselves against other Councils.
“The 2020 survey results showed that Council is heading in the right direction after reversing the declining trend that became apparent from 2013-2017,” Mr Tudball said.
Council’s 2020 survey results showed high performance in Consultation and Engagement, scoring 59, two points up from 57 in 2019 and exceeding the current state average of 55. Council’s overall performance also continued to improve from 53 in 2019 to 56 in 2020, overtaking the Large Rural average of 55.
“Over the last two years, Council has focused on improving its approach to community consultation and have implemented a number of new measures to communicate more effectively.
“However, a number of these measures were impacted by the COVID-lockdowns. We had to significantly change the way we delivered our services throughout the pandemic so the results this year will be interesting to see,” said Mr Tudball.
Researchers will begin conducting the 2021 survey this week and is expected to continue through March. Survey details and individual responses are confidential with only the overall results made available to Council.
