Agenda and minutes

None.

Agreed as an accurate record.

To confirm the items of business marked Part I will be considered in public and that the items marked Part II will be considered in private.

It was agreed that all items of business were considered in public.

Members were provided with a report which provided details of progress made on the review so far, together with details of information which had been requested at the last meeting.

Nick O’Donnell, Head of Stakeholder Management and Amanda King, Area Manager for Office for National Statistics (ONS) attended the meeting and provided the review with an update on progress so far in relation to the preparation of the Census.

Members were informed that for across Hillingdon, the Census field operation consisted of an Area Manager, 15 Coordinators and 1 shared Community Advisor. In addition, there would be approximately 140 collectors and special enumerators,. Exact numbers would be decided and communicated in early November. The Community Advisor, Mohamud Abdi introduced himself to Members and explained that he was a representative of the Somali community and would be working across Hillingdon, Hounslow and Ealing.

A number of issues were raised and these included:

• Members were reminded that this Council’s Communications Strategy for the Census was drafted. However ONS had yet to release details of the national publicity / communications strategy as this has been delayed pending Government restrictions on marketing spend. ONS hopes to share its plans with local authorities in late November. Members expressed some concern at this as this authority had to co-ordinate its communications and publicity with that of ONS
• Members were assured that there would be a national advertising campaign in February and this would involve TV and radio commercials to raise awareness of the 2011 Census and highlight to the public the importance of filling in the Census questionnaire. In addition technology such as Facebook, Twitter etc would be used to engage with younger people 
• The Council’s Communication’s Team, pending finalisation of the national communication’s strategy, planned to utilise all existing communications channels to help encourage returns of the Census questionnaire including the Council magazine, Hillingdon People, the Council’s website, social media, news media and resident engagement
• The emphasis of engagement should not just be to focus on minority ethnic groups, but should be to focus on all of the general public. This was because there was evidence to suggest that there were particular groups of the general public as a whole who needed to be aware of the importance of participation in the Census
• The Census Local Partnership Group would focus on the general public as a whole where maximum engagement would take place
• The Community Advisor would be working with all religious and community groups for the Somali population at community events across the Borough. Reference was made to a community event which would be taking place with the West London Somaliland community in Hayes on 15 October 2010
• Regarding the use of data obtained from the Council, the public would be assured that the data would not be of a personal nature or at individual level, but would be at an aggregate level to enable data quality assurance. This would be publicised to ensure the public were assured of confidentiality.
• Reference was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 26.

The report was noted.

The report was noted.