Consultations In Essex

Essex County Council is looking at how best to support residents with cost of living concerns. We launched a survey aimed at understanding what practical things we could do to help over the coming months, and to test out some ideas with residents.

The survey received a total of 883 responses.

Respondents suggested that more practical/immediate types of help and support were most important. This includes items to help stay warm this winter, home energy saving packs, and emergency food packages.

Of the types of support that respondents said they would use, the top responses were a home energy saving pack, items to help stay warm, and tried and tested top tips for making your money go further.

Suggestions for help and support from residents included help to make homes more energy efficient, reduced council tax/council tax breaks, and community initiatives (such as via libraries, cafes and churches to offer meals, food banks, activities, warm spaces, and welfare check schemes).

The full survey report can be downloaded here.

Essex County Council has now launched a £50m package of support, which is outlined in the Cost of Living Support for Households and Communities Plan. More information about the plan is available here.

The insights from this survey will continue to inform help and support for residents in Essex.

Essex County Council recognises the importance of supporting unpaid carers in Essex and our aim is that “We will help those carers of all ages whose caring duties are impacting most on their wellbeing by achieving a step change in the advice, guidance and support we provide to support wellbeing and independence, and by targeting it at those who need it most” [Everyone’s Essex, 2021-25].

To ensure ECC can meet this objective, research and engagement has been carried out with carers in Essex and those who support them, to understand their lived experiences and gather their views. Six commitments to carers were then co-produced, and ECC ran a consultation to seek views and feedback on these.

The consultation ran from 14th February to 13th March 2022, and was promoted via the ECC website, social media, and direct with a number of carers organisations and community groups. A number of events were also held virtually and in-person which provided opportunity to promote the consultation.

The consultation received a total of 90 responses. This included 2 paper copies and 5 Easy Read responses.

Level of agreement with each of the commitments was high:

1) Carers can easily access information and support when they need it and early into their caring role

At least 93% agreed or strongly agreed with the aims under this commitment.

2) Develop professional practice and processes to improve identification of and support to carers

At least 93% agreed or strongly agreed with the aims under this commitment.

3) Improve transitions for carers as they move through specific phases or events in their caring role

At least 91% agreed or strongly agreed with the aims under this commitment.

4) Carers will have increased opportunity to access good quality support, including short breaks

At least 89% agreed or strongly agreed with the aims under this commitment.

5) Carers’ needs and rights will be understood and recognised across Essex communities

At least 89% agreed or strongly agreed with the aims under this commitment.

6) Carers will be the experts that influence and be involved in the decisions that are intended to improve support & wellbeing

At least 91% agreed or strongly agreed with the aims under this commitment.

Free text comments indicate that while there is strong support for the proposed aims, carers would like more detail as to how they will be achieved and would like to see tangible action taken. Many commented that support is difficult to find and access, with some currently experiencing a lack of support, and there appears to be some level of scepticism around how positive changes will be made.

All feedback and comments received through the consultation process have been reviewed and analysed, and will be used to inform the final Essex Carers All-Age Strategy 2022-26, due to be launched in April 2022.

For more detail, please download a copy of the consultation report.

Essex County Council carried out a consultation from November 2021-January 2022, seeking views from Essex residents, library service users and organisations about the new draft plan for the future of library services.

The plan set out high-level aims for the service and areas of focus for the next four years:

• Library Service and Literacy
• Infrastructure and Communications
• Supporting communities and Levelling Up

People were asked to indicate their level of agreement or disagreement with the sub-areas of each aim. They were also given the opportunity to provide comments on each of the three high-level aims.

2,213 responses were received to the consultation - 2,185 from individuals and 28 responses from organisations. The analysis showed good support for the proposals in the Plan, with many showing strong agreement.

Agreement with aim one: Library Service and Literacy

• There was at least 90% agreement from individual respondents with the aims to support children to be school-ready and develop their reading skills, keep stock and resources up to date, help adults improve their literacy, ensure staff have the right skills, and provide books and resources in formats that meet changing need.
• Support to deliver a new and exciting programme of events and activities and to get more residents involved in shaping the service is also high at over 80%
• The aims to explore new opportunities to generate additional income, and new roles and opportunities for volunteers received around 70% agreement

Agreement with aim two: Communications and Infrastructure

• Developing the mobile library offer to support service outreach and community engagement and improving communications to help engage with existing users and new audiences were the best supported aims by individual respondents with at least 83% agreement.
• Improvements to buildings, including reducing our carbon footprint, and improving engagement with the staff gained 75% agreement and had strong support.
• Aims with agreement of 60% and above were: Roll out better mobile technology for staff and volunteers; Update printing services on offer to customers; Launch a new online library platform.

Agreement with aim three: Supporting Communities and Levelling Up

• At least 85% of individual respondents agreed with the aims to help reduce digital exclusion and improve digital skills, connect residents with other services, expand outreach services, and provide employability support. 80% agreed with supporting residents with their health and wellbeing.
• The proposal to explore options for providing chargeable activities alongside the existing free activities had 50% agreement. A significant proportion (31%) neither agreed nor disagreed with this aim

All feedback and comments received in response to the consultation have been reviewed and analysed by an independent organisation, and are now being used to inform an updated plan for library services.

• The insight and analysis from the consultation tell us where individuals feel most passionately about the ambitions and proposals. This has helped us to prioritise the ambitions for the library service. We propose some changes to emphasise and clarify what the public have told us is important to them. 
• The public have reiterated how important hard copy book stock is for them – an ambition we have always supported. We will make it clearer in the Plan that our ambition to keep our stock up to date and appealing includes hard copy as much as electronic resources.
• Outreach, communications and involvement of our communities in shaping the service will be given more prominence in our plan and we will specifically look at how we can localise communications and adverts of library events.
• Our skilled paid workforce are as important to the public as they are to us and we will reflect this more clearly. Volunteers support the work of the service allowing us to do more, as they work alongside our paid for staff. The Plan will emphasise the important link between the two.
• We will give more context as to why charging is required for some new activities and assurance how they could run alongside and complement free activities. Hosting these activities could enable us to provide an enhanced offer, service or experience to appeal to our existing customers, new users and to raise awareness of libraries as a potential partner and venue for other organisations. We are keen to drive up use of library buildings and increase footfall, which we hope will encourage greater use of library facilities.

The final plan is expected to be published in April 2022.

For more information and a full breakdown of consultation responses, please view reports below.

Full report

Summary report

Scrutiny Committee meeting papers related to this consultation are available here.

UPDATE 20th April 2022 

The final version of the new plan for libraries has now been launched and is available below:

https://libraries.essex.gov.uk/everyoneslibrary/