What's in this issue

• Census 2021 address check update
• Workshops to help you to prepare for Census 2021 - update
• How you can keep in touch, useful links, dates for your diary, and things to do now

Helping you to prepare for Census 2021

Here at ONS we’re working to deliver the 2021 Census as planned.  Like many of you, we’re working differently, and we continue to be guided by the evidence and latest advice from Government and medical experts.

With this in mind, we will not now be running a field address check this summer.  We will continue with an enhanced desk-based address check. The purpose of the field address check was primarily to identify addresses we should not include because they are not residential, as opposed to identifying missing residential addresses.

Analysis undertaken within ONS has demonstrated there is not a significant under count issue within the address frame because of the quality of the sources used in the frame’s creation, most notably information from local authorities. We are therefore confident this change will not reduce coverage. It will mean we need to put in place additional operational procedures to manage any address issues (such as the inclusion of duplicate addresses) during the census collection operation in spring 2021.

Workshops to help you to prepare for Census 2021

In our last newsletter we told you about a series of interactive workshops in the summer to support you to prepare for the census.  We are aware of the extraordinary demands the current situation is putting on local authorities. We have checked with some local authority colleagues who said these should still go ahead. We are now looking at how we can hold virtual events (using video or audio conferencing) instead of the face to face meetings we had planned.

To recap, at these sessions we’ll share the latest developments and explain how you can support the census.  We’ll still focus on small local groups to give you the opportunity to ask questions, and network and learn from nearby councils. Look out for an invitation in the coming weeks.

Things to do now

Appoint your Census Liaison Manager (CLM) and Assistant Census Liaison Manager (ACLM) 

We are delighted to announce that 83% of local authorities have already appointed an ACLM and 82% have appointed their CLM.  We'll route our communications through them, so it's important that you keep us up to date with their contact details. 

Get in touch if you'd like to know more.

Bookmark the Census 2021 website and follow us on social media 

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