In our February newsletters we shared key census dates with you, including those which impact addressing. Updated relevant dates are detailed below:
We take two extracts from AddressBase. The first is based on a reference date of June 2020. This is used for the majority of the 26 million residential addresses and for Communal Establishments (CEs). Most of the printing for census questionnaires is based on this data.
We recognise that there will be change in addressing after June so earlier this year we decided to take a second extract of data later in 2020. We had originally intended an extract date of November (as detailed in our February newsletter) but we now think there is a risk that this would give us too little time, so the second extract date will now be 16 October 2020.
Any household address (including houses in multiple occupancy) added to the LLPG before the 16 October 2020 will be included on the second print run.
CEs are fundamentally different to households as their questionnaires are not posted, but instead are delivered by a CE officer – any CE address (or room level address) will be added to the field forces’ workload if entered by 16 October 2020.
Any address (CE or household) added after 16 October 2020 will still be included in our plans. We intend to assess changes in AddressBase as well as changes in the administrative sources up to (and in some cases after) Census Day.
We have processes in place to be able to hand deliver access codes (to allow residents to complete their online census) even where addresses are not on the frame. Whilst we want to keep this to a minimum, inevitably new addresses will be added and we want to make sure that there is a way for everyone to complete their census questionnaire.
Did you miss our August virtual Addressing workshop? This is your last chance to attend this event.
Due to overwhelming demand we’re hosting a repeat event on 15 September 2020 from 14:00 to 16:00. The workshop content is the same as the August workshop so you won’t need to attend both.
Don’t miss this opportunity to get your local authority up to speed with all census addressing requirements by registering your place at our workshop today.
We’ll provide an overview of the preparation work that has taken place to develop an address frame which ONS will use to make initial contact with both households and communal establishments. This includes how we use AddressBase and the work undertaken to understand its application for census (including clerical address checking), the steps we take to supplement the frame for some types of communal establishment (such as student halls and care homes), and how we are ensuring that the frame is as up-to-date as possible ahead of March 2021. We’ll also give an overview of how addressing will work during live operations to ensure that all address types are accurately captured.
According to feedback from our August workshop, over 97% of attendees said the session helped them to understand how addressing works in the census. Do not miss your last opportunity to join the hundreds of local authorities in England and Wales who have already attended an addressing workshop by emailing 2021Census.LA.Liaison@ons.gov.uk to book your place.
Census 2021 is taking a digital first approach, and one of the ways we are supporting people to complete their questionnaire online is through our network of Census Support Centres (CSCs).
We are working with Good Things Foundation to provide an assisted digital service for Census 2021, through our Census Support Centres, in local communities. Good Things Foundation have completed the first phase of their recruitment of Census Support Centres, in what has been an incredibly challenging period for local government and the community sector.
We always anticipated there would need to be a second round of recruitment to fill any gaps in the local authority areas where we have agreed we will provide this service. The second phase of recruitment will start on 8 September 2020.
If your local authority is one of the areas where we have been unable to, or need to recruit more centres, we have written to you separately to let you know and to ask you to promote the opportunity in your area.
You can find out more at www.goodthingsfoundation.org/projects/census-support-service or you can contact 2021.Census.Assisted.Digital.HQ.Team@ons.gov.uk who can put you in touch with the team at Good Things Foundation.
We’re currently creating a series of tailored promotional comms toolkits to be distributed to every local authority in England and Wales in November.
The toolkits will include a range of census-related articles of varying length (approx. 150, 250 and 500 words), census key facts for each LA, social media posts for each LA to use, plus a census Q & A.
The content will highlight the importance of the census, why and how residents should take part, what’s new about the census in 2021 and the help available for those who need it.
We hope you’ll be able to use these on your website (at various points from January through to April), in magazines in the build up to census day, in newsletters, to distribute to your media contacts and on your social media platforms.
Information from the census is important in helping lots of other people and organisations do their work. We are also looking to include case studies on how LAs have used census data in the past (or plan to in the future). If you have any we could showcase, please email media.relations@ons.gov.uk or contact glenn.garrett@ons.gov.uk direct.
The Census Logo is available for you to use to promote census activities, for example promoting census jobs on your website or social media. You can find the Logo and guidelines on the Census 2021 website under resources for partners.
Getting school children involved in the census is a great way to get communities talking about Census 2021. We are asking local authorities to support and promote the programme to raise awareness in schools in their areas.
We will be holding a stakeholder meeting to present the education campaign. It will provide an overview of both the primary and secondary school programmes as well as outlining key features and important dates. The meeting will also offer an opportunity to ask questions about the campaign.
This information session will be hosted on 8 September 2020 at 2pm. Send an email to census.education@ons.gov.uk to reserve your space.
Read more about the programme below:
In September we'll be launching the primary and secondary schools education programmes each designed to teach students about the census. Schools will be able to sign up for the free educational programmes from 7 September 2020.
The primary school programme, Let’s Count!, has maths and statistics at its core and provides a range of interactive activities for pupils to learn about the relevance of statistics to a range of other subjects. Let’s Count! was piloted in the 2019 census rehearsal with 148 schools taking part. The programme was a great success, with 91% of teachers at participating schools saying that Let’s Count! made a positive educational impact at their school.
The secondary school programme has been co-created with teachers and students alike across England and Wales. The programme will excite and engage young people, empowering them to use their voices to encourage their families and community to complete the census. With activities linking to curriculum subjects such as citizenship, PSHE, maths and history, the lesson content will inspire whole-school participation and bring the census to life for young people. The programme will use real-world tasks to explore how data is used and influences decisions across society.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) are transforming the way we produce population, migration and social statistics to better meet the needs of our users and to produce the best statistics from all available data. Part of this transformation plan includes a series of research projects to replace the ‘number of rooms’ question on Census 2021 with administrative data from the Valuation Office Agency (VOA). This information is widely used to assess changes in overcrowding, tackle deprivation and develop housing policies.
This is the first time we are using administrative data linked to the census to produce a new type of statistical output. We needed to ensure that administrative data could be suitably integrated with Census 2021 data to ensure that the quality of the statistical output is not impacted by missing data. Data can be missing because of either a failure to link to VOA data or missing values in VOA data itself. The research has now been published and, based on the analysis, it is the view of ONS, that linked VOA number of rooms data are suitable to undergo edit and imputation for Census 2021.
Please visit the summary article, methodology article and VOA quality assurance links for further information.
We are keen to get feedback on this research and the methodology used, including how they might be improved and potential uses of the data. Please email your feedback to admin.based.characteristics@ons.gov.uk and include “Housing” in the subject line of your response.
We are currently preparing a number of virtual workshops to help you to get ready for census and to share our plans with you. These will be held over the coming months and you’ll learn about them in our newsletters.
These will include:
- Community engagement and working together to overcome local challenges
- The Census 2021 campaign including supporting products for local authorities, media and the Schools Education Campaign
- Census field staff recruitment and training
- Supporting the census field operation
Additionally we’ll be sharing a series of ‘focus on’ workshops to look at the different aspects of our census statistical design including:
- Data collection
- Questions and questionnaire design
- Monitoring and reacting to response challenges in live operations
- Data Cleaning, imputing and processing
- Quality assuring the census
- Coverage estimation and adjustment
- Statistical contingencies
- Outputs and dissemination
Look out for these opportunities and how to sign up to book your place in future newsletters.
- Issue One - September 2019 – featuring how we will work together and testing processes for the 2019 Rehearsal
- Issue Two - February 2020 – featuring the timeline of census activities and preparing for the 2020 workshops
- Issue Three - March 2020 – featuring the 9 strands of partnership working with local authorities and an update on addressing
- Issue Four - April 2020 – featuring regional workshops to prepare you for census
- Issue Five - May 2020 – recruitment update – census engagement managers and community advisers
- Issue Six - June 2020 – featuring an update on addressing, Council Tax, and census jobs
- Issue Seven - July 2020 – featuring addressing workshops, first census vacancies go live, how you can help with the quality assurance of census data, the Census Education Programme, promoting ONS studies, Census Order and Regulations and Council Tax
- Special Bulletin - July 2020 Census workshops Frequently Asked Questions
Recruitment: Census Jobs
Quality: ONS’s approach and processes for assuring the quality of 2021 Census data
Census 2021 Website: www.census.gov.uk
Census 2021 Questionnaire: paper questionnaires are now available to view online
Trout, Catfish and Roach - The beginner's guide to census population estimates
Census Order and Regulations for England and Wales:
Census (England and Wales) Order 2020.
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