Viewpoint, the Citizens' Panel explained
To find out more about the Citizens' Panel, click on any of the questions below.
What is the Viewpoint Panel?
Viewpoint is an initiative that has been running since August 2001. It is a research panel made up of 1,000 North East Derbyshire residents and is run in partnership with Derbyshire County Council, Local Health Authorities, Derbyshire Police and the Fire Brigade. Viewpoint is used as a method of consultation and lets residents make their opinions known directly to the people who make decisions about how the Council is run. It also gives panel members the opportunity to give their views on the services run by the other bodies in the partnership.
Who is on the Citizens' Panel?
The Panel includes people from all backgrounds and all parts of the North East Derbyshire District Council area. It is designed to be broadly representative of the District as a whole. The Panel aims to reflect the diversity of the area in terms of ward, gender, age, ethnicity, disability and where possible working status and housing tenure.
To find out how you can become a member of the Panel in the future please visit our page on how to get involved.
How are the Panel members chosen?
To recruit the panel a random sample of 6000 residents were invited to take part and have a say about various topics and local decisions that affect them. The residents who volunteer are then carefully selected from all sections of the community to make sure they broadly represent the population of North East Derbyshire District Council area.
For example, according to the 2001 census, 4% of the residents of the District live in Grassmoor, therefore we aim to have 4% of our panel living in this area.
Members are invited to stay on the panel for a maximum of three years before being replaced with new members.
Why do we have a Citizens' Panel?
As a Council, North East Derbyshire aims to consult with our residents on a variety of topics, to make sure the public has their say on services in the area. The Citizens' Panel helps the Council to see what is important to the residents of North East Derbyshire and how it can go about making the area a better place to live. The information we collect is invaluable for improving our services for all North East Derbyshire citizens.
The Panel also provides the Council with a flexible and cost-effective way of consulting with a large number of residents regularly.
What do Panel members do?
Members of the panel are asked to complete up to four postal questionnaires a year. The questionnaires will often contain several sections covering a range of different service issues. Each questionnaire takes approximately 20 minutes to complete. We also occasionally invite Panel members to take part in group discussions or workshops on particular issues.
What happens to the results?
All information that Panel members give us as a Viewpoint member is kept in the strictest confidence. The answers that are given to questionnaires are added together with all the other answers we receive and analysed. The results are then sent to the relevant Council services so that they can make improvements and changes.
We give members regular feedback on what actions have been taken as a result in a members’ newsletter that is sent out with each questionnaire. Articles announcing the results will also appear in the Councils magazine, the News, in a regular section called "Points of View".
How can I get involved?
Periodically we "refresh" the Panel to ensure that it remains broadly representative of the District's population. If you are interested in becoming a member of the Viewpoint Panel please contact visit our How To Get Involved page.
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