Better connected 2012

Introduction

Ten days after the launch of Better connected 2012 seems a good moment to take stock of the queries and comments made by subscribers.

A reminder first of two improvements in the launch of the report that we planned when we reviewed last year's report:

The production of a separate two page briefing for top management teams

Please make sure that you use this to communicate to senior decision-makers, if you have not already done so. We shall be preparing as usual a more extensive 16 page briefing by 31 March. If there are any points you are keen for us to get across to chief executives and others and would like us to cover in the briefing, please e-mail martin.greenwood@socitm.net by 19 March.

'Your council spreadsheets'

We provide here for each subscribing local authority an individual spreadsheet that shows the answers to each question in the main survey, alongside the questions and the guidance notes that each reviewer had available during the survey. This should make it much easier to understand the results. Note: this spreadsheet does not contain any post-review analysis, eg the star ranking, nor an explicit indication as to whether the task was successful (which are in the main survey results), but contains purely the results as they were completed by the reviewer at the time of the survey.

We have received and responded to a number of comments and queries which are summarised below.

1. Corrections to full report (Wed 14 March)

None of these errors affected the official results for any council.

Ref	Section (page)	Correction	Council affected
1.1	1.1 (p32)	Incorrect screenshot	Teignbridge BC
1.2	1.2 (p13)	Councils omitted from list of sites, missing 4 star ranking by one criterion, although correctly shown in 1.5 (by type of council)	Caerphilly CBC, Conwy CBC, Dorset CC, Wrexham CBC
1.3	3.2 (p109)	One line of standard criteria omitted	None

2. Corrections to supporting spreadsheets

None of these errors affected the official results for any council.

	Spreadsheet	Error	Council(s) affected	Corrected
2.1	RNIB assessments	Results 2012 worksheet not aligned with another worksheet.	Many	1 March
2.2	Hitwise	One population figure incorrectly transposed.	Castle Point BC	5 March
2.3	Main survey (Task 8)	Standard achieved not aligned with published results (Appx 1).	29	14 March
2.4	Main survey (Navigation)	Standard achieved not aligned with published results (Appx 1).	87	14 March
2.5	Main survey (Results)	Incorrect review date	5	14 March
2.6	Your council spreadsheet	Review date incorrectly presented (Correct in main results spreadsheet)	Small number	Not feasible to correct

3. Review of assessments

	Council	Question re-assessed	Impact
3.1	West Berkshire	Q9 Can I apply online for a vacancy? Yes in some circumstances	Task 1 passed, Now three star site
3.2	Sandwell MBC	Search (8 out of 10) but rated poor (Q205); re-reviewed as satisfactory	Search test passed, Now two star site
3.3	East Lothian	Navigation rated satisfactory (Q206); reviewed as very good (see comments in Q207)	Navigation test passed, Now three star site
3.4	The City of Edinburgh, Kettering BC, South Lanarkshire, Wandsworth, Waverley BC	Q203 Do entries in the A to Z list link directly to service description pages? Incorrectly answered as Yes in a few cases. Corrected to No	No impact, except one case (Kettering BC) which no longer passed use of A to Z
3.5	Cannock Chase DC	Q22 Am I informed that I can comment on an application if it is still open for consultation? Reviewer error	Task 2 passed, Now two star site

The revised assessments have been updated in supporting spreadsheets and will be updated in a new version of full report (Wed 14 March), which will also be the printed version available from 26 March.