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There is something wonderfully evocative about the idea of the census – to be able to capture a sense of what the population really looks like is an enterprise of real public ambition. The UK's next census, in 2011, will throw up some fascinating insights to the social make-up of our population. But for local government and a whole raft of other public services, it also sets an important baseline on which all future funding and planning will be based. John O'Brien is chief executive of London Councils Put simply, the census matters. But for London in particular, the 2001 census did not go well. The capital had the lowest response rate in the country, as well as the 10 lowest responding areas. The Office for National Statistics had to attribute characteristics to those who did not return their forms. But this is no substitute for counting them properly in the first place. When you consider that some of our boroughs now estimate that ONS has undercounted their population by as much as 20,000 and that just one grant stream can be ‘worth' at least £600 a year per person, you really start to understand the amounts of funding that are at stake. So what didn't work? We would argue that ONS didn't put sufficient resources into the collecting of forms and resourcing community liaison teams. As old fashioned as it might seem in this digital age, you still need people knocking on doors, particularly for those considered to be in ‘hard to reach' groups. Also, perhaps we in the public sector did not make enough of a case to our local communities about the need to complete and return their census forms. There is a careful line to tread here, but making clear the link between completing those pesky forms and the services relied on by their family, friends and neighbours is something we should consider pursuing more vigorously this time around. A few months ago in The MJ, my colleague Hugh Grover set out some of London Councils' concerns around ONS' plans for the 2011 census. We have had some constructive and encouraging conversations with ONS since then, and at the time of writing, they have said that they plan to increase publicity and allocate extra resources to provide more form collectors to do follow-up calls. This increase in emphasis on counting those people in the hardest to count areas is an important development. We now need to see the detail of how this can be achieved. There is a further angle to consider. In the US version of the census, some success has been had by engaging citizen volunteers to play a part in boosting completion and return rates in specific communities. This is worthy of exploration and the GLA and London local government is looking at the potential of this for the capital. As I said at the start, the ambition behind a census is large and vital. The day to day reality of resourcing public services in the years to come – even more pressing in these tough financial times – will depend greatly on fulfilling that ambition well.

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WHITEHALL

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