Designing for Quality in Census 2021

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Designing for Quality in
Census 2021
Welcome
Please turn off your camera and mute your microphone
Questions?
Visit www.sli.do and enter code 10431 to ask your questions
Technology problems?
Email sdr.stakeholder.engagement@ons.gov.uk
#Census2021
Starting at 2:15pm

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Speakers
Jon Wroth Smith
Senior Statistician
Census Statistical Design
#Census2021 www.sli.do 10431

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Speakers
Jason Zawadzki
Deputy Director
Census Collection

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Aims for this session:
- Highlight how Census 2021 will inform public life and help ensure communities
are well served
- Demonstrate how we are designing for success for Census 2021
- Share our plans to make the census inclusive and maximise response
- Explain how we use statistical methods to deliver the best statistics
- Explore how we will maximise the data available at the lowest geographic levels
and make it as easy as possible for users to access the data they need

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Why are we running these webinars?
• To explain how the census works in collecting information
and producing great statistics
• To sign-post where more information is available
• To follow on from the material we published in October
• COVID response
• Statistical Design
• Findings from 2019 rehearsal

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Principles at the heart of our design for
Census 2021
• Inclusive and representative
• Secure, protecting data
• Transformational, leaving a legacy
• Respondent and user centred

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Census 2021 Quality Targets
High quality, flexible,
timely, accessible census
statistics for users
94% overall
response
At least 80% in
every local authority
75% Online
Response
Minimise variability
in response
Support
completion

8 #Census2021 www.sli.do 10431

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Tell me about
Census and
why it matters
Aim: Highlight how
Census 2021 will
inform public life
and help ensure
communities are
well served

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Using census data to serve communities
Link to a video about the Mental Health
Foundation about the power of census
data.
Link to our ‘Census Stories’ page on the
Census 2021 website

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Census 2021 publicity campaign
Build awareness &
understanding
of census
Provide motivation
to complete
Build awareness &
trust
in ONS

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Census 2021 questionnaire
• Comprehensive user consultation to prioritise question topics while minimising
burden
• What's new?
• Armed forces veterans
• Sexual orientation (voluntary for 16 and over)
• Gender identity (voluntary for 16 and over)
• What’s been removed?
• Year last worked
• Number of rooms (replaced by administrative data)
• Careful assessment of question guidance in light of COVID19 and plans to work
with users on Travel to Work analysis
Find out more about our question development work by selecting this
link to our question development webpages

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Give me the
opportunity to
complete in a way
that suits me
Aim: Demonstrate how
we are designing for
success for Census 2021

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An Address Based Design
Addresses are at the heart of the 2021 Census
Initial
Contact
Reminder
Letters
Field Visit
Return
Rates
Find out more in our Addressing for Census 2021 webinar

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Online first, not online only
• An online first census – harnessing digital technology to
complete anywhere and on any device
• Quicker to complete and process (search as you type)
• Support available by phone, online and in the community
• Paper questionnaires will be sent to the 10% of areas where
online completion is likely to be lowest
• Access to paper questionnaires for all:
• By phone, online, as a reminder letter or via field staff

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Enabling Everyone to Take Part
• Some groups will need additional support, engagement or
guidance
• Population groups have been identified (e.g. those who have hearing
difficulties) where we can adapt the design, for example through access to
translation services, communication campaigns and support services
• Communal Establishments (e.g. Student Halls, Care Homes)
• Hand delivery of individual contact letters to residents, directly engaging
with manager
• Earlier delivery than households where required, e.g. Universities which
break up for Easter leave

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Local and Community Engagement
• Census Engagement Manager (CEM)
• Engages with the local authority and community leaders to promote the
benefit of the census and gain their support for it.
• Develop a partnership working plan with the local authority that will
contain details of agreed activities and support.
• Community Adviser (CA)
• Employed to engage with specific communities that have been identified
as needing extra support and encouragement to understand the benefit of
the census and to encourage completion of the census questionnaire.

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Support our Partners
Take a look at the Census 2021 Website for a range of
resources such as:
• Local authority partnership guidance
• Community Groups guidance
• Councillors handbook
• Press Releases
• Census Articles
• Leaflets
• Posters

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Remind me (if I need
reminding) and help me
to complete
Aim: Share our plans to
make the census inclusive
and maximise response

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Wave of Contact – Census & Census Coverage
Survey

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Optimising Response
• Census collection is a short window so we need to be able to
respond react quickly to optimise response
• Approach automates the prioritisation of non-response follow-up
resources in real time based on:
• Expected patterns of response
• Management information to understand real-time response, including
characteristics
• Tools to optimise use of field follow up and additional reminder letters
Find out more in our Maximising Response in Census 2021 webinar

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Our People
Watch the video
or
read the transcript
#Census2021 www.sli.do
10431

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Assuring the safety of the public and our staff
during the main collection period
• Assessed each element of the operation
• Considered various scenarios
• Made changes accordingly
• Main census operation – field staff won’t cross the doorstep
• PPE and other precautions
• Remaining flexible and adapting as circumstances dictate

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Count my response
Aim: Explain how we use
statistical methods to
deliver the best statistics

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What we collect to what we publish
• Census statistics need to cover the whole population, not just
those who complete the questionnaire
• Our aim is to count everyone once, in the right place
• Since 2001, we have used a Census Coverage Survey (CCS)
and statistical methods to
• Estimate non-response and overcount
• Make statistical adjustments so that all census results represent our best
estimate of the whole population (not just those who were counted)

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Processing
• Coding
• Validation and cleaning
• remove ‘false persons’
• resolve ‘multiple responses’
• correct obvious errors (e.g. three year old married people)
• impute responses to mandatory questions
• validation built into the online questionnaire

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Coverage Estimation and Adjustment
• Census Coverage Survey
• Independent (Census address frame not used)
• 350k households in a sample of postcodes
• Face-to-face interviews six weeks after Census Day
• Subset of Census questions asked
• CCS records linked to Census and statistical methods used to
produce complete population statistics
Find out more by looking at this beginner’s guide to census population estimates
or sign up for our webinar about estimation and adjustment in Census 2021

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The response challenge
• Plans are based on optimising response and being able to react
to the inevitable challenges we will face
• In light of international experience and the current pandemic we
are looking at:
• The flexibility of our Census Coverage Survey approach
• How we can make increased use of administrative data to help identify
and deal with issues faced.

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Quality assuring Census 2021 results
Three strands of quality assurance planned to ensure census
results are high quality and give users confidence that they are fit
for purpose
1. Quality assurance of processes
2. Validation of estimates
• Comparisons with alternative sources,
• Demographic analysis – sex ratios, fertility rates etc.
• Topic analysis
3. Publishing information on quality
Find out more in our Quality Assuring the Census 2021 results webinar

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Make it count
Aim: Explore how we will
maximise the data available
at the lowest geographic
levels and make it as easy as
possible for users to access
the data they need

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A new flexible, timely and accessible approach
to Census 2021 outputs
• Flexibility – the system allows users to build their own tables selecting the
geography, population base and variables they require
• Timeliness – we are aiming to disseminate first results for England and
Wales within 12 months of Census Day and all other main data within 24
months of Census Day
• Accessibility – we will aim to host the system on the ONS website, meaning
most census data will be available from one location
To find out more and give your views, our Geography consultation is live now and there will be a
further Outputs consultation next year.

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Product Overview
Find out more about our innovations for Census 2021 in our Census 2021 Outputs webinar

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Quality in Census 2021
• Inclusive and complete
• Accessible
• Safe and Secure
• Respondent and User
focussed
• Flexible and adaptable
• Real-time Management
Information

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Designing for Quality in
Census 2021
Any questions?
Visit www.sli.do and enter code 10431
Please complete our evaluation survey (we’ve emailed you a link) and let us know how we did.
Want to learn more about the Census 2021 Statistical Design? Visit our website to find out
more about our ‘In Focus’ webinars.
#Census2021

Designing for Quality in Census 2021

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