Thank you for your letter dated November 11, 2024 regarding our health and wellbeing survey - writes a North Somerset Council spokesperson.

The feedback from this survey is invaluable in helping shape the future of our public health services in North Somerset.

Conducting a population health and wellbeing survey (household survey) will enable the council to better understand the needs, experiences, and feelings of residents regarding their health and wellbeing, and identify where barriers exist.

North Somerset Council will then use these insights to make data-informed decisions and to reduce inequalities.

I can also offer you reassurance that the money for this came from a ring-fenced central government budget specifically for this purpose, and so it doesn’t impact the council's work or its budget.

We chose to send paper copies of the letter inviting participation as we know some of our residents do not access online or are less confident to do so, and we felt this would give us a better take-up rate.

There have not been many requests for the full survey to be sent, although this is available.

It’s so important to get a good response for a survey, which hasn’t been done for ten years, so that we can understand the health needs and preferences of our residents.

It will provide us with key information to understand how we can reduce health inequalities in North Somerset.

The survey notification is published on our website – this shows how the data will be used etc.

https://n-somerset.gov.uk/council-democracy/privacy-cookies/privacy-notices-public-health/privacy-notice-health-wellbeing-survey