Let’s Talk Survey Launch

Let’s Talk About Life in the Vale is a county-wide survey of residents that gives people living in the Vale of Glamorgan the chance to share their experiences of public services, their priorities for the future, and help us better understand how to get more people involved in local decision making.  

We want to hear from as many people as possible, and given that many of you are residents of the Vale, that includes you. 

You may recall we ran this survey in 2023 and captured the views of over 4,000 residents, making this the largest survey exercise the Council has ever undertaken. The results of that survey have been widely shared and formed the basis on which our latest Corporate Plan, Vale 2030, was built.   

The survey is live now at participate.valeofglamorgan.gov.uk/lets-talk  

This survey is different to other Vale-wide surveys that the Council has run in the past. We are not asking simply how satisfied people are with Council services. Instead, we are trying to understand what life is like for people living in the Vale and how public services affect this.  

We are running this exercise because people’s experience of living in the Vale is very important to us. The Council, like many other public sector organisations, is changing how it works very rapidly.  

With budgets continuing to be squeezed and the funding available to deliver our services likely to continue to fall we need to think very differently about how we work. For us to make the best decisions about the future we need to have the best understanding possible of what life is like for people in the Vale and what really matters to them. 

This exercise is part of a wider programme of work to improve how the Council takes the views of people who live and work in the Vale into account when taking decisions. We have set ourselves four objectives as part of our Public Participation Strategy and this survey is one way in which we are delivering on these.  

We are trying to survey as many people as possible to hear what they think and as well as responding directly staff are asked to share information about the survey with their friends and family.  

Everyone, staff included, who takes part in the survey will also have the chance to win one of ten £50 Love2Shop vouchers. The vouchers can be spent in a wide variety of high street shops and restaurants. 

The responses to the survey are being collected and analysed for the Council independently by Data Cymru. Researchers at Data Cymru will be undertaking an independent analysis of the results and presenting this to the Council.

Once the results have been analysed these will be shared internally and reported publicly.