We know from existing research that many local authorities planning and placemaking teams are under-resourced. Our survey seeks to build an understanding of the skills gap and the impact that a lack of resources has on officers and their teams across England.
Our Resourcing & Skills survey is specifically designed to be a short, easy-to-complete online questionnaire to learn more about the placemaking resourcing and skills challenges being faced by local government placemaking officers across England.
Public Practice first ran this online survey from 4 February - 4 March 2022, supported by Homes England and Nightingale Design Research.
Following this a further survey was launched a year later, running from 6 February - 6 March 2023, supported by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
This survey is for anyone working in or managing a planning or placemaking team in a local or combined authority, or a public sector body in England. They might be working as an officer in regeneration, community engagement, conservation, urban design, planning policy, development management, infrastructure, highways and transport, sustainability, landscape and property development.
The survey has been designed to be completed within approximately 5 minutes and not to require any officer to source information nor verify their email or employment status.
The survey questions have been designed to capture a real-time picture of the experience of placemaking officers working within local government, as well as the hiring plans and resourcing challenges. You can download a PDF summary of the survey questions and who is asked what questions here.
At the end of the survey, officers are asked to share their email addresses only if they wish to receive further communications from Public Practice. This section is entirely optional, and all the data analysis and reporting ensures respondents are not easily identifiable.
The first round of the survey took place in February 2022 with the results shared below. The second round of the survey ran in February 2023 with the results published in October 2023.
If resources allow, we plan to run the survey every year at the same time to help us capture and share the 'state of the nation' resourcing experiences of local placemaking and planning teams across England, and beyond.