COVID-19 in Kingston: share your experiences

Kingston Council undertook a survey of residents from 3 August until 20 September to get a clearer picture of how the last few months have affected residents, what support is needed and general feelings about the future in Kingston. Almost 900 residents from across the borough responded and the insight will be used to help the council and its partners to direct support where it is needed most and enable the borough to recover and thrive.

Thank you to all who participated in the recent COVID-19 Experience Survey.

Residents' feedback has now been collated following a survey looking at the impact of the pandemic on local people.

The results have now been published and can be found here.

Questions ranged from the health and wellbeing, to the economic and social impact of COVID-19. Key findings from the survey, showed that:

• Over 27% of Kingston residents report that they have been negatively affected by the pandemic.
• Nearly 55% of survey respondents said they supported their community and neighbours during COVID-19. Of those nearly 65% say they will continue to do so.
• Nearly twice as many respondents are feeling negative about the future compared to those who are feeling positive.
• Nearly three-quarters of residents are concerned about using public transport, getting ill from COVID-19 or accessing healthcare.
• 40% of residents who are employed either full and part time intend to continue working from home in the long term.

The findings for the survey will be shared across council teams to inform planning and take on learnings for service improvement. We will also share with our partners and community groups to ensure that we are collectively using this valuable insight to support our residents and communities to make Kingston better together.

Conversations with our residents and stakeholders will continue and over the next few weeks the council will run a number of focus groups with residents to delve deeper into these findings. The topics of the focus groups are:

• Health and Wellbeing - 12 Oct @5:45-7pm - How have you been feeling since COVID-19? Have you been keeping physically and mentally fit? How have you kept connected?
• Local Environment- 13 Oct @6p-7:15pm - tell us how you have experienced your local environment over the last few months. Have our green spaces been important to you? How have you got around our borough?
• Local Town Centres - 20 Oct @6-7:20pm - did you change how and where you shop over the last few months? What are the barriers to using your local town centres?
• Kingston’s Communities - 19 Oct @5:45-7pm - tell us about your community over the last few months. What do we want our community to be and how together can we make this happen?
• Employment and Skills - 21 Oct @6-7:20pm - What is your experience of employment skills and advice in Kingston?
• Young People’s Experience of COVID-19 (for residents aged 18 and under) - 27 Oct @5:30-7:05pm

The focus groups are open to all residents, however, each session will be limited to 15 participants. If you would like to take part in one of these focus groups, please sign up using the form below and indicate your top choices of focus group. Please note - if you are signing up on the day of the focus group, please email communications@kingston.gov.uk to confirm you place.

If you require any of these documents or forms in a more accessible format, please contact communications@kingston.gov.uk or call 020 8547 5000.