Community monitoring tool

In order to understand how the community was feeling during lockdown and what challenges were being faced, a community monitoring tool was set up. Over 5,500 people registered (8.5% of the population of the Bailiwick) and it has been used to make over 1,500 requests for information or support.

The Tool was launched on 27th March 2020; two days after strict measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus were put into action across the Bailiwick of Guernsey. It was intended to give Islanders another way to request support or information during lockdown and to give the States of Guernsey the ability to collect data in the form of a longitudinal study, which could be used to inform coronavirus related services and strategies. Participation was voluntary but encouraged at the media briefings and through media releases.  

Participants were asked to complete a form which covered a number of topics, including the participant’s age, economic status and whether they were shielding, self-isolating or social distancing. It gave participants the opportunity to ask for information or support. The topics that respondents identified that they wanted more support or information on (noting that respondents could select multiple topics) were as follows: 

The requests were responded to:

• Via the issuing of information by email to groups of participants seeking the same information
• Via updates to the website or media releases and briefings to make the information available to the whole population
• Via calls or emails from helpline staff to individuals requesting specific information or support via the free text fields

Analysis showed that there was little difference in the portion of respondents seeking more support based on whether they were social distancing, shielding or self-isolating; 8%, 10% and 12% respectively. However, there were differences across other categorisations. 10% of those aged under 65 requested information or support, compared with 3% of those aged 65 and over.

Also, a higher proportion of self-employed respondents requested more support or information than employed people; 30% compared with 8% respectively at the point of registration. 5% of the unemployed respondents requested support or information. 4% of the non-employed and those in education requested support or information.

The overall volume of requests has been decreasing since launch. However, throughout, the self-employed have been the group that has needed proportionally more information and support.

Further details and a summary of the topics of requests are provided in the first report of findings.

Anyone that registered before 13th April 2020 and consented were prompted to respond to the broad question, “how are you feeling today?” via an online form for 14 consecutive days. The last of those prompts was sent on the 26th April, two days after the Bailiwick had moved into phase two of exit from lockdown.  

Community wellbeing appeared stable overall. Participants were given the opportunity to ask for information or support via these forms too.

Further details and a summary of the topics of requests are provided in the first report of findings.

From 17th April until the 17th June, a weekly form asking people to report coronavirus-like symptoms was issued to participants (following on after the daily forms were stopped). This was intended to help monitor levels of symptoms within the community to inform decision making. Each week, participants were asked (on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday) to check if they had recently developed any of the following symptoms:

• New and severe fatigue
• New muscle ache for no obvious reason
• Headache (sinus pain, pain around eyes)
• Loss of smell/taste
• Sore throat
• Fever (high temperature, rigors, chills, can’t get warm)
• Shortness of breath, chest tightness
• Continuous new cough

The percentage of respondents reporting no coronavirus-like symptoms steadily increased from 89% on 17th April to 98% on 17th June (as shown below).

Further details are provided in the third report of findings.

Lockdown had a very significant impact on many of the employed and self-employed members of the community. In addition to administrative data (on unemployment and financial support provided to businesses and households for example), data was collected via the Community Monitoring Tool regarding how fully employed and self-employed community members were able to work during strict lockdown and then again during the exit from lockdown. A summary of the results are as follows (but the full analysis can be found in the 4th report of findings).

• 92% of employed respondents said they were able to work fully during the third week of phase five of the exit from lockdown (compared with 60% of the same participants at the point of registration and 75% of the same participants during the last week of phase three of the exit from lockdown).

• During the third week of phase five of the exit from lockdown, 92% of employed respondents were receiving the same (or a higher) rate of pay than normal, 6% were receiving a lower rate than normal and 1% were receiving no pay.

• 11% of the employed respondents that said they were able to work fully were working in a different location to normal i.e. before lockdown and a further 8% were working part of the time in a different location and part of the time in their normal location.

• 78% of self-employed respondents said they were able to work fully during the third week of phase five of the exit from lockdown (compared with 27% of the same participants at the point of registration and 45% of the same participants during the last week of phase three of the exit from lockdown).

• During the third week of phase five of the exit from lockdown, 57% of self-employed respondents were drawing the same (or a higher) rate of pay than normal, 31% were drawing a lower rate than normal and 12% were drawing no pay.

The same group of people were asked for an update of this information during the last week of phase three of the exit from lockdown and the responses are shown below:

75% of employed respondents said they were able to work fully during the last week of phase three of the exit from lockdown (compared with 58% of the same participants at the point of registration, during strict lockdown).

38% of self-employed participants said they were able to work fully during the last week of phase three of the exit from lockdown (compared with 23% of the same participants at the point of registration, during strict lockdown).

Participants also provided information on their rates of pay, working locations and barriers to working or to working fully, a summary of which is included in the second report of findings.

More information is available in the reports, which can be found in the downloads section of this page.