4 August 2020

Please note: this news article is in our archive. Articles were correct at time of publication, but should not be relied on for accuracy after the passage of time.

Thank you to the 17,455 residents who took part in our coronavirus survey back in May. We asked you to provide feedback on how the coronavirus was affecting you so we could better understand the situation in West Sussex. Below is a snapshot from the results:

Community connection:  48% of our survey respondents said the coronavirus pandemic had a positive impact on how connected they felt to their local community. A further 28% of respondents reported no impact, whilst around 23% reported a negative impact.

Your financial situation: 33% (around a third of all those participating in our survey) said their financial situation had been negatively impacted by the pandemic.  Just over a third (36%) of our respondents reported a negative impact on their job.

Mental health: Almost half the people in our survey (49%) said they experienced a negative impact on their mental health, and 30% said they were concerned about the impact of coronavirus on their mental health in the future, and 6% said they needed help or support with their mental health but were not getting it. However, 15% were not at all concerned about their mental health and 12% of respondents reported that the pandemic had resulted in a positive impact.

Access to healthcare/medicine/dental care: More than half of respondents (57%) reported a negative impact on access to healthcare, medicine or dental care and 53% reported being concerned about the impact of the pandemic on their access to these services in the future. However, 31% said they experienced no impact, and 5% of respondents reported on a positive impact on their access to healthcare, medicine or dental care.

Education: Just under a third of our respondents (31%) reported a negative impact on their child’s/children’s education or schooling and 32% reported being concerned about the impact of coronavirus on education in the future.  21% reported no impact on their child’s education/schooling, but around 4% reported a positive impact.  34% commented they did not know or said this question did not apply to them.

Lockdown activities: Overall, gardening was the most often reported ‘lockdown activity’ reported by our respondents (65%), followed by spending time on social media and reading books (both 52%), although there were variations by age. For example, whilst all groups reported spending time on social media within their top three activities, gardening was the top activity for those aged 45 and over (64-73% across those age groups), helping their children to learn at home was the most often reported activity for 35-44 year olds (69%), baking/cooking tops for 25-34 year olds (69%) and watching tv/streaming and time on social media came a close second (70% and 68% respectively) for those aged 16-24.

More of our residents are using online video meeting software:  72% of you told us you had started using online video meeting software, or had increased your use of it since the pandemic began.

Please visit our survey results page to see the full results and the actions we are taking.

Finally, a reminder that last week we launched our new campaign to Keep West Sussex Safe which has information online about what we can all do to reduce the spread of the virus. Our pages are being updated frequently so please take a look. 

Thank you for your continued support.