User councils – a model for organised interaction with users

Keywords

Principle 5, user council, governance, user needs

Interaction with users of geospatial statistics is key to understand current and emerging user needs and therefore recommended by the GSGF Europe. This use case describes user councils as a method for systematic interaction with users deployed by Statistics Sweden.

The purpose of the user councils is to maintain a system of organised user interaction to continually provide Statistics Sweden with input about the new and changing needs for statistics and to obtain the views of key users regarding changes in the statistics. User councils form a network of information, whereby Statistics Sweden can spread and get feedback on ideas and plans. They have an active role in prioritising and follow-up as well as an advisory capacity. The user council members also receive comprehensive information regarding Statistics Sweden, such as the annual report, business plan, budget, etc.

Statistics Sweden currently has nine user councils. User councils are established by a decision of the Director General, who also decides on the instructions, chairpersons and other members of the council. The user councils have an external chairman and consist of approximately ten members.

The user councils have an advisory role and shall represent the users of the government-funded statistics that Statistics Sweden is responsible for within each subject matter area. This refers to both the general needs for statistical information and the more specific needs of different users.

The user councils have 2–4 meetings each per year. The discussions are documented and an annual activity report is submitted. The activity reports provide the basis for the reporting of user councils’ activities in Statistics Sweden’s annual report.

There are no user councils specifically addressing geospatial statistics but issues related to small area statistics or geospatial data are mainly handled by the User Council for Regional Statistics and the User Council for Land Use and Building and Dwelling statistics.

More about Statistics Sweden’s user councils (currently only in Swedish): https://www.scb.se/om-scb/scbs-verksamhet/rad-och-namnder/anvandarrad/