The inhabitants’ opinions about their municipality’s services surveyed 2006

The inhabitants of Ingå have been diligent in answering the survey

The municipality of Ingå has commissioned Taloustutkimus Oy to carry out a survey about the municipal and service structure reform. The survey examined the inhabitants’ of Ingå use of municipal services and opinions about their amount and quality. The survey was sent out to all households in Ingå in March 2006. 1189 answers were received, and the percentage of answers was 57, which is above average in similar surveys.

The inhabitants of Ingå are satisfied with their municipality’s services – the health service receives the highest grade

The inhabitants of Ingå are in general satisfied with the services offered by their municipality. When asked to grade one’s level of satisfaction with the services on a scale from 1-5, where 1=very poorly managed and 5=very well managed, at least half of the users of most services felt that they were managed very well or quite well.

In the area of social services the highest grades went to the service houses for the elderly (in average 4,57), the home-help service (4,28) and the family day care (4,26).

Among the health care services the child care guidance services (4,70), maternity care guidance services (4,28) and other care guidance services (4,34) received the highest grades. As much as eight of the health service’s ten fields received a quite good average grade (over 4).

Of the education and culture committee’s services the pre-school education (4,28), library services (4,20), primary school classes 1-6 (4,11) and primary school classes 7-9 (4,00) received the highest grades.

In the field of technical services the highest grades went to the local rescue service (4,17), the agricultural services (4,12) and the building surveillance (4,03).

Those who participated in the survey give few critical comments on the service offered by the municipality of Ingå. People are most critical of the services of Ingå harbour, which 37% of the respondents find to be poor or quite poor, and the public transport, which 42% of its users find to be quite poor or very poor.

Hope for future investment in the health service and geriatric care services – the doctor-and-nurse surgery definitely to be kept in Ingå

The respondents hope to see future investment especially in the service of the surgery of doctor and nurse teams. Just over half (52%) of the respondents are of this opinion. 28% of the respondents hoped for investment in home-help services and service living accommodation/service houses.

The doctor-nurse surgery is frequently mentioned as the service the respondents absolutely want to keep in Ingå (67%). A third of the respondents absolutely wanted to keep the teaching of the primary school classes 1-6 in Ingå. The home for the elderly is the third service that the respondents felt should be kept in Ingå.

The inhabitants of Ingå state Karis as the best place to receive their service in – opinions differ concerning the secondary and upper secondary school

The respondents were asked where certain services should be organised should they not be available in Ingå. Karis was generally considered to be the most suitable place to organise health services, dental care, day care, geriatric care, vocational education and library and adult education services. Ekenäs is the most popular alternative concerning specialized care.
In regard to secondary and upper secondary school are Karis and Lojo mentioned equally often as the most suitable place.

Municipal cooperation is not thought to improve the quality of the service

Almost half (45%) of the respondents thought that an extended cooperation between the municipalities would weaken the quality of Ingå’s service. Almost a third (29%) believe that the quality of the service would increase due to extended municipal cooperation, and almost a fourth (24%) believe that it would remain the same.

Strong identification with Finland and Ingå, weaker with the European Union and EU-membership

The inhabitants of Ingå identify most with Finland and Ingå. 81% of the respondents identify quite or very strongly with Finland and 75% with Ingå. Many also feel like inhabitants of Västnyland, the western part of the region of Nyland (60% identify strongly or quite strongly with Västnyland). Few identify with EU and EU-membership (32%).