Government and council paper surveys

Paper gives residents who do not respond online another way to take part. One supplier can manage every step from the printed form to the data file.

Relevant experience: our work spans 19 government departments and agencies and 11 councils and shires since 2007. Council community surveys come back to us every two or three years.

Organisation counts include identifiable end organisations where CDS performed the work through a research consultancy or other intermediary.

What you need from a paper-mode partner

Professional design to your requirements. We combine professional graphic design with specialist form layout, working to your supplied corporate branding, style guide, co-branding, print and clear print requirements. Readability and efficient use of space are considered together. Questionnaires, covering letters, information sheets, postcards and envelopes can follow the same approved visual approach, using your written content. See our form design and supporting artwork service.

Add a paper option. A paper mode alongside your online survey widens who you hear from. Forms, letters or instructions can carry a QR code and short link to the online version, or a login unique to each household. Paper can be mailed individually or distributed through service locations, with return instructions suited to the project.

Scale under one supplier. Our experience across sectors includes a single mail-out of more than 113,000 survey forms. We can coordinate form design, printing, personalisation, distribution, returns and data capture to suit your project.

Information for procurement and privacy teams. Where the data goes, who handles it, how long it's kept and how it's destroyed are set out on our privacy and data handling page.

How the loop applies

Send us the questions, written content and any applicable brand, print or accessibility requirements. We develop the graphic design and specialist layout, set the form to Scantron specifications and provide a proof for your approval before Australian printing. It can be personalised with respondent IDs, names, addresses, barcodes and QR codes as required.

We can mail individually through Australia Post, using PreSort and barcoding where appropriate, or deliver in bulk to your organisation and participating locations through Australia Post or other couriers. Completed forms can return directly to CDS, including by Reply Paid where arranged, or be collected by your team or sites and sent to us in bulk. The outward and return methods can differ. See distribution and returns.

Returns are logged when received by CDS. Daily or weekly reporting and targeted reminder exclusions use the paper return, online completion and undeliverable records available at the agreed processing stage, including updates supplied by your team. Data is delivered as Excel or CSV with agreed column names and values, and each returned paper form can be supplied as an individual PDF linked from its data row.

Local Jobs First and LIDP information

For Victorian Government projects subject to Local Jobs First, CDS can provide information to support a Local Industry Development Plan (LIDP), tender response or local content reporting.

• Labour: all labour hours for our services are undertaken in Australia.
• Printing: printing is undertaken in Australia by our Australian print partners.
• Paper and toner: the paper stock and toner used in production are sourced from overseas.

The overall local content will depend on the mix of services and materials for the particular project. Where required, we can provide project-specific information on Australian labour, printing and imported inputs to support your LIDP or reporting requirements.

Surveys we typically run for government and councils

• Community and resident satisfaction surveys
• Government program and service evaluations
• Staff and stakeholder surveys
• Patient and client experience surveys for health and community services

Fieldwork reporting

Return counts during fieldwork are yours to forward. Counts reflect forms received by CDS and any updates supplied by your organisation or participating sites; responses still held elsewhere are not automatically included. Respondent IDs behind the counts can be supplied on request as an extra so your team can match them against its sample frame. IDs are captured at scanning and can lag behind receipt counts.