Scottish Executive Large Scale Survey Developments Dr Robert Williams Analytical Services Group Office of the Chief Statistician

Hope to cover today SPSCC aims and strategy Procurement Harmonised design and questions Local surveys SPSCC – Scottish Population Survey Coordinating Committee

SPSCC Aims and strategy –Strategic direction –How to respond to ONS I H S –Sharing knowledge and best practice –Agreeing the best source of information –Harmonisation – design and questions –Quality of some survey results e.g. monitoring –Value for money –Papers available through Scotstat I H S – Integrated Household Survey

Stock take of current position Survey of surveys –Contracts, outputs, and management structures –Next stage to look at detailed content

Procurement Scottish Household Survey; Scottish Crime and Victimisation Survey; and the Scottish Health Survey ~ £10M per cycle All going to market this year Joined up – roles and responsibilities, sequence, design, flexibility, expert advice… SPD – Scottish Procurement Directorate

Survey Design Continuous –Improving quality –Timely results Modular –Improving flexibility – demand for space always increases –Are all questions really needed for all areas and frequencies – some tough choices ahead? –What policy questions do we want to answer – change etc… Unclustered –Quality of estimates –Bring together responses to core questions from SE’s surveys? –Costs Decoupled or integrated sampling? I H S = interviewers working on numerous ‘modules’ modernising statistics

Example of modular design Fixed core Rotating core Detailed labour market Job search Job history Employment pattern Detailed qualifications & training Accident Sickness Disability Childcare Ad-hoc modules for house- holds Health & use of health services Smoking Drinking Housing Ad-hoc modules for individuals Family formation Detailed income Poverty Living conditions Expenditure Interview length sample size 265,000 households Interview 1 Interview 3 Interview 4 Interview 5 Interview 2

Core Socio economic questions Census type questions: Age, ethnicity, employment status,… Allows users to compare results for sub-groups across other Scottish, UK, and European surveys Consistent over time and so allow time series analysis Use of ONS harmonised questions Ensure clear guidance on official source for core topics – non-contested statistics Scottish Executive large scale surveys agree that this is the way to go – working on content Potential for estimates for smaller areas

Local surveys Burden on public Quality of local methodologies and response rates Consistency between local and national survey results Monitoring policy at local and national level Is this the most efficient way of doing things…

Further information Scotstat: Contact: