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Publication - Research and analysis

Fair Start Scotland - evaluation report 3: participant phone survey - year 2

Published
9 November 2020
From
Director-General Economy
Directorate
Chief Economist Directorate
Part of
Equality and rights, Work and skills
ISBN
9781800042346

Part of a series of reports on the evaluation of Fair Start Scotland (FSS) employability services. It presents more detailed findings from a representative telephone survey of FSS participants and explores their experiences in the second year of service delivery (April 2019 to March 2020).

View supporting documents Supporting documents

Technical Appendix

The Fair Start Scotland (FSS) Wave 2 telephone survey was carried out in May 2020. The sample was made up of two distinct groups:

  • New sample of participants who joined the FSS service in 2019 (between January 2019 and December 2019). IFF were provided with a sample of 11,828 participants, from which 1,782 were drawn for the survey.
  • Longitudinal sample who joined the FSS service in 2018 (between April and December 2018) and took part in the Wave 1 survey. All participants who took part in the survey and agreed to be contacted again for further research were included in the sample for Wave 2.

A total of 1,007 surveys were completed at Wave 2, made up of 607 from the new sample and 400 from the longitudinal sample, as shown in Table 1. An additional 10 respondents from the new sample took part in the survey but said that they had never received a service from FSS and were removed from the final data.

Table 1: Wave 2 sample drawn, and surveys completed by sample group
Sample group Starting sample available Sample drawn Responses achieved
2019 cohort (new sample) 11,828 1,797 607
2018 cohort (longitudinal sample) 940 940 400

For the new sample, IFF were provided with data consisting of all starts on the FSS service during this period. From this, 1,782 pieces of sample were drawn. Sample was drawn in proportion with the distribution of participants by lot, with Lots 4,7,8 and 9 slightly oversampled to ensure a minimum base for subgroup analysis of this region. Table 2 below shows the number of records drawn and the number of surveys achieved from each lot.

Table 2: 2019 cohort (new) sample drawn, and surveys completed per Lot
Lot All sample Sample drawn Unweighted responses Weighted responses
N % N % N % N %
Lot 1 Glasgow 2398 20.3% 300 16.7% 101 16.6% 123 20.2%
Lot 2 Lanarkshire 1804 15.3% 213 11.9% 71 11.7% 93 15.3%
Lot 3 Tayside 1161 9.8% 150 8.3% 48 7.9% 60 9.9%
Lot 4 Forth Valley 453 3.8% 150 8.3% 50 8.2% 23 3.8%
Lot 5 East 2568 21.7% 327 18.2% 112 18.5% 132 21.7%
Lot 6 South West 1648 13.9% 207 11.5% 71 11.7% 85 14.0%
Lot 7 North East 461 3.9% 150 8.3% 50 8.2% 24 3.9%
Lot 8 Highlands and Islands 527 4.5% 150 8.3% 50 8.2% 27 4.4%
Lot 9 West 808 6.8% 150 8.3% 54 8.9% 41 6.7%
Total 11,828 100% 1,797 100% 607 100% 608 100%

For the longitudinal sample, no sampling strategy was used as the initial sample size was limited. Table 3 shows the number of responses achieved by Lot.

Table 3: 2018 cohort (longitudinal) sample and surveys completed per Lot
Lot Sample Unweighted responses Weighted responses
N % N % N %
Lot 1 Glasgow 167 17.7% 74 18.5% 76 19.0%
Lot 2 Lanarkshire 161 17.1% 61 15.3% 74 18.5%
Lot 3 Tayside 89 9.5% 31 7.8% 44 11.0%
Lot 4 Forth Valley 80 8.5% 34 8.5% 32 8.0%
Lot 5 East 174 18.5% 81 20.3% 65 16.3%
Lot 6 South West 90 9.6% 39 9.8% 38 9.5%
Lot 7 North East 52 5.5% 25 6.3% 23 5.8%
Lot 8 Highlands and Islands 54 5.7% 23 5.8% 17 4.3%
Lot 9 West 74 7.9% 32 8.0% 30 7.5%
Total 941 100% 400 100% 399 100%

Participants were sent an advance letter two weeks prior to fieldwork to notify them of the research and offer them the opportunity to decline to take part. Telephone fieldwork was conducted between 27th April and 29th May, and 1,007 completed interviews were achieved. A full breakdown of sample outcomes is shown in Tables 4 and 5.

Table 4: 2019 cohort (new) sample outcomes
  Number Proportion of starting sample (%)
Total sample 1,797 100%
Opt outs 18 1%
Unusable (for example, wrong number) 124 7%
Contact attempted, no final outcome after minimum number of attempts 935 52%
Refusal 99 6%
Respondent stopped or screened out during survey 14 1%
Total surveys completed 607 34%
Table 5: 2018 cohort (longitudinal) sample outcomes
  Number Proportion of starting sample (%)
Total sample 940 100%
Opt outs 11 1%
Unusable (for example, number not in use) 21 2%
Contact attempted, no final outcome after minimum number of attempts 475 51%
Refusal 24 3%
Respondent stopped or screened out during survey 9 1%
Total surveys completed 400 43%

The survey included fewer questions for the 2018 longitudinal sample than the 2019 new sample. The average survey length for the 2018 respondents was 13 minutes 36 seconds, and for the 2019 respondents it was 21 minutes 21 seconds. The data was checked, tabulated and verbatim responses were fully coded for analysis purposes. A rim weight based on age, gender and lot was applied to the 2019 data to bring the oversampled Lots 4,7,8 and 9 back in line with population proportions of 2019 FSS starters, and to correct for any non-response bias. A rim weight based on age, gender, lot and employment status was also applied to the 2018 data to correct for any non-response bias and bring the proportions in line with the Wave 1 weighted data, which reflected population proportions of 2018 FSS starters.

Tables 6 and 7 show a breakdown of the profile of respondents by Lot, after weighting had been applied. The last row shows total Year 2 starts on the FSS service (participants who joined the service between April 2019 and March 2020).

Table 6: Profile of respondents in each Lot, by gender and age (weighted data)
  Total Gender Age
Unweighted Weighted Male Female 16-24 25-34 35 -49 50+
Total 607 607 389 64% 281 36% 128 21% 143 24% 173 29% 162 27%
Lot 1 Glasgow 101 123 81 66% 42 34% 28 23% 31 25% 38 30% 26 21%
Lot 2 Lanarkshire 71 93 56 60% 37 40% 14 15% 18 20% 32 34% 29 31%
Lot 3 Tayside 48 60 47 *78% 13 *22% 21 *36% 20 33% 8 *13% 11 18%
Lot 4 Forth Valley 50 23 13 57% 10 43% 7 31% 2 *11% 7 31% 6 28%
Lot 5 East 112 132 78 59% 54 41% 25 19% 31 24% 39 30% 36 27%
Lot 6 South West 71 85 51 60% 33 39% 12 14% 17 20% 29 34% 27 32%
Lot 7 North East 50 24 16 66% 8 34% 6 27% 5 19% 3 *14% 9 *39%
Lot 8 Highlands and Islands 50 27 21 76% 6 24% 6 22% 9 32% 6 22% 6 24%
Lot 9 West 54 41 28 68% 13 32% 8 19% 11 26% 11 27% 12 28%
Total FSS Year 2 Starts 12,077 n/a 7,602 63% 4,415 37% 2,456 20% 2,862 24% 3,283 27% 2,961 25%
Table 7: Profile of respondents in each Lot, by qualifications, employment history and health (weighted data)
  Total Qualifications Employment history Health limits day-to-day activities
Unweighted Weighted None National 1-5 or equivalent (Advanced) Highers or equivalent Degree or above Worked in the last 5 years Not worked in the last 5 years Has condition, impacts activities Has condition, no limitations No condition
Total 607 607 62 10% 229 38% 126 21% 110 18% 394 65% 204 34% 287 47% 97 16% 192 32%
Lot 1 Glasgow 101 123 11 9% 35 *29% 21 17% 35 *28% 79 65% 41 33% 46 *37% 13 10% 59 *48%
Lot 2 Lanarkshire 71 93 5 6% 35 38% 20 21% 14 16% 53 58% 37 40% 47 51% 19 20% 19 *20%
Lot 3 Tayside 48 60 5 8% 25 42% 15 26% 9 15% 47 *79% 12 *21% 24 41% 11 18% 23 39%
Lot 4 Forth Valley 50 23 3 12% 9 39% 6 26% 4 17% 15 65% 8 33% 15 *64% 4 16% 2 *10%
Lot 5 East 112 132 17 13% 54 41% 28 21% 17 13% 90 68% 41 31% 67 51% 23 17% 37 28%
Lot 6 South West 71 85 9 10% 35 42% 19 22% 15 18% 54 64% 30 35% 40 47% 12 14% 31 36%
Lot 7 North East 50 24 3 14% 9 40% 3 14% 5 22% 13 56% 10 44% 12 51% 3 12% 7 30%
Lot 8 Highlands and Islands 50 27 2 6% 9 34% 8 30% 4 16% 18 66% 9 32% 17 *62% 3 12% 5 20%
Lot 9 West 54 41 7 17% 17 41% 6 14% 6 15% 24 58% 17 40% 20 47% 10 24% 9 23%
Total FSS Year 2 Starts 12,077 n/a - - - - - - - - - - - - 5,296 44% 2,231 18% 3,460 29%

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