Family Resources Survey Data Collection Methods

Jo Maher (National Centre for Social Research)Tom Howe (Office for National Statistics)

The FRS Consortium

Office for National Statistics (ONS) and National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) work in Consortium and each organisation is responsible for particular areas of the data collection process. Both organisations share fieldwork equally.

ONS: SamplingData mergingData Quality assuranceReporting Interview timings

NatCen: Question designComputer-Assisted Personal Interview

(CAPI)Cognitive question testingReporting non-Response

Sampling

UK Sample for 2006/07 was approx 44,000 households for England & Wales and Scotland

Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) conduct fieldwork separately

Fieldwork split equally between ONS and NatCen

PPS with a Scottish boost

Stratified by: Government Office Region (GOR) Proportion of HRPs in NSSEC 1-3 Economic status of adults aged 16-74

Annual question changes

Questionnaire changes each year

Changes made at request of: Sponsor (DWP) Data users (HMRC and other government

departments) Consortium interviewers

The FRS interview

Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI)

Divided into household and benefit unit interview

All adults interviewed

Proxy interviews permitted

Questions about children (e.g. health, deprivation questions) are answered by parents/guardians.

Interview topics 2007/8

Household interview Household composition Accommodation &

tenure Housing costs Charges on property Sewerage and water Within household

contribution Childcare arrangements Informal caring

Interview topics 2007/8

Benefit Unit interview Health & disabilities Education, grants &

loans Children outside

household Employment Tax credits Pension arrangements Income from benefits Income from pensions,

trusts, royalties

Maintenance allowances and other sources of income

Adult and child social deprivation

Household durables - televisions

Income from savings and investments

Total savings Assets

Timetable of changes

Apr - New survey year begins Jun - Field report questionnaire sent to Aug - NatCen send Field Report to DWP Sep - Information Priorities Group meet Oct - Question changes discussed with DWP Nov - Question changes designed Dec - Question changes programmed Jan - CAPI program testing Mar - Final CAPI program sent to interviewers

CAPI

Interviews conducted as Computer assisted personal interviewing (CAPI)

CAPI programmed in Blaise Allows complex routing CAPI allows checks to be made of the answers

given during interview Increases flexibility in question wording (e.g. text

fills can be used to insert the respondent’s name into the question)

Also allows data to be stored confidentially

Cognitive question testing

Major revisions to the FRS are tested

Cognitive question testing employed

Explore respondent understanding of questions

Findings inform final question design

CAPI Interview lengthFRS 2005-6 - Average Length of CAPI Session

(based on Audit Trail data)*

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

0-30 31-40 41-50 51-60 61-70 71-80 81-90 91-100 101-110

111-120

121-130

131-140

141-150

151-160

161-170

171-180

181-190

191-200

201+

Length of CAPI Session (minutes)

Nu

mb

er

of

Inte

rvie

ws

Total Interview lengthFRS 2005/6 - Average Length of Interview (all cases)

including CAPI Session and Introductions

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

0-30 31-40 41-50 51-60 61-70 71-80 81-90 91-100 101-110

111-120

121-130

131-140

141-150

151-160

161-170

171-180

181-190

191-200

201+

Length of Interview incl Intros (minutes)

Nu

mb

er o

f In

terv

iew

s

Data Merging

ONS merge edited Blaise data from ONS, NatCen and NISRA

Merge uses manipula scripts

Checks to ensure data formatted as DWP require

Merged data produced in 25 SPSS tables for data QA

Data Quality Assurance

Monthly datasets are subjected to a series of rigorous checks

Checks ensure data is consistent at person and household level

Credibility and outlier checks

Edits made to data following checks

Non-response

Information collected by interviewers Observation questions about accommodation for

refusal and non-contact households further observation for refusal households only Questions asked on non-response form and

recorded in CAPI 63% completion rate of non-response form in

2004/5

Refusal households

Tend to be smaller than responding households Less likely than respondent households to be

comprised of single adults with children Less likely to contain children than respondent

households More likely than respondent households to be

comprised of adults of the same age group, rather than adults of different age groups.

More likely to contain a paid working adult than respondent households.

Data collection and fieldwork

Advance letters Purpose leaflets Instructions CAPI questionnaire and showcards Ask for and record accurate

information

Further Information

Further information on FRS data collection available in the FRS Technical Report

2005/06 FRS Technical Report published in March 2006. Available on NS website

Any Questions?