The Scottish Government

General Research Findings No.2
1999

The People's Panel in Scotland: Wave 2 (August - November 1998)
Dr Nuala Gormley

Main Findings

• Echoing the first wave of results, residents in Scotland again emerged as among the most satisfied public service users in the UK.
• In Scotland there is strong support for local services becoming more directly responsive, with opinion surveys of local residents being especially popular.
• While the majority of Scottish residents surveyed agree that public services have improved on how they listen to complaints, over half think that most public services do not take their complaints seriously.
• In response to 5 food safety-related issues, respondents in Scotland express most concern about BSE/CJD and the long-term effects of chemicals in food. In addition, they feel much more at risk from E.Coli than do their UK counterparts. However, the majority are confident that the food they eat was safe, although 1 in 8 is not.
• Panel members in Scotland do not share the same concern as other regions about poor air quality; in addition the vast majority of them do not consider traffic congestion to be a problem.
• Scottish residents record higher use of local bus services for commuting to work and shopping than the do UK members of the Panel.
• Although bus users in Scotland are among the most satisfied in the UK across a range of service criteria, less than half think that reliability, frequency of service and personal safety standards are good.
• Out of the options to raise revenue for public services presented to Panel members, the least popular option in Scotland is the gradual doubling in the price of petrol (9 out of 10 Panel members in Scotland opposed this option) while the most popular (or least unpopular) is the introduction of £2 charge to motorists driving through town centres at peak times (one third of Panel members supported this option)

Introduction

In April 1998, the Service First Unit in the Cabinet Office commissioned MORI, the market research company, and the School of Public Policy at Birmingham University to set up the 'People's Panel'. The Panel was set up as part of a wider programme to modernise government and make services responsive to users.

In October 1998, national results from the first wave of the People's Panel were published which addressed attitudes towards public services, including possible methods of improving service delivery, eg one-stop-shops and electronic government, health care priorities, and views on education, transport and council housing 1. In January 1999, the Cabinet Office reported on the second wave of findings from the People's Panel, which focussed on transport, complaints handling and local democracy.

This paper reports on the most interesting Scottish findings emerging from the second wave of the People's Panel. The paper draws particular attention to occasions where Scottish responses differ from the national UK response.

Local Democracy

In Scotland there was strong support for local services becoming more directly responsive through surveys, referenda, elections etc, although this support was slightly weaker among Panel members in Scotland than in the UK. Three quarters of Scottish residents surveyed supported the idea of opinion surveys of local residents and 69% supported local referenda on particular issues. Attending residents groups and annual council elections were equally popular (67%).

The idea of electing local mayors attracted less support across all Panel members, and fewer than half of Scottish residents surveyed (49%) supported this option.

Funding of Council services

Panel members in Scotland were unclear about the proportion of Council services funded by the council tax, with only one in five aware that the council tax was responsible for less than a quarter of expenditure. Most thought the proportion was between 26% and 50%, and almost as many did not know (17%) as answered this question correctly (see Fig 1).

Base: People's Panel - Wave 2 - Panel members in Scotland

Question: As you may know, money for these services comes from 2 main sources - income tax and other taxes collected by central government, and Council Tax collected by your local Council. What proportion of Council services would you say is paid for by Council Tax?

Panel members in Scotland correctly ranked education, housing, social services and the police as the services on which Councils spend most money, whereas members from all other UK regions (with the exception of Wales) thought that social services would be more expensive to run overall than housing.

Complaints Handling

Sixty one percent of Scottish residents surveyed agreed that public service providers were better at listening to complaints than they had been a few years ago, and a majority (57%) also agreed that most public service organisations were ready to listen to complaints. However, fewer Panel members in Scotland than in other regions and across the UK as a whole (67%) believed that listening skills had improved.

There is clearly still room for improvement: over half of Panel members in Scotland (54%) thought that most public service providers did not take complaints seriously, while 83% thought that you needed a lot of determination to get something done about a complaint.

Organisations that handle complaints about public services need to raise their public profile in Scotland. When asked if they had heard of a range of such organisations, Scottish residents consistently displayed the least awareness of UK regional responses.

Base : People's Panel - Wave 2

Question : Please could you tell me which of the following different organisations, if any, you have heard of.

OFGAS and the Local Government Ombudsman were best known by Panel members both in the UK and Scotland although fewer Panel members in Scotland had heard of them. The Rail Users Consultative Committee, the Revenue Adjudicator and the Office of the Rail Regulator share the lowest public profiles among UK Panel members, including in Scotland, who were among the least aware of their existence - only 16% of respondents in Scotland had ever heard of the Rail Users Consultative Committee.

Care in the Community

Slightly more Scottish residents (36%) believed that 'Care in the Community' has been a success than did UK Panel members (33%), but 4 in 10 disagreed.

Although half of Scottish residents surveyed agreed that the policy has successfully re-integrated many people into local communities, less than a quarter (23%) believed that 'Care in the Community' had meant that people with serious mental health problems had received the care they needed. However, in these responses, Panel members Scotland were slightly more positive about the policy's success than the overall UK response.

Help and Advice for Young People

In Scotland and across the UK as a whole, guidance from careers advisors and local employers, and work experience while still at school, were considered the most important ways in which young people at school received help and advice about finding suitable employment. Panel members in Scotland directly in receipt of youth career services believed that more work experience would most improve careers advice for young people.

Food Safety

The majority of respondents in Scotland were confident that the food they ate was safe, but 1 in 8 was not.

Base : People's Panel - Wave 2 -Panel members in Scotland

Question : Thinking about the food you and members of your household eat, how confident are you that it is safe to eat ?

Panel members in Scotland were slightly more confident than the UK Panel as a whole that the food they eat was safe. Twenty eight percent were 'very confident' (compared to 24% of the UK Panel) and only 1% were 'not at all confident' (compared to 3% of the UK Panel).

When asked about 5 food-safety related issues, respondents in Scotland expressed most concern about BSE/CJD (61%) and the long term effects of chemicals in food (60%) 2. Half of respondents in Scotland were concerned about food poisoning and about new food technology, and only one in 10 were not concerned about any of the issues raised.

Awareness about infections that may be caught from food and water varied little between Scotland and the UK as a whole, although Panel members in Scotland were slightly more aware of salmonella (100% awareness) and E.Coli (98%) than their UK counterparts, and significantly less aware of Cryptosporidium (11%) than were the UK members (24%).

Respondents in Scotland felt much more at risk from E.Coli than did their UK counterparts; 38% named it as the infection they felt most at risk from compared to less than a quarter of UK Panel members. E.Coli and Salmonella were perceived by Panel members in the UK and Scotland as presenting the biggest risk of infection.

Air Quality and Traffic Congestion

Panel members in Scotland did not share the same concern as Panel members from other regions about poor air quality. While only 1 in 14 respondents in Scotland surveyed considered poor air quality 'a serious problem', more than 1 in 3 London dwellers on the Panel (36%) expressed serious concern about their local air quality. More than half the Panel members in Scotland did not consider poor air quality a problem at all, compared to 2 in 5 of the UK Panel.

This is reflected in Panel responses to questions about local traffic congestion. Four out of every 5 respondents in Scotland did not consider traffic congestion to be a problem, compared to responses from more built up regions of the UK where more than half of London members (52%) and members living in Merseyside (50%) were seriously concerned about local traffic congestion (see Fig 4).

Base : People's Panel - Wave 2

Question : To what extent is traffic congestion a problem for you in this area ?

Transport

Travel by bus

Panel members in Scotland recorded higher use of local bus services for commuting to work and than did the UK Panel, although the differences were not large.

Twenty two percent of respondents in Scotland used local buses to commute to work, and 79% of those did so at least once a week. Only 1 in 8 of Scottish residents surveyed ever used local buses for business and only 2% did so on a daily basis.

Thirty eight percent of Panel members in Scotland used local buses for shopping and 70% of those did so at least once a week. Respondents in Scotland used buses more regularly for leisure than did the UK average. Of the third of respondents who used buses for leisure, 56% did so at least once a week, compared to 47% in the UK as a whole.

Although Scottish bus users on the People's Panel were among the most satisfied in the UK across a range of service criteria, less than half thought that reliability, frequency of service and personal safety standards were good. The most positive aspect of local bus services was the accessibility to bus stops on foot (64% considered this to be good) and the least positive was the cost (fewer than a quarter of Panel members in Scotland considered the cost of their local bus services as 'good').

When asked about possible improvements to bus services that might encourage them to use buses more, respondents in Scotland cited improved information on bus services (64%) and improved reliability (62%). In general, they considered improvements in the various aspects of service put to them as less important than the UK members did (see Fig 5).

Base : People's Panel - Wave 2 3

Question : I am going to read out a number of aspects of the local bus service where improvements could be made. On a scale of 1 to 4 (where 1 is very important and 4 is not at all important) how important are improvements to ... for you to consider using buses more?

Travel by Rail

Over half of Panel members in Scotland travelled by rail regularly, but only 1 in 6 of these did so at least once a week. Fewer than 3% used trains to commute to work once a week or more - half the UK Panel rate - although 1 in 8 used rail services for business.

Just under 3 in 10 respondents in Scotland Panel sometimes took the train when going shopping and 42% travelled by train for leisure trips. However, such trips were generally made by train less often then once a month and these rates were lower than the UK Panel average.

Panel members were asked to rate a variety of aspects of train services, and generally respondents in Scotland demonstrated the highest satisfaction with their train services. They rated the reliability and comfort of their services as the highest in the UK, and personal safety and the ease of booking through-tickets were also ranked highly.

Connections with other forms of transport and cost attracted most criticism from respondents in the UK and Scotland, but while one third of UK members considered the cost aspect of rail services as 'poor', only 22% of respondents in Scotland did. Generally, they were more satisfied with the cost of their rail services than were UK Panel members. Over a quarter considered the cost as 'good' 4, compared to the UK Panel response where more members considered the service 'poor' than 'good' in terms of cost.

For Panel members in Scotland, improvements to the reliability and frequency of service would be the most important factors in encouraging people to use trains more, with cost and personal safety being the next most important improvements to consider. This evaluation differed from the UK Panel response which consistently attached more importance to all the suggested improvements than the response in Scotland(see Fig. 6).

Base : People's Panel - Wave 2 5

Question : I am going to read out a number of aspects of the train service where improvements could be made. On a scale of 1 to 4 (where 1 is very important and 4 is not at all important) how important are improvements to ... for you to consider using trains more?

Raising Revenue for Public Transport

Five possible means of raising revenue for public transport were put to Panel members. While none of the measures could be described as 'popular', some attracted more support than others.

The least popular measures were the gradual doubling of petrol costs over 10 years (9 of every 10 Panel member in Scotland opposed this measure, and Panel members in Scotland and Northern Ireland were strongest in their opposition) and increasing VAT on goods and services (83% of respondents in Scotland opposed this).

Among Panel members in Scotland, there was greatest support for charging motorists £2 for driving through town centres at peak times (over one third in favour of this measure), and 3 in 10 surveyed were in favour of cutting spending on new roads (although the Scottish opposition to this measure was the highest of the UK regions at 65%). The UK Panel also gave some support to these measures, with cutting expenditure on new roads winning the support of 42% of members (and the opposition of over half the Panel).

Summary

As with the first wave of results, Panel members in Scotland again emerged as among the most satisfied public service users in the UK, but who would nonetheless welcome new methods of making local services more responsive. They thought more positively on the 'Care in the Community' policy and its success than did UK Panel members, and used and valued their bus and train services more. In certain cases, the particular 'Scottish' nature of the results is evident, while in other areas, the Panel response in Scotland is much the same as in the UK.

It is clear that the Panel awareness of complaints handling organisations, eg Oftel, and of local service funding is lower among Panel members living in Scotland. There is considerable room for raising the public profile on these issues, ie complaints handling; how public services are funded, as well as the nature of water-and-food borne infections, particularly cryptosporidium and campylobacter.

Perhaps reflecting the recent Scottish cases of food poisoning, respondents in Scotland are very aware of E.Coli and Salmonella, and feel more at risk from E.Coli than other infections which have not been so widely publicised.

Since the Panel draws on a representative sample of People in Scotland, the rural nature of the population is reflected in the perception that air pollution and traffic congestion are not serious problems in Scotland. The rural dependence on the car perhaps also underlies the profound reluctance among Panel members in Scotland to support any of the measures suggested to fund public transport improvements - particularly doubling the cost of petrol. The scheme which attracts some limited support from Panel members in Scotland is one which has already been proposed for the Capital - the introduction of charges for motorists wishing to enter the town centre at peak times.

Footnotes

1 Analysis of Scottish findings from the first wave of the People's Panel are reported in General Research Findings No. 1

2 Question: Which of the following 5 issues, if any, cause you concern about food safety?

3 The net figures shown in the above chart are calculated by subtracting the total number of people who rated the improvement not important or lower, from the total who rated the improvement important or higher.

4 22% considered it poor, 22% ranked it neither good nor poor, and 29% did not know.

5 The net figures shown in the above chart are calculated by subtracting the total number of people who rated the improvement not important or lower, from the total who rated the improvement important or higher.

About the People's Panel

In April 1998, the Service First Unit in the Cabinet Office commissioned MORI, the market research company, and the School of Public Policy at Birmingham University to set up the 'People's Panel'. The Panel is a world first at national level and has been established as part of the wider programme to modernise Government and make services more responsive to users. It will not be used for party political research but will focus on public services and how they are delivered. The aim is to provide a database of individuals that can be used for a wide range of research and consultation - enabling the tracking of opinions over time, looking at reasons for change and gathering the views of both users and non-users of particular public services.

The Panel was recruited by MORI during the summer of 1998 and consists of 5,064 members of the public (aged 16+) randomly selected from across the UK, and is designed to be a representative cross-section of the population. Data is weighted to the known profile of the population (sex, age, class etc). Each Panel member agrees to be re-contacted on a regular basis to take part in qualitative and quantitative research in the future.

Wave two results are based on 3,003 telephone interviews conducted between August 10th and November 5th in 1998 across the UK, with people who had already contributed to the first wave of People's Panel research. This represented a response rate of 71%, taking invalid leads into account. Of these, 255 were carried out with Panel members in Scotland, which constitutes a less representative sample than in the first wave. This sample size provides for a level of accuracy of ±7%. However, this level of accuracy applies to the whole sample; care should be taken when interpreting results based on sub sets of respondents.

UK findings from the People's Panel have been published by the Cabinet Office. Copies of the Summary of Results for each wave of the Panel are available from the Service First Publication Line: 0345 22 32 42. In addition, results are available on the internet ( www.cabinet-office.gov.uk/servicefirst).

The results can also be found on MORI's web site ( www.mori.com). For further information, please call Simon Braunholz at MORI Scotland (tel 0131 558 1515) or Ben Page/Jessica Elgood at MORI (tel 0171 928 5955, email peoples.panel@mori.com).

Further information about analysis of Scottish results can be obtained from Alison Platts, Scottish Executive Central Research Unit, U1-13, Saughton House, Broomhouse Drive, Edinburgh EH11 3XA (Tel: 0131 244 4389, email: alison.platts@scotland.gov.uk).