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CHAPTER ONE Background and Method
1.1 While the care sector carries high expectations from
the public in terms of the quantity and quality of service
provision, it also suffers from a poor image as an area of
employment, whether on account of the nature of the work,
pay and conditions, or training and management of
employees.
1 This image impacts negatively on both the number and
quality of recruits to the sector. If the recruitment
problems are to be addressed it will be necessary to
improve public perceptions of the care sector and what it
has to offer as a career, in terms of both range and
quality of opportunities.
1.2 As part of the strategy to address these issues in
Scotland, the Scottish Executive launched a communications
campaign in October 2002. A tracking exercise was
established to monitor public awareness of the campaign and
attitudes towards careers in the care sector. A preliminary
wave of research on public attitudes towards care was
conducted prior to the communications campaign, in July
2002. A wave of research was then conducted in November
2002 following the initial campaign activity. In 2004,
TNS System Three were commissioned by
the Office of Chief Researcher to conduct a third wave of
research, following further advertising activity. This
report describes the findings of this research (The
questionnaire conducted by
TNS System Three can be found in
Appendix 2).
1.3
TNS System Three used their Computer
Assisted Personal Interviewing omnibus (
CAPI) and the Scottish Opinion Survey as
the vehicle for data collection. 953 adults aged 16 and
over were interviewed in-home in 42 sampling points
throughout Scotland over the period 25
th March - 1
st April 2004. To ensure that the sample was
representative of the adult population in terms of age, sex
and social class, it was weighted to match population
estimates from the National Readership Survey of January -
December 2002.
2 The sample profile, both unweighted and weighted, is
shown in Table 1.1 overleaf.
Table 1.1: Sample Profile (%)
Base: 953
3
| | Unweighted | Weighted |
|---|
SEX: | Male | 46 | 48 |
|---|
| Female | 54 | 52 |
|---|
AGE: | 16-24 | 12 | 15 |
|---|
| 25-34 | 16 | 17 |
|---|
| 35-44 | 21 | 18 |
|---|
| 45-54 | 15 | 18 |
|---|
| 55-64 | 12 | 14 |
|---|
| 65+ | 23 | 19 |
|---|
CLASS: | AB | 19 | 20 |
|---|
| C1 | 31 | 28 |
|---|
| C2 | 20 | 21 |
|---|
| DE | 30 | 31 |
|---|
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