Scottish Government

The conference was held on the 16th March at the George Hotel, Edinburgh. It was attended by approximately 100 people from across central and local government, public bodies, academics and survey contractors.

We would like to thank all those who helped on the day.

Presentation slides and hand-outs from the day:

• The Long Term Survey Strategy - Presentation by Alex Stannard, Scottish Government

• The Use of Secondary Survey Data Sources in Practice ( Hand-out and Presentation text) - Speech by Tony Glendinning, University of Aberdeen

How to Sessions:

• Procure a Survey - Workshop lead by Tom Lamplugh, Scottish Government
• Design a Sample and Improve Responce Rates ( Workshop exercise and Solutions) - Workshop lead by Alex Stannard, Scottish Government and Kevin Ralston, University of Stirling

• Calculate Confidence Intervals and Weighting Factors ( Confidence Interval Calculator Tool and Worshop exercise with solutions)- Workshop lead by Christina Blakey, Scottish Government

Disseminating and Using Survey Data in a Local Context:

• Disseminating National and Local Survey Results - Presentation by Coryn Barclay, Fife Council

• Growing Up in Scotland - Presentation by Lesley Kelly, University of Edinburgh

The Scottish Household Survey Review 2010 -Presentation and session lead by Hugh Munro, Scottish Government

National Population and Household Surveys:

• The Scottish Health Survey - Presentation by Julie Ramsay, Scottish Government
• The Scottish House Condition Survey - Presentation by Ian Mate, Scottish Government
• The Scottish Crime and Justice Survey - Presentation by Catherine Millington, Scottish Government

Local Government Surveys:

• Reviewing our Housing Allocations Policy, Using Consultation to Shape Policy - Presentation by Philippa Mason, Aberdeen City Council
• Customer Satisfaction Measurement Tool - Presentation by Carrieanne Hall, Improvement Service
• Lessons from Survey Research on Improving Housing Conditions - Presentation by Lorna Fleming, Falkirk Council

Scotland's Census 2011 - Presentation by Peter Scrimgeour, General Register Office for Scotland

If you have any questions about the day or the presentations above please email us.

Feedback from delegates

Many thanks to the 54 delegates who completed the feedback from. We have provided a summary of the feedback we received:

The first question was 'how successful do you think the conference was in achieving its purpose of providing an opportunity for members of the network to share knowledge and experience in designing, conducting, managing, analysing and disseminating surveys?' Twenty-one delegates said "very successful", 28 said "fairly successful", 5 said "partially successful" and no delegates said "unsuccessful".

The most common themes emerging from the feedback in terms of what was most useful about the day included:

• The range and variety of presentations and surveys covered
• The opportunity to network
• The practical 'how to' sessions
• Quality of breakout sessions
• Opportunity to feed into the Scottish Household Survey review

The most common themes emerging from the feedback in terms of what could have been better included:

• Opportunity to attend more than one 'how to' session
• Depth of discussion was lost to breadth of coverage
• Need for longer discussion time, particularly in breakout sessions

Finally, there was opportunity on the feedback form for delegates to say if a similar conference should be run again. The majority of respondents said yes, but not too soon, and with more focus on methodological issues and how to analyse survey results.