1. Introduction – CSO chair
2. Agreement of minutes from last meeting – update on actions
3. Update from CSO on development work to date
a. Frame
b. Interviewer recruitment
4. Finance
a. 2022 update on spend
5. Further analysis update from Department of Justice
6. Next meeting - June 2022
7. AOB
Attendees:
• Alice Wainwright, Principal Officer, Research and Data Analytics, Department of Justice
• Philip McCormack, Research Officer, Department of Justice
• Caitlin Murphy, Researcher, Department of Justice
• Keith McSweeney, Senior Statistician, Central Statistics Office (Chair)
• Helen McGrath, Statistician, Central Statistics Office
1. Introduction
The Chair welcomed all members of the steering group. Apologies were noted from Gurchand Singh. Caitlin Murphy was introduced as a visiting member for this meeting.
2. Agreement of minutes from last meeting
The minutes from the last meeting were agreed and updates were given on each action.
3. Update from CSO on development work to date
Since the previous steering group meeting, the office has:
• Finalised all instruments for the SVS – PAPI, CAPI/CASI and CAWI and these have been built by IT where relevant.
• The frame and sample design for the SVS main survey has been agreed. See Point A.
• Recruitment of interviewers is continuing. See Point B.
• The main survey design has been presented to the Social Statistics Ethics Advisory Group. Overall, the Group were satisfied with the significant work done to date in the development of the survey and supported fully the use of a person-based frame for the survey due to the advantages it offers. See Point C.
• The timing of the beginning of the survey has been agreed. The first post out of letters for the survey will begin in mid-May with the field force planned to begin work on the 6th June 2022.
• Organised the next Liaison Group meeting in April.
A. Frame and sample
The necessary application of the graduated consent principle (whereby the true nature of the survey can only be disclosed to the actual person who will complete the survey return) for SVS was challenging to deliver with the CSO’s traditional approach of using a household-based frame. As demonstrated from the pilot, in many cases, the selected person is not available at the time of interview and the requirements of the graduated consent principle consequently and unintendedly, impacts on response rates (which can impact on overall survey quality).
The SVS main survey will use a person-based frame constructed by CSO as the sampling frame for the SVS main survey. The Irish Population Estimates from Administrative Data Sources (IPEADS) is the basis for this frame and was published in December 2021. It used pseudonymised administrative data from public sector bodies. IPEADS, by definition, is a very good source of PPSNs for those active in the administrative population as a person must have a valid PPSN for inclusion in the population count.
The frame will contain a unique identifier for persons in Ireland aged 18 years and over and will allow direct contact with the randomly selected respondent (enhancing respondent safety) and will better place the survey regarding response rate management (by allowing for a more targeted approach to non-response management).
Due to the use of the person-based frame, a simple random sample stratified by local authority area will be generated. A sample of 20,000 will be chosen and split into a main sample of 13,000 and a reserve sample of 7,000. An achieved sample of 5,000 is required in order to be able to publish detailed information and satisfy the publication guidelines which the office use. This will allow publication of the estimated headline sexual violence prevalence rate based on a 3% margin of error and 95% confidence.
Response rates will be monitored over the initial weeks of distribution and batches from the reserve sample will be released if necessary. To ensure representative coverage, these batches will be released across the whole country and not used to target specific groups or areas.
A data matching exercise will be undertaken to examine the addresses on the sample derived from the frame. This will be done for several reasons:
• To validate the addresses on the sample. Due to the sensitive nature of this survey, and as the letters will be addressed to individual persons names, it is important, in so far as it can be assured, that the letters go to the correct households.
• To increase the EIRCODE coverage.
• To identify the most recent address of a person.
• To facilitate an increased match to Census of Population to acquire household classification variables.
B. Interviewer recruitment
Work is continuing in recruiting the three co-ordinators and 35 interviewers required to deliver the SVS. The call for household interviewer applications ran for several weeks in February and March. The office received over 500 applications for the role. The applications have been shortlisted for interviews and five interview panels have been compiled to conduct the interviews. The interviews are currently ongoing and Social Data Collection (the team within the CSO dealing with the field data collection) will be able to state at the end of the interview process how far we have gotten in meeting the staffing requirements for the survey.
Training for interviewers and co-ordinators will begin on the 16th May. Training will include aspects such as:
a. HR induction, Health & Safety, Working with sensitive topics
b. Statistical Confidentiality & Data Protection
c. Admin – use of equipment, case management system
d. Doorstep Techniques
e. Instruments - SVS overview, Scripts, Working with sensitive topics
C. CSO Social Statistics Ethics Advisory Group update
The third meeting of the CSO Social Statistics Ethics Advisory Group was held on the 1st April 2022. As per the meetings of the group on the pilot, this meeting concentrated on how the CSO was going to meet its ethical responsibilities as defined by the WHO principles. This was summarised in a formal submission document submitted in advance to the group and observations were shared/addressed in advance of the meeting.
The meeting then focused on discussion and clarification of some of the observations raised. The group are drafting a response to the Director General on the operation of the main survey. This group has an advisory function and any decisions relating to the conduct of the survey are for the CSO to make.
No future meetings with this group are envisaged on this survey. The Group will be supplied with an update towards the end of the field collection period highlighting any ethical matters which arose during the field collection.
4. Finance
The CSO acknowledged the payment received from the Department of Justice for 2022 work. An overview report on Q1 2022 spend was discussed. It was noted that the majority of the spend will be over the field work period of June to November. The final number of interviewers available for the survey will be confirmed for the next meeting.
5. Further analysis update from Department of Justice
The Department are aware of the likely unmet need for prevalence estimates for sub populations due to the nature of the national survey which will include migrant populations, traveller communities, people with intellectual disabilities living in the community, etc, however not at the level required to produce disaggregated official statistics at that level. The focus will continue on the completion of the main survey and once this is completed, options for further studies, likely qualitative in nature, can be explored.
6. Communication plan
The CSO described the proposed communication plan which will focus on validation rather than promotion. Experience from other EU countries was shared. The office will maintain its usual approach to surveys by preparing the introductory material for the taking part in a survey section of the website, as well as preparing a press release to highlight the start of the data collection period. A draft of the press release will be shared with the Department prior to its release.
7. Next meeting
June 2022 was agreed as the month for the next official Steering Group meeting. A date will be agreed closer to the time. A virtual meeting will be booked and can be revised closer to the date if restrictions are lifted in the interim.
8. AOB
The CSO shared that the annual publication, Recorded Crime Victims 2021 and Suspected Offenders 2020, will be released on Wednesday 27th April.
| Action | Owner |
|---|---|
| Publish agreed minutes | CSO |
| Share draft press release for SVS survey with Department | CSO |
| Confirm date for June meeting | CSO |