Sexual Violence Survey Steering Group Meeting

Videoconference between Central Statistics Office and Department of Justice

13th April 2021 3:30pm

Agenda

1. Introduction – DJ chair

2. Agreement of minutes from last meeting – update on actions

3. Update from CSO on development work to date

4. Finance – 2021 update on spend

5. Next meeting - June 2021

6. AOB

Minutes

1. Introduction

The Chair welcomed all members of the steering group.

2. Agreement of minutes from last meeting

Minor changes to the minutes from the last meeting were identified. The minutes were agreed and updates were given on each action.

3. Update from CSO on development work to date

A progress report was issued to the Department prior to the meeting and CSO gave a brief summary of the document. Since the previous steering group meeting, the office has

• Implemented the plan for the 2021 approach as outlined at the last meeting.
o An instrument has been developed to deliver the web-based questionnaire and is in final testing during the first week of April.
o Staff have been assigned to the field operation and training for this will be begin on the 12th April.
o Field work is due to begin on the 19th April as previously agreed.
See point A for further details.

• The CSO Social Statistics Ethics Advisory Group met on the 5th February 21. See point B.
• The fifth Liaison Group meeting was held on the 11th March 21. See point C.

A. The pilot

• The pilot will be referred to as the Safety of the Person Survey while it is in the field. This is to facilitate the implementation of graduated consent. Other safety elements include the single use of access details for the survey, completing the survey on their own/in private, the inability to change answers once moved to next question, etc.

• The questionnaire has been split into two instruments to allow for greater separation of personal information from the detailed SVS variables. It includes:

- Quick count instrument

This instrument will only be used in the field-based approach to allow for the selection of the respondent at random from those eligible within the household. This has been built and tested over February and March.

- Pilot questionnaire

This will capture all the SVS variables. The electronic instrument has been drafted and the Questionnaire Development Unit have been testing the questionnaire (filtering, wording errors, flow errors, etc) in March.

Version 4 is currently being tested and the final version will be ready for the 19th start date.

• One co-ordinator, ten interviewers and four HQ based staff have been identified and assigned work on the pilot. Training will begin on the 12th April and will continue for the week. Training will include aspects such as:

o HR induction, Health & Safety, Working with sensitive topics
o Statistical Confidentiality & Data Protection
o Admin – use of equipment, case management system
o Doorstep Techniques
o Instruments - Quick Count & SVS overview, Scripts

B. CSO Social Statistics Ethics Advisory Group update

The second meeting of the CSO Social Statistics Ethics Advisory Group was held on the 5th February 2021. Following on from the first meeting, 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 then drafted a response to the Director General on the operation of the pilot. While this group has an advisory function and any decisions relating to the conduct of the survey are for the CSO to make, almost all observations to the Director General from the group have been implemented.

A further meeting after the pilot has been analysed has been agreed – likely July/August. This will concentrate on the findings from the pilot and the proposed next steps for the survey.

C. Liaison Group meeting

The fifth Liaison Group meeting was held on the 11th March 2021. The meeting focused on sharing information on the development of the SVS pilot. It included an update on the CSO Social Statistics Ethics Advisory Group (SSEAG) meeting noted above and an overview of the changes made to the SVS questionnaire as a result of moving to an online version of the questionnaire. It was a constructive meeting with points raised on accessibility for the instrument, screen design and publicity for the pilot.
The agenda from the Liaison Group meeting is currently published on the website and the minutes from Group will be published once they are formally agreed by the group.

4. Finance

An overview report on preliminary 2021 spend was issued in advance. The CSO acknowledged the payment received from the Department of Justice for 2021 work. Only the spend for the first two months of the year were available. It was noted that there was a delay in invoices being received hence the figure was lower than expected. The spend will be closer to what was estimated from March onwards.

5. Next meeting

A date in June was proposed as the date for the next official Steering Group meeting. A virtual meeting will be booked and can be revised closer to the date if restrictions are lifted in the interim.

6. AOB

There was no AOB.