Second quality of life survey
Second Quality Of Life Survey of the Borders People’s Panel New Ways Planning Partnership
Prepared For: New Ways Planning Partnership Prepared By: Scott Brand, mruk Ltd
What is in this document?
This report sets out the key findings from the second household survey of the Borders People’s Panel conducted by mruk research on behalf
of the New Ways Community Planning Partnership. The survey was commissioned as a follow-up to a previous survey conducted
by mruk in 2001. The survey sought to establish a fresh baseline of information derived from the residents who make up the
Panel.
The survey was conducted in November and December 2003 via face-to-face interview with members of the Panel in their homes. The survey resulted in the completion of 1,350 interviews covering the Borders as a whole. Following completion of the fieldwork and initial data preparation the survey data was weighted to better represent the characteristics of each of the geographical areas making up the Borders also allowing for direct comparisons, where applicable, with the previous survey conducted in 2001.
The questionnaire was developed jointly between mruk and Scottish Borders Council on behalf of the New Ways Partnership and covered a wide range of issues, including:
- perceptions of quality of life;
- the importance of community based issues and services; the priority that should be afforded to different initiatives, services and community issues; feelings of safety;
- lifestyle choices;
- the local economy;
- transport;
- further education and training;
- accessing public service providers and
- characteristics of respondents.
Appendix 1 of this report sets out the results of the survey by these eight areas.
The results can also be analysed at the level of the five area committees and the three sub-areas of Eyemouth, Selkirk and Hawick. Appendix 1 of this report sets out the results of the survey by these eight areas.
As a guide to the interpretation of the analysis it is important to point out that many of the respondents will not be direct ‘users’ of many of the services and organisations named in this report. Findings are based upon respondents perceptions of services and are not always based on their experiences as users of those services. An example of this would be comments made on organisations such as the Tourist Board and Scottish Enterprise where it is unlikely that Panel members have direct experience of using the services provided by those organisations.
The Panel itself was set up in 2000 to provide the New Ways Community Planning Partnership with a representative ‘sounding board’ to assist in the development of policies and improvement of services tuned to the needs of local people. The Panel was recruited to be representative of the population of the Borders in terms of age, gender and geographical distribution.
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