Recruitment Report
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
THE CITIZENS’ ASSEMBLY OF SCOTLAND: RECRUITMENT OF MEMBERS TECHNICAL REPORT PREPARED BY MARK DIFFLEY CONSULTANCY AND RESEARCH LTD FOR THE SECRETARIAT OF THE CITIZENS’ ASSEMBLY OF SCOTLAND January 2020 1 Contents Contents ..................................................................................................................................2 Introduction ............................................................................................................................3 Background ............................................................................................................................3 Aims of the recruitment of members ..............................................................................4 Purpose and structure of report.......................................................................................4 Acknowledgements..............................................................................................................4 Recruitment methodology..................................................................................................5 Introduction ............................................................................................................................5 Eligibility for membership ..................................................................................................5 Recruitment strategy and method ...................................................................................6 Stage 1: Selecting and working postcodes ..................................................................8 Stage 2: Briefing and instructing interviewers, supported by recruitment and fieldwork materials ...............................................................................................................9 Stage 3: Undertaking the recruitment.......................................................................... 10 Stage 4: Management and monitoring ........................................................................ 11 Target quotas ...................................................................................................................... 11 Households visited............................................................................................................ 12 Non-participation ............................................................................................................... 12 The profile of Assembly members................................................................................ 14 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 14 Profile of the initial 120 .................................................................................................... 14 Communication during fieldwork and Assembly withdrawals ............................ 17 Profile of the final membership ..................................................................................... 18 Appendices .......................................................................................................................... 22 Appendix 1 – Additional information given to households................................... 23 Appendix 2 – Recruitment questionnaire ................................................................... 29 Appendix 3 – Polls used for political estimates ....................................................... 41 Appendix 4 – Privacy Notice .......................................................................................... 45 Appendix 5 - Showcards.................................................................................................. 49 Appendix 6 – Interviewer Instructions......................................................................... 54 2 Introduction Background The Citizens’ Assembly of Scotland was announced on April 24th, 2019 by the First Minister of Scotland in a Parliamentary statement on Brexit and Scotland's future. The proposal for a Citizens’ Assembly of Scotland marked the first time that such an event would take place in the country, bringing together a broadly nationally representative group of members of the adult population of Scotland to discuss and deliberate about some of the key issues. It was agreed that the Assembly would consider three key questions: 1. what kind of country are we seeking to build? 2. how can we best overcome the challenges Scotland and the world face in the 21st century, including those arising from Brexit, and 3. what further work should be carried out to give us the information we need to make informed choices about the future of the country? The Assembly would decide for itself which challenges it wanted to consider, examine the current constitutional arrangements for dealing with those challenges and the options for constitutional reform, and set out what further work is required to provide the information that will allow the people of Scotland to make an informed choice about the future of the country. A minimum of 100 citizens, selected randomly so as to be broadly representative of the population eligible to vote under the arrangements proposed in the Scottish Elections (Franchise and Representation) Bill 2019, were to be recruited to participate in all meetings of the Assembly, over six weekends between October 2019 and April 2020. The principles of the Assembly were set to be: Independence from government: including through the appointment of impartial and respected Conveners, an arms-length secretariat, and expert advisory groups. Transparency: at all levels of the operation of the Assembly, from the framing of the questions, to the selection of members and expert witnesses, through to proactive 3 publication and live-streaming of deliberative sessions and clarity about what the outputs will be used for. Inclusion: extending not just to those invited to take part as members, but also to the operations of the Assembly itself. Access: the wider public must be able to see and comment upon the work of the Assembly, and stakeholders must feel that they and their interests have a route into the Assembly. Balance: the information used to build members’ (and the wider public’s) learning must be balanced, credible and easily understood. Cumulative learning: embedded into the design of the Assembly, to ensure members develop a rich understanding of the issues considered and have time to do so. Open-mindedness: the Assembly will be a forum for open-minded deliberation between participants, ensuring the public see it as a genuine process of enquiry, and to help ensure that it receives an open-minded response from the parliament and government. Aims of the recruitment of members As expressed at the outset of the recruitment process, the stated aim was for ….an Assembly membership of a minimum of 100, sustained throughout the entire life of the Assembly. In practice, this will require recruiting circa 120 members plus a smaller number of replacement members. Purpose and structure of report The purpose of this report is twofold; firstly, to set out the steps taken to recruit the members of the Citizens’ Assembly of Scotland and, secondly to set out the profile of those selected, considering the extent to which they match the target profile of the adult population of Scotland as set out prior to recruitment in August 2019. Acknowledgements We would like to thank all participants who agreed to speak to us and those who became members of the Citizens’ Assembly of Scotland and have committed to the process. 4 Recruitment methodology Introduction As set out above, the overall aim was to recruit 120 eligible members, drawn to be a ‘mini public’ of the population of Scotland, aged 16 and over, according to a range of socio- demographic, geographic and political attitudes criteria. This section sets out the approach to recruitment of members to the Citizens’ assembly of Scotland, including: eligibility for membership, recruitment strategy and method, overview of recruitment strategy, detailed in four stages of the process, target quotas, households visited, non-participation. Eligibility for membership To be eligible to be selected as a member of the Citizens’ Assembly of Scotland it was specified that people had to be: eligible to vote under the Scottish Government’s proposed franchise for Scottish Parliament and local government elections as set out in its Electoral Reform Consultation in 2017, available and willing to attend all six meetings of the Citizens’ Assembly. In addition, prospective members had to: not be elected or appointed representatives (including MSPs, MPs, MEPs, councillors and Members of the House of Lords), not be staff or officers of political parties, not be a public appointee or senior public / civil servant whose job restricts them from participating in political activity, not have participated in a market research discussion group / focus group in the last 6 months Each of the eligibility criteria were checked during the recruitment process and recruited participants signed completed questionnaires to confirm all answers were truthful and correct. 5 Recruitment strategy and method As some groups will be harder to reach than others it was recognised that it might not be possible in practice to meet the full range of criteria exactly, in particular as the recruitment progressed to its latter stages. A daily review process between the research team at Mark Diffley Consultancy Research and the interviewer team during