Citizens Panel Survey Report

Citizens panel survey report

November 2010

Volunteering, effects of the economy and budgets

This report was prepared by

Elise Carroll

Research and intelligence advisor

Policy Department

01254 585693

Section / Topic / Page number
Executive Summary / 2
1 / Introduction / 3
2 / The survey sample / 3
3 / Results
3.1 / Volunteering / 6
3.2 / Impact of the current economic climate / 7
3.2.1 / Perceptions of income and financial situation / 7
3.3 / Council and NHS budgets / 15
3.3.1 / Council budget / 15
3.3.5 / NHS budget / 20
3.4 / Social Media use / 25
4 / Further information / 25

Executive Summary

This Citizens Panel was weighted by age and geographical location of the respondents.
One in five respondents stated that they had volunteered with a club or organisation for at least once a month or more
People who live in the most 10% deprived areas of the borough formally volunteer less than people who live in the least deprived areas.
Just under a quarter said that they were living comfortably on their current income. Over half the respondents said that they were coping
Over one in five survey participants said that they were finding it difficult or very difficult on their current household income.
Seven out of every ten respondents said that they were ‘fairly’ or ‘very’ concerned about their financial situating in the coming year.
Three in every four respondents (74.2%) agreed (strongly or tended to) that in the last year they had been spending less, by cutting back on luxuries and some of the things they like to do.
68.4% strongly or tended to agree that they were more anxious or worried about their finances than a year ago
Bin collections, libraries and museums, leisure centres and schools were the four services used most by respondents in the last six months.
Just over one in six respondents (16.3%) did not list a specific council service that should be protected from cuts in spending, saying that they couldn’t say or couldn’t choose a service.
Of the participants who specified a service, the most mentioned were:
Education (16.3%)
Bins / refuse collection (14.1%)
Care Services (12.0%)
Leisure services / facilities (11.2%)
When asked about what services should be reduced, 57.6% could not specify specific services. When asked about what services should be cut, 77.5% did not specify any and 9.7% said that there shouldn’t be any cuts.
Around four in every nine respondents said that they had used the services of a GP in the last 6 months.
15.6% of survey participants couldn’t identify particular NHS services that should be protected from the budget squeeze, 14.4% said there should be not cuts.
Of those who named a service, 14.7% felt that GPs and doctors should be protected, 10.1% that hospitals should be protected.
Half the respondents could not name an NHS service that they felt should be reduced. 14.2% said there shouldn’t be any cuts. Of those that did, 17.7% said that alcohol, drug or smoking services should be reduced.
When asked about what the NHS should stop providing, 68.4% said they didn’t know or couldn’t say and 16.6% said there should be no cuts – 85.0% in total.

1.Introduction

1.1Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council has used a citizens panel telephone survey since 2003.

1.2The telephone survey and top up methodology was designed to address the falling response rates and the under representation of certain groups.

1.3This survey covered three key issues;volunteering, residents perceptions of the impact of the current economic climate on their own personal circumstances and questions about the council and NHS budgets.

1.4Where percentages do not add up to 100 this is due to rounding error or multiple choice questions.

2.The survey sample

2.1Vision Twentyone21, a Manchester based research company were contracted to carry out fieldwork for the Citizens Panel for a two year period until mid 2011. The original sample for the surveys was randomly selected from a list of telephone numbers available to research companies. The recruitment was then designed to draw randomly from the sample and at the same time ensure the panel includes residents from all wards.

2.2In addition to recruiting to the panel through telephone calls, in previous waves a more targeted recruitment for young people aged 16 to 24 has been undertaken. Flyers were distributed at college enrolment days, information was put on the Council website and homepage and most effectively, face to face recruitment took place in Blackburn and Darwen town centres. Due to the snow and ice during the fieldwork period for this survey, targeted recruitment was not undertaken in Blackburn and Darwen town centres.

2.3To assist in making comparisons at small geographic areas, around 50 people were interviewed in each ward. In order to account for the bias this would introduce in the survey sample as a whole, a weight was applied to the results that took into account the varying population size of each ward and also the under representation of young people in the sample.

2.4Data collection took place during November 2010. During this time the views of 1,184 people, whose demographic characteristics met the quotas set, were collected.

2.5Gender breakdown
46.9% of the weighted sample were male and 53.1% female.

2.6Age distribution

The weighting applied to the survey data aimed to account for the under representation of respondents in the 16 to 24 age group and over representation of respondents in the 25 to 34, 35 to 44 and 50 to 54 age groups. Graphs below illustrate the unweighted sample compared to the population of Blackburn with Darwen and the effect of weighting to improve the representativeness of the sample.

9.2% of the sample fell into the 16 to 24 age range. Although this is below the desired 17.5%, this is an increase on the February 2009 panel where only 6.7% of the sample were in the 16 to 24 age range, but less than the 13.5% in the July 2010 panel survey. This decrease could be attributable to the fact that face to face recruitment on street was not undertaken.

Age of respondents in the November 2009Panel survey compared to 2009 Mid Year Population estimates.

Base Panel1,184 (unweighted)

Age of respondents in the November Panel survey, weighted, compared to 2009 Mid Year Population estimates.

Base Panel 1,185 (weighted)
2.4Ethnicity

75.2% of the weighted sample gave their ethnic group as ‘white’ (75.3% unweighted). This compares to 80.1% of the population aged 16 and over in the borough[1].

2.5Disability or long-term illness

23.3% of the weighted sample stated that they had a disability or long term illness (23.8% of the unweighted sample). This compares to 25.5% of those aged 16 and over in the 2001 Census.

Over a third (35.8%) of respondents said that they looked after or gave help or support to family members, friends, neighbours or others because of long term physical or mental ill health or disability problems related to old age.

2.4Children in the household

61.2% of respondents did not have any children under the age of 16 living in the household (60.1% in the unweighted sample).

2.5Access to a car
Just under half the respondents stated that their household owned one car, 45.6% (46.8% in the unweighted sample). Only 15.7% said that their household did not own a car (15.1% in the unweighted sample).

Cars owned by the respondents’ household.

Base 1,185 (weighted)

2.6Length of time in the borough
Almost nine in every ten people interviewed stated that they had lived in the borough for over ten years (89.6%). 7.6% had lived in the borough for between five and ten years.

2.7Employment status
Just over a third of the sample were in full time employment (36.5%) and 14.2% employed part time. 7% were unemployed and 21.9% retired.

3.Results

All data presented in the following section are weighted.

3.1Volunteering

Firstly, respondents were asked whether they formally volunteered with any clubs or organisations. This question was asked previously in the Place Survey. As the Place Survey was administered using a telephone survey, the results are not directly comparable to this Citizens Panel.

3.1.1Regular volunteering with a club or organisation

Calculated using the same methodology as the NI6, 19.6% of respondents stated that they had volunteered with a club or organisation for at least once a month or more.

Although using a different methodology, the Place Survey figure was 23% for 2008. The Citizens Panel results are just below this figure, but taking into account confidence intervals for the data, the proportions for the two years appear to show no significant change.

Percentage of residents who volunteer

Base 1,185 (weighted)

There were few differences in levels of regular volunteering by the various demographic groups. Only age and car ownership showed significant differences.

Fewer residents from households that don’t have access to a car regularly volunteered, compared to households who had two, or three or more cars. Households with two cars had higher rates of regular volunteering than households with only one car. This is likely to be a reflection of levels of deprivation as people who live in the most 10% deprived areas of the borough formally volunteer less than people who live in the least deprived areas.

Residents in the age ranges ‘16 to 24’ and ‘35 to 44’ had higher rates of regular volunteering compared to those aged ‘25 to 34’ and ‘45 to 54’. There were no significant differences in the older age ranges.

3.2Impact of the current economic climate

Respondents were asked a series of questions that aimed to ascertain how much of an impact the current economic climate was having upon residents of the borough.

3.2.1Perceptions of income and financial situation

The first question asked related to respondent’s household income. Participants were read a series of phrases and asked to pick the one that best described their feelings about their household income.

3.2.2Which of these phrases comes closest to describing your feelings about your household income these days?

Just under a quarter said that they were living comfortably on their current income. Over half the respondents said that they were coping and over one in five survey participants said that they were finding it difficult or very difficult on their current household income.

Resident’s perceptions of their current household income

Base 1,185 (weighted)

There were some differences when comparing the demographic characteristics of residents.

Not surprisingly, a far lower proportion of those living in the most deprived areas of the borough said that they were living comfortably on their present income, compared to those in the least deprived areas. Likewise a higher proportion of respondents from the most deprived areas were finding it difficult to cope, than the least deprived areas.

As a large percentage of the Asian / Asian British community in the borough live in some of the most deprived areas, Asian / Asian Britishrespondents were more likely to say they were ‘finding it difficult to cope on present income’. Whilst a higher proportion of White respondents said that they were ‘living comfortably on present income’. There were no statistically significant ethnic differences between those ‘coping on present income’ or ‘finding it very difficult on present income’.

A greater proportion of men said that their family was living comfortably on their present income.

Generally, a lower percentage of respondents aged 55 and over said that they were ‘finding it difficult on present income’ compared to the younger age ranges. Likewise, a greater proportion of those aged 55 and over said they were living comfortably than the 25 to 44 age range.

Respondents who had a limiting long term illness or disability were significantly more likely than those without to say that they were ‘finding it very difficult on present income’ and a significantly lower percentage said that they were ‘living comfortably’. There were no significant differences for the other statements.

3.2.3Compared to this time last year, would you say that you and your family are financially…

People taking part in the survey were asked about how their financial circumstances had changed over the last year. Over two in every five people said that they and their family were financially ‘about the same’. Just under two in every five were ‘a little worse off’.

Respondents’ perceptions of how their financial circumstances have changed over the last year

Base 1,185 (weighted)

The characteristics of those respondents, where a significantly greater proportion said they were ‘much worse off’ compared to other groups included:

Unemployed
People aged 35 to 64
Disabled people: disabled respondents were more likely to say that they were ‘a little’ or ‘much worse off’ than a year ago (58.9%) compared to those without a disability (42.1%)
Carers: carers were more likely to say that they were ‘a little’ or ‘much worse off’ (52.6%) than those without a caring responsibility (42.4%).

The characteristics of those respondents, where a significantly greater proportion said they were ‘a little worse off’ compared to other groups included:

Respondents in the mid age range ‘45 to 54’, were more likely than the younger age ranges to say they were ‘a little worse off’

The characteristics of those respondents, where a significantly greater proportion said they were ‘a little better off’ compared to other groups included:

Younger age ranges (16 to 24 and 25 to 34)compared to those in the eldest (55 to 64 and 65 and over)
Asian / Asian British people (13.2% compared to 5.8% White respondents)*.

* This result could be linked to those seen in the age analysis, Asian / Asian British respondents tended to have a younger age profile than White respondents.

Interestingly, there were no significant differences by deprivation.

3.2.4And thinking into the future, how concerned are you about you and your families financial situation in the coming year?

Respondents were then asked to think into the future and say how concerned they felt about their and their families’ financial situation in the coming year.

Seven out of every ten respondents said that they were ‘fairly’ or ‘very’ concerned about their financial situating in the coming year.

Respondents’ level of concern about their financial situation in the coming year

Base 1,185 (weighted)

The characteristics of those respondents, where a significantly greater proportion said they were ‘very concerned’ compared to other groups included:

Females
People with children
Carers for disabled or ill people
Unemployed
Those looking after family or home
People living in the most deprived areas
Asian / Asian British
Aged from 35 to 54

‘Fairly’ concerned:

Disabled respondents
Part time employed

A large proportion of those who said that they were very concerned about their families finances in the coming year, had also said that they were much, or a little worse off than a year ago (68.6%).

This compares to those who were ‘not at all concerned’ about their and their families financial situation in the coming year. Only 18.3% of these people said that they were ‘much’ or a ‘little’ worse off in the last year, 7.7% said that they were ‘much better off’.

Respondents’ level of concern about their financial situation in the coming year and how their finances have changed in the last year

3.2.5Whether respondents agreed or disagreed with the following statements about their financial circumstances.

Respondents were read out a number of statements and asked whether they agree or disagree with them.

Respondents agreeing or disagreeing with statements about their financial circumstances

Base 1,185 (weighted)

The current economic climate looks to have impacted upon a high proportion of residents of the borough. Three in every four respondents (74.2%) agreed (strongly or tended to) that in the last year they had been spending less, by cutting back on luxuries and some of the things they like to do. When asked whether they felt more anxious or worried about their finances than a year ago 68.4%, over two in three respondents agreed that they did to some extent.

There was a more mixed picture in relation to respondents saving more, in case finances get tighter. 40.6% agreed to some degree, 58.0% disagreed.

For breakdowns of these questions by demographic group, please contact the Corporate Research Team.

The maps presented below show the unweighted data, based on the centre point of respondent’s postcodes (where available), for each of the statements.

Please note that there may be more than one respondent in each postcode area and that small areas that are highlighted will not pinpoint the actual location of the respondent. The maps are presented to aid the identification of small clusters of people agreeing or disagreeing with the statements.

Postcode information was only supplied by the research agency who undertook the data collection if the postcode contained more than one property. Thus, the data these maps are taken from cannot be used to identify individual people.