STANDARDISED INTERVIEWER TRAINING, ACCREDITATION AND QUALITY PROCEDURES ON THE MILLENNIUM COHORT STUDY AGE 14 SURVEY Nickie Rose, Anne Conolly and Rachel Williams – Ipsos MORI Kate Smith – UCL Institute Of Education, London

Background Standardisation key to achieving high quality survey data Various techniques used, and constantly evolving MCS6 is very complex Diverse study elements MCS5 – high quality training and quality control programme Demands and requirements change each sweep Complex studies present various challenges Drew on international best practice Reviewed entire training and fieldwork monitoring programme

The Millennium Cohort Study Follows the lives of over 19,000 children in the UK born in 2000/01. Cohort has been surveyed at key development ages and stages of life: 9 months (2001-2) 3 years (2003-4) 5 years (2006) 7 years (2008) 11 years (2012) 14 years (currently)

The Millennium Cohort Study   9m Age 3 Age 5 Age 7 Age 11 Age 14 Parents interview  Cognitive assessments Physical measurements Young person questionnaire Older siblings Interviewer observations Teacher survey Consent to data linkage Saliva samples Time use record Activity monitors 5

The main challenges Quantity of training content Nature of content Number of interviewers to train

The quantity of content Assessed amount we had to cover Made decisions on most effective and efficient way to train Training implemented was multi-faceted 3 day face-to-face briefings for all interviewers Practice of non-standard elements with 14 year olds Pre-tasks prior to briefings Practical exercises during briefings Homework during briefings Accreditations in non-standard elements Detailed briefing slides and instructions

Completing consent booklets, using barcodes Learning techniques Active learning Workbooks Completing ECS Completing consent booklets, using barcodes Scenarios– reluctant respondents, managing household visit

Briefing folders MCS6 MCS5

Non-standard interviewing elements The nature of content Non-standard interviewing elements Physical measurements Cognitive assessments Saliva sample collection Placement of time-use diary Placement of accelerometer

Training films

Accreditation Saliva Prepare tube Collect a saliva sample Complete despatch slip Height Assemble height measure Take an accurate measurement (and enter into CAPI) Dismantle equipment Weight and body fat Check scales are in correct mode Enter required information from CAPI

The number of interviewers Considerable interviewing resource required Could not impact on overall study timetable

Face-to-face briefings Reviewed how we had previously done them Used traditional briefing style at previous sweeps Considered full conference-style briefings Adopted event-style briefings

Face-to-face briefings Briefing structure (Days 1 & 2) Main conference room c.45 interviewers 7-8 trainers Introduction / Wrap-up Training overview Study overview Overall admin Break-out room 1 12-15 interviewers 2-3 trainers Break-out room 2 12-15 interviewers 2-3 trainers Break-out room 3 12-15 interviewers 2-3 trainers Specific training modules Group work (6-7 ints) Group work (6-7 ints) Group work (6-7 ints) Group work (6-7 ints) Group work (6-7 ints) Group work (6-7 ints) Practical exercises

Designed to ensure consistency and quality of training Training the trainers Designed to ensure consistency and quality of training ‘Train the Trainer’ developed at MCS5 Improved for MCS6 Managing event-style briefings How to accredit others Presentation skills Adapted session for Field RCs

Quality control and exception reporting

Electronic contact sheet checks

Data quality checks ECS means data quality checks carried out more quickly Discrepancies between CAI and ECS – duplications and missing data ECS data checking Routing checks - data flooding Frequency of soft checks being triggered Editing of improbable values

Recommendations Reviewing previous training and drawing on international best practice greatly improved quality of training and increased standardisation What we learned Build in time for producing briefing folders – early sign offs Make more use of films Event-style briefings – resource needs careful planning; rooms and personnel Benefits to overall timetable, less fatigue for trainers ECS gives more control over interviewer behaviour Reviewing fieldwork quality procedures improved efficiency and improved outputs

THANK YOU nickie.rose@ipsos.com