1. National Statistics Omnibus Survey Nina Parry-Langdon Office for National Statistics 11 May 2007

2. ONS Social and Vital Statistics Division (SVS) SVS relocated to ONS HQ in Newport The NS Omnibus is one of the social surveys in SVS (e.g. GHL, LFS, FES) Experienced in running large scale random sample household surveys

3. Omnibus Survey Background Who uses the NS Omnibus Why and what is it used for Maintaining quality Survey design How can it be used?

4. Background - Running since 1990 - 12 survey months since April 1995 - Random sample survey - Good response rate - Fast data delivery - Maintenance of data quality

5. Who can use the NS Omnibus? Non-profit making organisations - government departments - academics - charities

6. Why use the NS Omnibus? The Omnibus Survey is a multipurpose survey that offers a fast, cost-effective and reliable way of obtaining information on a variety of topics too brief to warrant surveys of their own

7. What is the Omnibus used for? -Measuring public awareness of new policies -Providing quick answers to questions of immediate policy interest -Measuring the effect of publicity campaigns - Question testing and piloting -Providing a sample of respondents for follow-up investigations (subject to respondents' consent) note: personal information is not linked to survey responses

8. Topics Public confidence in official statistics Contraceptive use and sexual health Smoking and drinking behaviour Cooking behaviour Food safety Fire safety Gambling E-society Pensions

9. Omnibus services A focus on customer care including advice on question design if needed Client outputs - technical report - frequency counts - tables - over 60 classificatory variables - the complete dataset - sampling errors

10. Additional Omnibus services Derived variables More complex data analysis Interpretative report Publication

11. Maintaining Data quality Three main areas: 1. Sample/weighting 2. Data collectors 3. Data production

12. Sample Random probability sample Sampling frame - PAF small users Sampled area - Great Britain Sample size - each month 67 postal sectors are selected - 30 addresses at each sampling point - 1 adult per household at random at each address Achieved - around 1800 addresses each survey month

13. Weighting From April 2005: New weighting system to correct for non-response bias Gross up data by age/sex/region Population control totals used on the LFS I mprove precision for most variables Weights supplied at a person level for each month Sample errors provided

14. Data collectors From general SSD pool - rigorous recruitment - 4-day interviewer training programme Specific Omnibus training Post-briefing exercise Support from field based regional managers Support from HQ field staff Inexperienced interviewers restricted

15. Data production Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) Data checking Data cleaning Recoding Table checking

16. Quality Indicators Omnibus monthly response rate Individual interviewers response rates Interviewer experience Length of interview Number of reissues Amount of post fieldwork editing Timeliness of outputs

17. Cost Different costs for: –simple pre-coded questions –showcards –multi-codes Discounts for: –repeated modules –questions asked of e.g. < 30% of the sample

18. Example survey month: June Closing date for final questions 14 May End of programming 29 May Field testing of questionnaire 29 May - 6 June Questionnaire scatter 7 June Survey fieldwork dates 11 June - 7 July Data ready for Research 17 July - 19 Aug Data & reports delivered to clients 20 Aug Survey Timetable

19. How can the Omnibus data be used? Omnibus clients: Trend analysis (repeat modules) snapshot of opinions/awareness Merge datasets for in-depth analysis

20. How can the Omnibus data be used? Recent Omnibus reports: DoH/Information Centre for health and social care: - Contraception and Sexual Health, 2005/06 - Drinking: adults behaviour and knowledge in 2006 - Smoking-related behaviour ad attitudes, 2005 Department for International Development: - Public attitudes to development 2006

21. Dissemination Press releases e.g. Report on Contraception and Sexual Health, 2005/06 Headline findings include One fifth (20 per cent) of women aged 16-49 had undergone a test for Chlamydia at some point in the past, of whom 27 percent had done so in the previous year Awareness of Chlamydia is increasing. The proportion of people who recognised that it is a sexually transmitted infection (STI) has increased sharply since the question was first asked in the 2000/01 survey from 35 per cent to 79 per cent of men and from 65 per cent to 91 per cent for women.

22. Omnibus archived data One year after the survey month Public access via the Data Archive Non-disclosive data Restricted data

23. Contacts Omnibus telephone query: 01633 655810 E-mail:Omnibus@ons.gov.uk Website:www.statistics.gov.uk