Case study: Age Scotland’s Big Survey
Background
Age Scotland is the leading charity representing older people in Scotland and supporting their rights and interests. Its vision ‘is a Scotland where everyone can love later life’.
Purpose
Scotinform has been working with Age Scotland for several years surveying older people in Scotland. In February 2021 Age Scotland launched the Big Survey and invited people aged 50+ across Scotland to provide feedback on the issues and challenges they face and identify where change is needed. The first Big Survey included questions on health and wellbeing, housing, ageism, representation of older people in the media and the impact of Covid-19.
The findings from The Big Survey will help Age Scotland to prioritise its campaigns and help shape its media and policy development, and influencing work.
Methodology
It was important that the Big Survey was accessible to older people in different formats. A survey available to complete online and on paper provided the opportunity for recipients to complete the Big Survey in the way that best suited them.
The paper survey was printed in booklet format, using an accessible font size and accompanied by a freepost envelope ensuring that the recipient did not incur postal charges when returning their completed survey to Scotinform.
The survey was distributed through Age Scotland’s networks, and the general public, and a total of approximately 3,500 completed responses were received with 50% submitted online and 50% using the paper format.
The final report was shared with key stakeholders including the Scottish Government and an Executive Summary was shared with older people who completed the Big Survey and via the Age Scotland website.
Impacts
The data will be used by Age Scotland, as well as by other key stakeholders, to improve the lives of older people in Scotland.
“The Big Survey is such an important piece of work for Age Scotland and will be used to inform our work across the charity from service delivery to our influencing priorities. We worked with Scotinform to finalise the questions and get their expert advice which was invaluable as we hope to re-run the Big Survey in several years to track trends and patterns. The analysis carried out by Scotinform has provided us with rich data and we were very pleased with the response rate.
Despite developing and launching this during a global pandemic we knew we were in safe hands working with Scotinform as they understand our priorities as a charity and couldn’t be more easy to work with. We were kept well informed throughout the entire process, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend working with them.”
Ashleigh de Verteuil, Senior Policy Officer, Age Scotland
Why Scotinform?
We understand the need to design and prepare surveys relevant to target audiences to make sure that as many people as possible are given the opportunity to share their views and have their voice heard.
We work closely with clients to ensure that surveys include content which will elicit meaningful data and prepare reports in multiple formats, where required, to ensure the findings are shared and actioned.