SPSS - UK Customers

Aberdeen City Council

Implementing successful on-line surveys at Aberdeen City Council

The situation

Aberdeen City Council covers a population of 200,000 and is socially diverse, with varying local needs. As part of the EU‑funded DEMOS initiative (www.demos.co.uk), a citizens’ panel was set up to find out the opinions of local residents in Aberdeen. The panel – the Aberdeen City Voice – comprises 1,350 residents representing the citizens of Aberdeen in terms of age, gender, ethnic group and geographical area. Until recently, questionnaires were in a paper‑based format.

In addition, the Council’s second DEMOS project is the establishment of a virtual panel which enables citizens not on the formal Aberdeen City Voice to complete the same questionnaire and send it back online. In this way, the project intends to test the results of both panels and identify the types of people who interact online and, more importantly, those groups who are not using this method.

The challenge

As part of the DEMOS project, Hazel Spalding, Assistant Director for Legal and Democratic Services at Aberdeen City Council, introduced a new initiative to encourage more responses from local residents by offering them the chance to complete surveys over the Internet. There were two main issues to address in order to make the project a success: the speed and efficiency with which questionnaires could be developed and response data could be entered, processed and analysed; and finding suitable solution for hosting surveys over the Web.

Aberdeen City Council had a number of key requirements, including cost effectiveness, prompt posting of surveys, easy integration of Web survey response data with paper‑based responses, and compatibility of response data with survey analysis and reporting tools.

The solution

Ms Spalding explains: “As existing users of IBM SPSS Statistics Base*, Aberdeen City Council already knew about the flexibility of SPSS Inc. software, their technical expertise and their experience of survey analysis within the public sector. What we needed, in addition to this, was for them to scope out our requirements and develop a tailored transition plan that would also involve giving our team the necessary skills to develop and roll out future surveys.”

The first Aberdeen City Voice survey questionnaire was selected for the initial roll-out. This survey, which formed part of their development plan for distribution at the beginning of January 2003, was aimed at finding out how residents felt about where they live, how their services are managed, and other aspects of living within the city. Results from the survey could then be used in future decision making to help improve the satisfaction of local residents and improve the effectiveness of local service provision.

SPSS Inc. questionnaire design and data‑entry software for the Web was quickly installed and set up at Aberdeen so that for the very first time respondents would be able to submit their responses online. Full training was also given to the analyst team so, when the online component was ready to go live, they would be fully skilled and competent to extract and analyse the results.

Once the closure date for the survey had passed, SPSS Inc. consultants analysed the survey responses to provide the council with a summary report and an insight into how to present survey findings in an easy‑to‑interpret format. These learnings could then be applied for future surveys conducted by Aberdeen City Council.

Using SPSS Inc. software has reduced [our costs] by half, and it will have paid for itself in just two years. Factor in the other council departments that will be able to use this solution for Web consultation, and the savings would be even greater.
Hazel Spalding
Assistant Director for Legal and Democratic Services
Aberdeen City Council

The results

The survey proved to be a huge success in terms of involving the local community, with a very high response rate of 73 percent. “Without the assistance of SPSS Inc., the project was looking doubtful. If it had failed, then we could have faced loss of funding and the possibility of repaying funds that we had already received,” says Ms Spalding.

"The use of the Web for consultation is going to be a large part of Aberdeen City Council's strategy, and without the consultancy given by SPSS Inc. this would have never been possible," she adds. The Internet may well be the mechanism of choice for all future surveys. This will not only mean that the council will be conforming to the directives of e-governance but will also produce savings both in terms of money and time.

Ms Spalding concludes by saying: “The cost of each citizens’ panel paper survey is about £2,000, and we do about three or four of these a year. Using SPSS Inc. software has reduced the cost by half, and it will have paid for itself in just two years. Factor in the other council departments that will be able to use this solution for Web consultation, and the savings would be even greater.”

Interested in online surveys in the public sector? Download the Aberdeen City Council PDF here.

*IBM SPSS Statistics Base, formerly called SPSS Statistics Base, is part of SPSS Inc.’s Predictive Analytics Software portfolio.