CHAPTER 1 Introduction
Background and context
The Culture and Sport Module in the Scottish Household Survey was initially commissioned in 2006 by the Tourism, Culture and Sport Group in the then Scottish Executive. Previous surveys carried out by the Scottish Arts Council to collect culture participation data, and by sportscotland to collect sport participation data, were carried out separately, using different methods of collection and a different set of respondents. It was therefore decided that culture and sport data should be collected within one module, using the Scottish Household Survey methodology to capture a robust and nationally representative set of data that could be cross-analysed by culture and sport participation.
Wide consultation on the culture content of the survey took place within Culture Policy in the Scottish Government, and with all the relevant Non-Departmental Public Bodies and related cultural agencies so that main interests were covered. Liaison also took place with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport in order to ensure some core culture and sport questions were comparable with the English 'Taking Part' survey, and provide scope for future comparisons between the two national surveys. The detailed questions on culture contained in the Culture and Sport Module are not intended to provide results at Scottish Local Authority level. However, the main Scottish Household Survey contains a small number of complementary questions on cultural participation. These questions in the main survey are intended to provide results at local authority level for key categories of cultural activities and events after 2 years of data collection (with first local authority level results due in autumn 2009).
Since then, Scotland has seen a new administration come into power, and the restructuring of the Government into Directorates, with national outcomes focusing on aims and ambitions for Scotland. With the establishment of the Scottish Government, Culture Policy moved into the newly formed Europe, External Affairs and Culture Directorate, and Sport into the Health Directorate. This report therefore focuses on the results of the questions on CULTURE from the Culture and Sport Module, to inform Culture Policy in the Scottish Government on participation in culture across Scotland. A separate report will be produced to inform Sport Policy, focusing on issues relevant to the Health Directorate in which it is now located.
This report provides unprecedented information on cultural participation in Scotland at a national scale, and in 2009 will provide results arriving from two years' worth of data - c 7,000 respondents - that can be disaggregated further to different groups in the community and explore the issue of under-representation and barriers to participation. This report therefore, does not only examine the level and extent of cultural participation and attendance, but explores participation in more depth by examining what people get out of participating in culture, what could be done to encourage them to participate more, and reasons why some people do not participate at all. It should be noted that the main aim of this report was to publish the key results on culture from the Culture and Sport module within an appropriate timescale. Hence no attempt has been made to model the key factors which directly affect an individual's participation in culture. However, in future it may be possible to use data from the culture and sport module to identify and further explore these factors.
Where a relationship is observed between two variables (for example, people living in more deprived areas are less likely to visit the cinema) we cannot infer that living in a deprived area is the underlying cause. Behavioural patterns are likely to be caused by several different factors, data on some of which may not have been collected in this survey.
The arts and culture are areas that connect into many other Ministerial portfolio areas and that contribute to many aspects of life in general. Participation in the arts and culture has been shown to contribute to individual well-being, self-esteem, confidence, acquiring new skills, improved mental and physical health and better educational attainment. At a community level, cultural participation can contribute to community cohesion, pride and confidence, reduced social exclusion, enhance a 'sense of place', renew interest in heritage and the environment, and make communities feel safer and stronger. Culture is also related to our sense of national identity and plays an important role in attracting tourists to Scotland to enjoy our cultural facilities, heritage and landscape.
Under the National Performance Framework, the Scottish Government's purpose is "to focus government and public services on creating a more successful country, with opportunities for all of Scotland to flourish, through increasing sustainable economic growth". As culture is such a cross-cutting activity, and relates to many different aspects of life and society in general, it is seen as contributing to the Government's Purpose and all of the National Outcomes for Scotland. These are:
- We live in a Scotland that is the most attractive place for doing business in Europe
- We realise our full economic potential with more and better employment opportunities for our people
- We are better educated, more skilled and more successful, renowned for our research and innovation
- Our young people are successful learners, confident individuals, effective contributors and responsible citizens
- Our children have the best start in life and are ready to succeed
- We live longer, healthier lives
- We have tackled the significant inequalities in Scottish society
- We have improved the life chances for children, young people and families at risk
- We live our lives safe from crime, disorder and danger
- We live in well-designed, sustainable places where we are able to access the amenities and services we need
- We have strong, resilient and supportive communities where people take responsibility for their own actions and how they affect others
- We value and enjoy our built and natural environment and protect it and enhance it for future generations
- We take pride in a strong, fair and inclusive national identity
- We reduce the local and global environmental impact of our consumption and production
- Our public services are high quality, continually improving, efficient and responsible to local people's needs
This Report illustrates the findings on participation in, and attendance at, cultural activities and events; visits to cultural sites and places; barriers to participation and attendance; what would encourage people to participate or visit more often; and reasons why people do not participate or visit at all. The Module also looked at people's childhood experiences of culture; use of the internet to access cultural websites; and volunteering in cultural activities, the findings of which are also presented here.
The survey has shown that the overall participation and attendance rate for any cultural activity or any cultural event, or visits to any cultural place in the last 12 months is 91% ie the vast majority of the population living in Scotland. However, analysis does demonstrate that certain groups in Scotland's population are still under-represented when it comes to participating in, or attending, cultural activities and facilities, and the survey has explored the reasons why, so that cultural policymakers and providers can learn more about such groups and consider what could possibly be done to encourage them to participate.
Methodology
The Culture and Sport Module of the Scottish Household Survey ( SHS), having been identified as a requirement of the current survey specification, was first implemented in calendar year 2007. This was the first year of a two year 'sweep'. Once data collection for 2008 has been completed, the module will 'rest' for the next two years, with the intention that it will run again in 2011 and 2012, funding permitting.
The sample - one fifth of the full SHS sample (or one quarter of the main sample) - is such that the 2007 data can be used to produce analysis at the national level. Once data are available for both 2007 and 2008, it will be possible to produce further analysis at a disaggregated level (for example, some of the larger local authorities or groups of authorities).
The achieved response rate for the culture and sport module in 2007 was 67%. This figure is calculated as the proportion of eligible addresses at which an interview was achieved and the comparable response rate for the main SHS was 65%. The final achieved sample for the culture and sport module in 2007 consists of 3,383 adults aged 16 and over.
Data collection for the Culture and Sport Module (and the main SHS) is carried out using Computer Aided Personal Interviewing ( CAPI). This has the dual advantage of allowing a greater complexity of questionnaire design while improving data quality, since the need for a separate data entry stage is eliminated.
Perhaps because this was the first year of running the Culture and Sport Module, some minor routing errors occurred within the survey script. These were dealt with promptly and significant efforts were undertaken to collect any missing data.
The full 'methodology and fieldwork outcomes' report for the 2007 SHS, which provides more detailed information on areas such as sample design, fieldwork and weighting, can be found at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/08/06160523/0
Choice of individual income rather than household income for analysis
In this report, analyses based on income have used the adult's personal income as opposed to net household income. Whilst it is recognised that this is not perfect since, for example, adults with no personal income living in a household with high income are likely to benefit to some extent from that income (for example, those aged 16-18 in full time education). It is important to bear this in mind when looking at the results since the group of people with the lowest personal income do not necessarily live in low income households.
The alternative would have been to use annual net household income, which does not take into account differences in household size and composition and also implicitly assumes that all members of the household would have equal access to the available income.
On balance, it was decided to use personal income which it was felt was the best available variable to link income to the person responding to the questions. However, it would be interesting at some stage to do further analysis to investigate differences in the analysis produced using the two options. Also, if equivalised household income data (which takes account of household size and composition) were available, it would be interesting to explore this as a possible alternative.
Urban / Rural classification
The Scottish Government six-fold urban/rural classification of Scotland has been adopted. This classification is based on settlement size and remoteness (measured by drive times). The classification being used on this report is the version released in 2008.
More detailed information on the classification can be found in Annex 2 of the SHS Annual Report (results from 2007) http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/08/07100738/17
Accuracy of estimates
As with any sample survey, the estimates produced from the data might differ from the true values in the population, due to various types of sampling error.
The table in the main SHS report annex shows the 95% confidence limits for a range of estimates calculated for a range of sample sizes. To estimate the potential variability for an estimate for the survey, you should read along the row with the value closest to the estimate until you reach the column for the value closest to the sub-sample. This gives a value which, when added and subtracted from the estimate, gives the range (the 95% confidence interval) within which the true value is likely to lie. Values and differences that are clearly outside the confidence interval for an estimate will probably be significant, those on the margins might not be and more formal tests would be needed. The smaller the sample size, the wider the confidence intervals will be.
The table can be found at. http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/08/07100738/19
Due to the complex sample design used for the survey, an average design factor of 1.2 has been applied to this table. This widens the confidence interval by a factor of 1.2 (compared to a similar table based on simple random sampling). It should be noted that 1.2 is an average value that is considered to be a reasonable approximation. The true value of design factor will vary to some extent for different variables that are explored in this report.
Reporting conventions
In tables showing percentages as whole numbers, zero values are displayed as a dash (-), values between 0% and 0.5% are displayed as 0% and values between 0.5% and 1% are rounded to 1%. Where percentages are shown to one or more decimal place, the final digit will have been rounded up or down. As a result of rounding within tables, the sum of individual items may not equal the totals for rows or columns.
In some tables, percentages have been removed from columns and replaced with '*' where the base on which percentages would be calculated is less than 100. These data are judged to be insufficiently reliable for publication.
Access to data
We will consider making a simplified data set available following the initial two year 'sweep' (data covering 2007 and 2008) in a similar way to the main SHS (using SHS Lite). This is because we are keen to ensure that full use is made of this rich data source.