Scottish Government

Detailed breakdown of sample

Experience of undertaking Scottish Government Social Research

Table 1 shows a breakdown of respondents by the amount of time they have personally been involved in tendering for the Scottish Government. Responses show extensive experience with Scottish Government Social Research amongst the sample. Almost half of the respondents had more than 5 years experience of being involved in tendering for the Scottish Government, and about a third had 1-3 years experience. It should be noted, however, that 9 respondents in the sample have not answered this question.

Table B shows the analytical units that respondents have personally had most contact with. For this question, respondents were asked to select as many options as applicable. Responses show a good spread in terms of contact with different analytical services. With the exception of the international research team, all other analytical research units have been selected by at least two contractors as the research unit they have had most contact with. Health & Community Care was the departments selected by the largest number of contractors, closely followed by Enterprise & Lifelong Learning.

Table C shows a breakdown of respondents by the type of Scottish Government research they have so far tendered for. Once again, respondents could choose as many options as applicable. Responses show a good spread across all types of research, with at least two contractors having undertaken each of the types listed. Monitoring and evaluation and qualitative research were the types of research most frequently tendered for by the current sample, while opinion polling had only been tendered for by two of the respondents.

Table D shows a breakdown of respondents by the approximate total value of Scottish Government research contracts they had been awarded since March 2006. Responses show a good representation in terms of small and medium contracts. On the other hand, only 5 respondents had worked on large contracts (over £ 200,000).

Personal and organisational background

Table E shows a breakdown by the type of organisation respondents were working for. Responses show a good representation in terms of academic departments (24.3 %), research centres (21.6 %), Social Research consultants (13.5 %), market research companies (9.5 %) and management consultants (9.5 %). On the other hand, there were only three (4.1 %) respondents doing freelance work and three (4.1%) working in voluntary sector research units, so responses to this survey might not be representative for these two types of organisations.

Table F shows a breakdown of respondents by the length of time they have been working for their current organisation. Responses overall show that most of the respondents have considerable seniority in their current post, with almost half having more than 10 years experience, a fifth with 5-10 years experience, and almost a third with 1-5 years experience. Only 2 (2.7%) of the respondents had less than one years' experience.

Table G shows a breakdown of respondents by their role within their organisation. Similarly to the findings summarised in Table 6, responses to this question reflect a highly experienced sample, as 37.3% of the sample classed themselves as senior researchers and 49 % as directors. The other categories had a small number of responses, with only 3 respondents working in admin/management, 2 as freelancers, and one person as junior researcher.

Table H shows a breakdown of respondents in terms of the length of time their organisation has been supplying research for the Scottish Government. Responses overall show a good spread in terms of length of experience on the part of the organisation, with over half of the organisations being represented having more than 5 years experience, and a quarter of responses within the 1-5 experience bracket. Only 5 respondents (7%) represented organisations with less than one year's experience.

Level and frequency of engagement with the Scottish Government Social Research

Respondents were asked to indicate whether they had submitted any expression(s) of interest, tender application(s), and/or worked on a contract since March 2006. This question served as an indication of the stages of the procurement process respondents had experienced, so Questback could direct them to the relevant sections in the survey. Responses are summarised in Table I.

Table I shows that most of the respondents had a good knowledge of the different procurement stages, with 78.7 % having submitted an expression of interest form, 73.3 % having submitted a tender, and 53.3 % having worked on a research contract. There were, however, 10 (13.3%) respondents who selected 'none of the above', thereby indicating that they had not been involved with Scottish Government research since the introduction of the new procurement procedures. These respondents were directed through three alternative questions to the end of the questionnaire. The questions looked into potential barriers for engagement with Scottish Government Social Research, and the findings are summarised in the section under this name, at the very end of the report. The rest of the survey questions were answered by the remaining 65 respondents.

Table J shows the number of times respondents have submitted expression of interest forms, tenders, and worked on a contract, since March 2006. Responses show that a quarter of the remaining sample had submitted 5 expressions of interest and above; 16% had also submitted 5 tenders or above; and 6.5% had worked on 5 or more contracts since March 2006. These findings are reassuring, as they suggest that survey responses on the different aspects of the procurement process are generally based on more than one experience of each stage.

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