Key information
Decision type: Assistant Director
Reference code: ADD2309
Date signed:
Executive summary
The survey was approved within MD2254: A World Leading Social Evidence Base to support policy making, which authorised expenditure of up to £175,000 for the procurement of a contractor to carry out fieldwork for a survey of Londoners.
This decision seeks to authorise up to £29,000 of expenditure for the Survey of Londoners. This will be used to fund set-up and fieldwork costs for additional sampling with residents in Southwark and Croydon in order to provide separate survey estimates for these Boroughs. The GLA will receive £25,000 from Croydon Council and Southwark Council to fund these fieldwork costs. The GLA will pay for the set-up costs in recognition of the benefit to the GLA of the larger overall sample size.
Decision
1. Expenditure of £4,000 for set-up costs of the additional sampling for Southwark and Croydon; and
2. Receipt and expenditure of £25,000 (£12,500 each from Southwark and Croydon boroughs) for fieldwork cost.
Part 1: Non-confidential facts and advice
The Social Evidence Base for London is a work programme led by the GLA Intelligence Unit. It aims to bring together existing and new sources of intelligence on social policy so that teams have consistent information for briefing, policy making and monitoring.
The Survey of Londoners was approved as part of MD2254 “A world leading Social Evidence Base to support policy making”. This MD included “Expenditure of £175,000 for the procurement of a contractor to carry out fieldwork interviews for a survey of Londoners”.
Following a competitive tender process, the Intelligence Unit and Communities and Social Policy have commissioned a research contractor, the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), to deliver the Survey of Londoners. NatCen are one of the leading national survey organisations with a reputation for academic excellence.
When developing the Survey of Londoners, we offered London boroughs the opportunity to increase the sample size in their borough through a ‘boost’ sample. Two boroughs, Southwark Council and Croydon Council, have taken up this opportunity. A boost generates more sample for the survey overall, as well as allowing individual boroughs to report headline results for their local area.
Croydon and Southwark are paying the additional fieldwork costs for these boosts, such as printing and posting invitation and follow-up letters (a total of £25,000). As the GLA will also benefit from the extra sample, the GLA will fund the additional set-up costs for drawing the extra sample in the two boroughs (£4,000).
This funding would be drawn from the 2018/19 Social Evidence Base budget (code).
The objectives of this additional funding are to:
- Increase the overall sample size for The Survey of Londoners by adding further data from respondents in Southwark and Croydon.
The expected outcomes of additional funding for the Survey of Londoners are:
- Provide separate estimates from the Survey of London for Southwark and Croydon for use by those Boroughs.
The evidence from the Survey of Londoners will be used to fill evidence gaps relating to groups with protected characteristics, and other vulnerable and marginalised groups within London. This will enable the development of sound interventions to improve outcomes for these groups.
The evidence created from The Survey of Londoners will feed directly into the implementation and measurement of outcomes for GLA strategies including:
• Equality, Diversity and Inclusion;
• Social Integration;
• Economic Development; and
• Food.
The total estimated cost is £29,000. Of this total, £25,000 will be funded from income to be received from The London Borough of Croydon, and The London Borough of Southwark (£12,500 each). The balance, will be funded from the GLA’s 2018-19 Social Evidence Base budget with the Communities and Social Policy Unit.
Signed decision document
ADD2309 Survey of Londoners borough boost sample expenditure