URL www.ukcensusoutputs.net
CASE STUDY OWNER Office for National Statistics, Census Offices.
Overview
The Office of National Statistics (ONS) was formed in 1996 through a merger between the Central Statistical Office (CSO) – created by Winston Churchill in 1941 – and the Office for Population Censuses and Surveys (OPCS) which was developed by the CSO’s Director in 1970. Its main function is to generate statistics about social and economic trends in the UK.
Recently, the Statistics and Registration Service Act (2007) has brought about some changes to the UK statistical system. Taking effect from 1 April, 2008, the Act has led to the establishment of the UK Statistics Authority – which is a non-ministerial department, accountable to Parliament – of which the ONS is the executive office.
Policy purpose
Under the auspices of ONS, the UK Census Offices have developed a consultation on UK Census Outputs. Its aim is to find out what users of the 2011 census want from the data gathered and to help the census offices to prioritise output needs. The focus is on high level output issues. Topics covered include products, access, dissemination and metadata.
The case-study evaluates the web-based deliberations that accompany the consultation.
Model
The website is bespoke, with several platforms enabling different forms of deliberation. The public facing aspect of the site is the blog, which displays entries posted by staff of the UK census offices (representing England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) and comments from visitors.
The blog was set up to enable the authors to raise specific topics discussed in the consultation survey (which the site accompanies). The idea was to start a new topic on a weekly basis, and when consultation themes were used up to either start new discussions based on suggestions by site visitors or to raise themes emerging from the consultation.
The case study owners also hoped to foster a community of practice via the website. The intention was to move beyond the typical stakeholders (for the most part academics and members of specific interest groups) and to develop a broader community of practice. Members were invited to contribute to the private forum (not visible to the public) and edit the wiki (which was readable by the public).
Publicity
The blog was promoted through emails to all registered census data users (numbering between 6,000 and 10,000 across the UK).
Those stakeholders who were invited to take part in the community of practice (numbering about 120) were contacted separately when the wiki and forum were established. In total 32 people registered with the site by the end of the pilot.
Other methods of engagement
This was the second formal consultation conducted in relation to the 2011 census; in addition, stakeholders and data users are able to contact the relevant census offices.
User profiles
Registration was not required of visitors to the site. Information about users was therefore gleaned from their voluntary completion of our pre-engagement survey. The average number of unique visits during the evaluation period was 610 per month; 50 people filled in the pre-engagement survey. Of these, around 67 per cent said that they were English (14 per cent were Scottish, 8 per cent Welsh and 4 per cent Northern Irish). Visitors also came from Germany and British Columbia.
Just over half site visitors (53 per cent) were men: the largest age group (made up of around 33per cent of respondents) were between 35 and 44. These trends reflect typical patterns of online engagement. The graph below indicates the spread of ages of respondents to the pre-engagement survey:
The majority of respondents claimed to be regular internet users with 98 per cent saying that they went online daily; whereas in other case studies, users generally accessed the internet from home, the biggest group of respondents on this site (almost 43 per cent) claimed to go online from work; 22 per cent looked at the internet from home and around 30 per cent accessed websites from a range of places.
There was obviously a small element of maliciously entered data. This was apparent from comments made to this effect and by the quality of some data that was entered (for example, six survey respondents aged 95 or older).
Respondents seemed to indicate a more passive approach to online engagement than those engaged with other case studies: 8 per cent had their own blog, although around 90 per cent visited politics or census related websites.
The majority of respondents (around 68 per cent) found out about the blog via a website link or word of mouth, suggesting that the publicity strategy used by the case study owner (sending a link to the website via email) provided the primary route to the website. Just under 10 per cent of respondents said that they heard about the initiative through press coverage or via another blog (1), highlighting the fact that more interest could have been stimulated via a media strategy.
While some respondents were hoping to develop a community of practice through engaging with the site or wanted to take part in online discussions (6 per cent and 20 per cent respectively), the majority (55 per cent) visited the site to respond to the consultation survey only. Overall, there was more emphasis on the non-participatory aspects of the site (47 per cent of respondents were interested in the site for work/study purposes; 26.5 per cent wanted information about the census; 8 per cent said they were just curious about what was happening on the site).
This slightly passive orientation to online engagement did not necessarily reflect political efficacy: 65 per cent of respondents were interested in politics before taking part in the online consultation, with almost 90 per cent being specifically engaged in census related issues. And participants were divided on the question of whether they felt informed about the work of the census offices (there was close to a 50-50 split). This reflected the extent to which respondents had had contact with the census offices before; 47 per cent had – mainly for professional reasons.
Respondents were engaged with politics generally: about 27 per cent had been in contact with their local MP, councillor or MEP and a higher-than-average proportion of respondents voted in elections – the table below (on electoral engagement) highlights an emphasis on local polls:
Site performance
The site attracted an average of 610 visitors per month during the pilot period, with a large volume of repeat visits (see below) suggesting that the site managed to develop some ongoing interest.
The majority of visitors accessed the Home, Blog and About pages, with volume for each reaching 2282, 807 and 309 respectively, and the majority of visits were of short duration (see table below).
These online forms of behaviour reflect those on similar websites that people visit out of interest or to engage briefly.
User feedback
There was little feedback given. In general, the initiative was welcomed by users; however, when asked to rate its performance, it was given average scores. While some appreciated the fact that the site allowed for some interaction, others expressed concern that there was too much moderation. Users complained that comments that deviated from consultation topics were not published, despite the fact that they might have generated more discussion on the blog and informed the census office’s approach to its broader priorities. As one user said:
The web is not a panacea and in many ways can actually stifle discussion.
From the perspective of the case study owners, however, the idea of promoting general (non outputs-related) discussion did not appeal given that the website was being used to supplement a departmental consultation.
Users pointed to the difficulty of interacting with the different elements of the site; the structure and architecture of the wiki, for example, could deter users who are unfamiliar with the format. Despite these reservations, the website attracted a genuine interest that was sustained throughout the evaluation period.
Follow up
The census offices are likely to explore the use of online technologies in the future for consultation purposes. Meanwhile, the site attracted sufficient interest that they should consider maintaining the community of practice outside of the consultation period.
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