§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what expenditure has been incurred by his(a) Department, (b) agencies and (c) non-departmental bodies in 2002 on (i) opinion polling, (ii) focus groups and (iii) other forms of market research; and if he will list the surveys commissioned and the purpose of each. [106260]
§ Mr. Stephen TwiggThe information is as follows:
The Department commissions tightly focused market research to help inform the strategic development of, and evaluate, publicity campaigns. The spend in 2002 was £2,684,967.
486WInformation is not held in a form that would allow the projects to be differentiated into the categories requested; some would involve a combination of methodologies. Some campaigns where strategic communications research, creative development research or evaluation research have been commissioned in 2002 include the child care recruitment campaign, AimHigher, Modern Apprenticeships, Adult Basic Skills and development of online portals for parents, employers, schools governors and adult learners.
The Department also conducts research to help us understand the education, skills and communication needs of our customers. It has sampled and consulted on the views of teachers, parents and other groups affected by the Department's policies on specific issues. For example, the project "A longitudinal study of factors contributing to variations in teacher effectiveness" will investigate the factors which contribute to the effectiveness of teachers at different stages in their career, working in a range of schools in different contexts, and how this changes over time. Part of this study is to track 300 teachers over three years measuring their effectiveness by pupil outcome measures and other qualitative techniques. "Sixth annual survey of parents of three and four year old children and their use of early years services" is part of a programme of annual surveys of parents of three and four-year-old children which has been undertaken to measure patterns of participation in early years education and child care. These surveys provide valuable information on changes in participation over time as early years policy is being implemented and they also provide information on parental perceptions of the quality, range and type of provision offered and used year by year. The Department plans to replace the annual survey of parents of three and four-year-old children with a new survey of parents which combines both
the survey of parents of three and four-years-olds andthe parents' demand for child care survey.This new survey will provide a comprehensive data source on parents use and perception of both child care and early years services and enable us to continue to measure changes in participation and parental perceptions over time. Again, information is not held in a form which would allow research projects to be differentiated into the categories requested; some would involve a combination of methodologies.
Information about opinion polls, focus groups and other forms of research commissioned by the Department's agencies and non-departmental public bodies is not held centrally.