The Scottish Parliament's Public Affairs Group required a programme of research to support its Public Engagement Strategy. Progressive was commissioned to develop a strategic approach to the evaluation of the public in Scotland's awareness, understanding and attitudes towards engaging with the Scottish Parliament. This evaluation programme will enable the development of the Scottish Parliament's public engagement strategy by setting benchmarks and allowing tracking of progress over time.
The Brief
The objective of this programme of research was to deliver two key outputs, the first being a core set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that were developed to assess the performance of the PAG against the Strategy. The second objective was to ensure that the tactical activities of the individual PAG teams were fully aligned with the overall KPI measurements.
The project comprised a number of fieldwork stages including:
- Familiarisation with previous research through a comprehensive literature review
- Meetings and workshops with each of the Department Heads in the Public Affairs Group
- Group discussions with the public
- Telephone omnibus surveys with the Scottish population
The Output
Progressive developed a ‘Toolkit' comprising details of the KPI measures and questionnaire, as well as tactical measures to be included in the evaluation for each of the PAG teams. Also included in this Toolkit was a bank of suitable questions plus advice on sampling and data interpretation.
A key element of this project was collaborative working, specifically liaising closely with each of the Department Heads in the Public Affairs Group throughout all stages to ensure that the final KPIs and tactical measures were appropriate.
Developing the toolkit in conjunction with the overarching KPIs ensured that the two levels of assessment were fully complementary and that the final research programme met the PAG's requirement for a strategic approach to the evaluation of awareness, understanding and attitudes towards engaging with the Scottish Parliament.