NatCen is the UK's largest independent social research organisation with 90 researchers a field force of over 1000 and a turnover of over £20m. It only works for non-commercial clients, principally government departments and all its surveys use pre-selected samples. Examples are the Survey of English Housing for ODPM and the Evaluation of New Deal for Disabled People for DWP.
NatCen’s objective is to do high-quality and innovative work and almost all its quantitative research is carried out using CAI techniques either face to face or telephone. Typical response rates are above 70% despite the fact that many of the interviews last more than an hour.
NatCen began to use CAPI in the early 90s. Technology has greatly improved the speed and accuracy of what we can do and how we relate to our interviewees and interviewers. The ability to offer computer-assisted self-completion techniques has been particularly helpful in sensitive surveys such as on sex and on crime. At the same time the reduced need for painstaking accuracy in completing paper questionnaires has put much more of a premium among interviewers on salesmanship and a lack of technophobia. We are watching web survey techniques carefully but except in limited circumstances these are not at present compatible with representative samples. Random Digit Dialling has also not made the progress some expected.
In the end surveys are not about technology and the real difficulties that NatCen faces centre round the traditional ones of arriving at feasible remits from clients, persuading people to take part in the survey and making sure that the results are properly used.
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