The December 2010 (Vol 7, no. 4) of Significance Magazine (a joint publication of the American Statistical Association and the Royal Statistical Society) has an interview with Bob Groves by Julian Champkin on the US Census on page 174-175.
(Supplied by David Swanson)
The December 2010 (Vol 7, no. 4) of Significance Magazine (a joint publication of the American Statistical Association and the Royal Statistical Society) has a piece by Jack Miles on the reduced 2011 census of the UK (as well as comments about reduced statistics in the UK) on pp. 73-74.
(Supplied by David Swanson)
The December 2010 (Vol 7, no. 4) of Significance Magazine (a joint publication of the American Statistical Association and the Royal Statistical Society) has a piece by Jon Baskerville on the reduced 2011 census of Canada (as well as comments about reduced statistics in the UK) on page 172.
The piece ends with the observation, “…if Canada finds a compulsory census incompatible with the freedom of its citizens, will the world have to follow??”
(Supplied by David Swanson)
Ellen Goddard, professor of rural economy, expects that data from the now voluntary Census Long Form will be so unreliable that researchers will need more money to gain access to private databases, according to a CTV News Report. The extra money for purchasing data, or to undertake fresh research, may not be available from strained government research funding for universities. As a result, less useful research will be undertaken, claims the report.
To meet $7m cuts, Statistics Canada is ending the Industrial Pollutant Release Survey, and the Quarterly Energy Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Survey, both pilot projects; the National Population Health Survey; the Survey of the Suppliers of Business Financing; and the Survey on Financing of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises: Globe and Mail report.
The cuts fuel the widespread dismay for the ending of the compulsory census ‘long form’ which allows high quality social and employment analysis of Canadian provinces and neighbourhoods. See posts on October 26th and August 11th, and new press coverage of EU concern.
The Economic and Social Data Service has appealed for evidence that might help to save the General Lifestyle Survey (GLF), using the following information (taken from an email generally circulated to all GLF users):
The future of the GLF (previously known as the General Household Survey) is under threat and we need your help.
The GLF may cease to continue in 2012. THE EU_SILC questions currently on the GLF may be moving to the Family Resources Survey in 2012 which would leave the GLF with only a few sections (health questions on adults’ and childrens’ health conditions and use of health services; smoking and drinking; and family information questions, including marriage, cohabitation and fertility histories). Therefore ONS are considering moving these sections onto the Opinions survey (aka Omnibus Survey) – however the Opinions survey has a different design than the GLF; the survey is cross-sectional and currently selects one adult at random. In contrast, the GLF is longitudinal and interviews all adults in the household. The achieved sample size of adults that provide a complete response is similar for both surveys.
We need your help – users of the health, smoking and drinking, and family information data, and the GLF in general asked to provide ESDS with information on:
– what you use the GLF for and why it is important for your work
– the impact of moving these topics to the Opinions survey and also the impact of not running these questions at all. If the impact is likely to be high then please give details.
Any other comments that will help argue the case to keep the GLF are very welcome.to Vanessa.Higgins@manchester.ac.uk by December 8th.
Consultation ends Tuesday 30th November 2010 on the government proposal to end its Citizenship Survey which for 10 years has collected information relevant to teh past government’s ‘community cohesion’ policies. The survey has been the main and regular source of information about how people view their neighbourhood. It could also be seen as essential to the new Coalition government’s focus on both localism and voluntary neighbourhood action.
Users are asked to respond to the the consultation exercise on the FUTURE OF THE CITIZENSHIP SURVEY which is due to close next Tuesday; this consultation outlines the intention to cancel future Citizenship Surveys.
It is essential that we understand the implications of this proposal, therefore, the consultation seeks to identify:
-how the Survey data is used,
-what if any implications there are of stopping the survey, -if there are options for alternative information sources.
The consultation runs until TUESDAY 30 NOVEMBER 2010. Please take the time to look through this and consider how this might impact on you. The consultation can be found at:
http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/communities/futurecitizenshipsurvey
Respond as guided in that link, and also to citizenship.survey@communities.gsi.gov.uk
As part of the government’s comprehensive spending review, the comprehensive survey of children and young people’s participation in PE and School Sport has been ended after seven years, as the axe falls on the entire £162m School Sport Partnership programme.
Department for Education, Data Series: 2003/04 to 2009/10
Cost in 2009/10: £329, 275. Source: http://www.education.gov.uk/research/data/general/Contract%20Awards%20DCSF%20March%202010.pdf, Contractor: TNS-BMRB
Most recent report at: http://www.education.gov.uk/research/data/uploadfiles/DFE-RR032-WEB.pdf
Survey Summary: The largest most comprehensive survey of children and young people’s participation in PE and School Sport. Seven annual surveys on behalf of the Department for Education (formerly Department for Children, Schools and Families). The surveys aimed to collect information about participation in PE and out of hours school sport, and took place between 2003/04 and 2009/10. The most recent survey comprised a census of all schools in England, and achieved a response rate of 99.8% (21,436 schools), with data collection taking place during May – July 2010. In addition, a separate survey was also conducted among FE colleges in both 2008/09 and in 2009/10: the most recent of these surveys had a response rate of 99.4% (357 colleges).
Cut details: £162m funding for School Sport Partnership programme removed on 20th October 2010. Ref: http://www.education.gov.uk/inthenews/inthenews/a0065473/refocusing-sport-in-schools-to-build-a-lasting-legacy-of-the-2012-games
Extract from the letter from Secretary of State to Baroness Sue Campbell Chair of the Youth Sport Trust:
“I am removing the need for schools to:
– plan and implement their part of a ‘five hour offer’;
– collect information about every pupil for an annual survey;
– deliver a range of new Government sport initiatives each year;
– report termly to the Youth Sport Trust on various performance indicators;
– conform to a national blueprint for how to deliver PE and sport, and how to use their staff and resources; and
– get permission from the Youth Sport Trust and the Department to use their funding flexibly or to vary how they do things.”
Information supplied by Simon Tanner, Research as Evidence Ltd
Welcome to Radical Statistics Issue 101. The editors thank authors for the contributions in this miscellaneous issue; there is no specific theme but you will find the usual critical analysis and comment.
Fernando De Maio revisits the earlier writings of Engels and Virchow, who identified social conditions as the major determinants of health and argued strongly for the relief of poverty and improved living conditions. He notes the link with current researchers; they may not be preaching revolution but are still arguing for policy change in order to reduce health inequalities.
Here in the UK, various systems of voting are being compared for effective voter representation, so the article by Don Kerr and Hugh Mellon explaining the Canadian system is topical. They question whether the system is robust in the face of increasing population drift to the cities in Canada. A comment follows by Ludi Simpson, who has written on immigration and population growth in issues 99 & 100. Ludi doubts whether population drift to cities will lead to disproportionate representation in the UK.
The next issue, expected to be out before the end of the summer, will present articles from the 2010 Annual Conference – ‘Whose Statistics?’. However, because it was presented promptly, Harvey Goldstein’s article is included here together with two commentaries on the conference.
Harvey argues that statisticians should use the most powerful techniques available, particularly for hierarchical systems that display complexity; he claims that it is unprofessional for statisticians to condone drawing conclusions from an overly simplistic analysis. He justifies the need for an ethical approach by quoting discussions on the validity of school league tables.
Two contributors, Christian Hennig and John Urquhart, present their own personal views on the 2010 annual conference and substance of the debate. We also have book reviews by Alex Lea and Jane Galbraith. Contributions of this sort are very welcome and often stimulate further discussion. Please inundate the editors with your writings!
Janet Shapiro
Jane Galbraith
Bob Sanders
editors@radstats.org.uk
ONS have begun consultation to prioritise its products, to help it decide where to make the 17.4% cuts demanded by government in the period 2010/11 to 2014/15. The consultation ends on 24th December and includes a London meeting organised by the Statistics User Forum on 23rd November. ONS proposes prioritising: statutory requirements including those of the EU, quality of continuing products, IT infrastructure to deliver products; and reducing the frequency or cutting completely other products for which least demand can be demonstrated.
This consultation refers to ONS outputs. Welsh and Scottish devolved administrations will declare their own expenditure reductions around the 17th November.
The 2011 Census is safeguarded. A ‘Beyond 2011’ project will examine ways of replacing the Census, which the government minister Francis Maude and the statistics authority have declared too difficult and costly: the intention is that 2011 will be ‘the last of its kind’.