Description:
The indicator is intended to demonstrate one dimension of the quality of public services, namely satisfaction (not necessarily the same as quality) and provide an overview of public services generally rather than detail on specific sectors.
Satisfaction is measured in relation to three specific types of public services where Scottish Government have a policy interest and where they have a high public importance - health services, public transport, and schools.
Source of Data:
The figures for this indicator come from the Scottish Household Survey (SHS), a Scottish Government survey of around 10,000 households each year. The results are published in the Scottish Household Survey Annual Report - Scottish Household Survey: publications - gov.scot.
The indicator on satisfaction with public services is derived using a question which was introduced into the survey in 2007 and asks "Overall, how satisfied or dissatisfied are you with each of these services?" and lists eight public services. For each service, respondents choose Very satisfied / Fairly satisfied / Neither Satisfied nor Dissatisfied / Fairly Dissatisfied / Very Dissatisfied / No Opinion.
The indicator is calculated as the percentage of adults who said that they were very or fairly satisfied with the three relevant services (health services, public transport and schools), though they could also express "no opinion" for up to two of the three services. So, if a respondent said they were satisfied with local health services and public transport, but had no opinion about local schools (perhaps because they have no experience of that service) they are counted as being satisfied with the services in their area. The same applies for other combinations of satisfaction and no opinion, except for the small percentage of respondents who answered "no opinion" to all three and therefore were excluded from the analysis.
As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, 2020 and 2021 SHS survey responses were collected differently than other survey years, namely through remote telephone and video links interviewing, as opposed to face-to-face interviewing. This introduced a response bias and a certain degree of measurement error which means the 2020 and 2021 data are not comparable with previous and subsequent years, as one can’t identify where differences are a result of a different data collection method versus real changes in attitudes.
Definitions:
The indicator measures the quality of public services generally. In the case of this indicator, quality is defined as the combined level of satisfaction expressed by SHS respondents towards local health services, school services, and public transport.
Criteria for Change:
- This evaluation is based on: any difference within +/- 1.5 percentage point of last year's figure suggests that the position is more likely to be maintaining than showing any change. An increase of 1.5 percentage point or more suggests the position is improving; whereas a decrease of 1.5 percentage point or more suggests the position is worsening.
For information on general methodological approach, please click here.