METHODOLOGY
The original Hard Edges study was primarily a quantitative descriptive profiling of the phenomenon, although as noted above, it had been based on a more qualitative scoping stage. The core of the quantitative analysis was built on analysis of three administrative datasets, supplemented by use of two specialised sample surveys, one focused on ‘Poverty and Social Exclusion’ (PSE) and the other on ‘Multiple Exclusion Homelessness’ (MEH) (Fitzpatrick et al, 2013).
However, the quantitative methodological challenge turned out to be much greater in Scotland, in large part because of the much patchier and more diverse nature of relevant administrative datasets, alongside information governance issues which restricted access to some of the relevant administrative data. There are also specific limitations with regard to administrative data coverage of our ‘new’ domains: MH (where services are generally acknowledged as inadequate relative to need) and DVA (an often-hidden problem where specific services only address a proportion of more extreme cases).
We therefore placed significant emphasis on a clutch of general household surveys which the Scottish Government maintains on a rolling basis, alongside a range of specialist sample surveys. In addition to the PSE and MEH7 specialist surveys just mentioned, we have also been able to make use of a new ‘Destitution in the UK’ survey8
‘Growing Up in Scotland’ (GUS), a child/family 50
cohort study which has been running for more than a decade, enabling investigation of the relationship between adult SMD and ’Adverse Childhood Experiences’ (ACEs), a topic of strong current policy interest (Theodorou & Johnsen, 2017).
As Table 2 below indicates, therefore, 12 datasets were used in total in the Hard Edges Scotland analysis, including four administrative datasets (including an innovative data linkage project from Health and Homelessness in Scotland (Waugh et al, 2018)), three general household surveys, and five specialised sample surveys, of which two cover the general population and three focus on users of particular services. A broad distinction may be drawn between the ‘services-based’ data (including all of the administrative data and some of the specialist surveys) and ‘survey-based’ data, which is not dependent on individuals’ use of services. As can also be seen, these datasets vary in the extent to which they cover SMD domains, but taken as a whole allow for the development of a comprehensive statistical picture of the situation in Scotland.
After an in-depth scoping out of each of these datasets, and their potential to contribute to the study, there was often a process of negotiating access to them, protracted in some cases and unsuccessful in others, due to data governance issues10
. Standalone analyses of
individual datasets were then undertaken, and a series of detailed working papers produced, before an overarching ‘integration analysis’ was conducted to combine the numerical estimates and profile information for the relevant SMD groupings, drawn from varying numbers of sources, depending on the specific issue under consideration. This ‘blending’ exercise entailed devising a set of weights to generate best quantitative estimates of the overall numbers and profiles, allowing for differences in coverage, overlap and reliability. A full discussion of the rationale, approach and assumptions made in this weighting scheme can be found in the Technical Report, together with details of the bivariate and multivariate analysis undertaken.
, a bi-annual Prisoner Survey, and
In addition to this multi-stage, multi- component quantitative study, there was also a very significant qualitative dimension to this Hard Edges Scotland study. As in England,
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