The data collection method of Phase I utilised a self-completion survey that was designed and administered online. A cross-sectional web-based survey was used to address objectives 2 and 3 of this thesis. Questions for the survey were developed from themes established from third sector reports on holiday provision (see APPG on School Food, 2015; Butcher, 2015; Rai, 2015). Themes for the survey were targeted around the types of organisations delivering holiday provision,
availability of holiday provision, target demographic, financial cost of attending the provision, type of activities and food offered at the holiday clubs as well as provision available for children with additional support needs. The survey incorporated a series of closed questions to capture data on the delivery of holiday provision and a forced choice format was used to prompt the respondent to select a response (Bryman, 2012). In addition, there were two open questions at the end of the survey: one question asked respondents to list any barriers they had experienced in establishing holiday provision; and the final open question provided respondents with the opportunity to include general comments about their type of provision. Respondents were also invited to supply the postcode of their holiday club for the purpose of mapping the location of holiday provision. In total there were 37 questions which took approximately 10 minutes to complete. A draft survey was piloted by the Principal Advisor of the Association of Public Service Excellence (APSE) and the Policy Advisor to the APPG on School Food to test the survey for face validity. The purpose of piloting the survey questions was to ensure the survey effectively captured the topic under
investigation and the questions were easy to read and understand. The survey was hosted and uploaded into Qualtrics and further tested by researchers within Northumbria University’s Healthy Living Unit, prior to distribution. This was to ensure the survey was correctly formatted in
Qualtrics and the wording and instructions were clear for respondents (Bryman, 2012). The survey was distributed to respondents via an email link and could be completed by the respondent on a computer, tablet or smart phone. A copy of the survey is included in Appendix Bi.
The study adopted a non-probability purposive sampling strategy. This type of sampling strategy was selected as, to my knowledge, this is the first survey to investigate a) the types of organisations delivering holiday provision and b) the location of these holiday clubs. Consequently, there is no existing sampling frame and little is known about the types of organisations involved in delivering holiday provision or their location. The survey was hosted by Qualtrics and distributed online through the membership bases of the APPG on School Food and APSE in May and June 2016. The APPG on School Food is a cross-parliamentary group comprising MPs, Peers and members concerned with matters relating to school food, child hunger and food education. As it is evident from third sector reports that holiday clubs are not solely feeding schemes, the membership base of APSE was included as this covers a network of managers and officers from the local authorities across the UK. All organisations and members opt in to these membership bases. An online survey invitation and link were emailed to members of these organisations. The rationale for using
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the membership bases of these organisations was to reach a large diverse range of organisations delivering holiday provision including local authorities, schools, public heath bodies, faith groups and third sector organisations. An abridged form of the survey was developed and sent to the membership base of the APPG on Hunger, in August 2017. The APPG on Hunger adopted the cause of holiday hunger under its wider remit of investigating hunger and food poverty in the UK and in 2017 published a report on hunger during the school holidays (Forsey, 2017). The APPG on Hunger is a cross-party parliamentary group concerned with highlighting the issue of hunger in the UK and their membership base includes faith organisations, charitable trusts, third sector
organisations, catering organisations and the Big Lottery (see www.feedingbritain.org). The purpose of repeating the survey was to help identify potential growth in the number of projects and a survey question was introduced to establish the year the organisation started delivering holiday provision. Using feedback from the original survey, a shortened version of this survey was designed using 20 questions to reduce the risk of respondent fatigue as well as increase the response rate. A copy of the survey is included in Appendix Bii.
The advantages of online surveys are that they are inexpensive, quick to administer and an efficient method of reaching respondents (Seale, 2018b; Van Selm & Jankowski, 2006). Online surveys can effectively reach a large sample population by email and access employees of organisations or members of professional organisations (Van Selm & Jankowski, 2006). In addition, self-
completion surveys reduce the risk of interviewer bias which can be present in interviews (Bryman, 2012; Seale, 2018b; Van Selm & Jankowski, 2006). The closed questions are pre-coded which removes the need for data entry and assists with the processing of answers (Bryman, 2012). Nevertheless, there are a number of limitations with this type of method for data collection. First, there is the issue of response rate for online surveys; as it is not possible to determine how many individuals viewed the survey, the response rate could not be calculated. In the absence of an existing sampling frame or national database on holiday provision, the initial survey was
distributed among the membership bases of the APPG on School Food and APSE in 2016 and the subsequent 2017 survey among the membership base of the APPG on Hunger. It was evident that the survey was distributed more widely beyond these associations’ networks. To encourage respondents to complete the survey, reminder emails and Twitter reminders were issued together with the survey web link. Whilst there exists a risk of multiple responses from the same participant for online surveys, the software used by Qualtrics mitigates this risk by retaining the participant’s internet address (IP) and preventing a duplicate response from the same IP address within a 24- hour period. A second limitation of the survey data collection method is that respondents require access to technology to complete online surveys (Seale, 2018b). In this study, it was assumed that respondents responsible for designing, implementing or delivering holiday provision would have access to the internet. Third, as the membership base and distribution lists are managed by APSE, APPG on School Food and the APPG on Hunger, little was known of whether all organisations on
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their distribution lists deliver any form of holiday provision. To ensure the correct organisations were targeted, one of the initial questions asked on the online survey was “Does your organisation operate a holiday scheme or holiday schemes for school aged children? By holiday scheme, we mean clubs and activities operating during the school holidays”. Respondents who answered no to this question were directed to the end of the survey. Fourth, there is a risk of respondent fatigue for surveys with a large number of questions which leads to a greater risk of missing data (Bryman, 2012). To minimise this risk, if respondents answered no to specific questions, the survey was designed to take them to the next section and, thus, prevent the respondent from reading or responding to irrelevant questions. Finally, as a non-probability sampling method was adopted, data from the survey could not be generalised to a wider population.