We recruited local interviewers who work for a fee. The interviewing programme is managed from Hull and York by Maggie Bustard, Robert Chester and Glennis Whyte but supervised locally. All respondents are offered expenses. For the cross-sectional survey we are using a mainly structured questionnaire. There is provision for some qualitative exploration.
Interviews take between two and six hours to complete.
For the re-interviews with the panel we are using a very focussed and shorter schedule. In the study of service provision we are focussing on several general organisational issues in relation to SSD-SWD activities. Key informants in each of the five SSI-SWDs have been interviewed by Philip Tether and Keith Tolley about currently available statutory, voluntary and private services, about management and coordination arrangements and about plans for the future. These interviews have been supplemented by an analysis of policy documents, discussions with senior practitioners and social workers at the basic levels of professional practice, attendance at meetings and assembling case studies. Key informants from other statutory services and voluntary agencies were identified as our knowledge and experience of each locality developed.