DCMS Coronavirus Impacts Third Sector Survey
Survey data on how the United Kingdom's third sector has been impacted by and responded to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic in June 2020.
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Details
The DCMS Coronavirus Impact VCSE Survey ran from 9th June to 18th June 2020 and received 1008 responses through a YouGov panel. Since this survey was conducted, the government has continued to roll out a substantial package of support which has been available to charities and the wider voluntary sector. Together with the sector-specific £750million package and pan economy measures such as the furlough scheme, the VCSE sector has accessed a multi-billion pound package of support. This has helped to ensure that organisations at risk of financial hardship have been able to continue their vital work supporting the country during the coronavirus outbreak.
DCMS Coronavirus Impact VCSE Survey - Explanatory Note
1. Details
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The survey has been conducted using an online interview administered to members of YouGov’s panel of 800,000+ individuals who have agreed to take part in surveys. Emails are sent to panellists selected at random from the base sample.
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This survey was conducted to help DCMS understand how our sector was responding to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic.
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It captures organisations’ responses on how their resilience, income and service delivery were affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and their views of possible future effects.
2. Data sources
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The DCMS Coronavirus Impact VCSE Survey ran from 9th June to 18th June 2020.
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The survey received 1008 responses through YouGov.
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The sample consisted of middle managers and higher in third sector organisations.
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The survey was carried out online.
3. Quality
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The purpose of the survey was to collect information on the characteristics of organisations in the DCMS sector whose viability was under threat in order to shape further government support. The timeliness of these results was essential, and there are some limitations, arising from the need for this timely information:
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Estimates from the DCMS Coronavirus Impact VCSE Survey are unweighted (i.e. each business was assigned the same weight regardless of turnover, size or industry) and should be treated with caution when used to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 across the sector.
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Results do not necessarily sum to the total. This is caused by the data undergoing disclosive control checks to protect the identity of respondents and the exclusion of certain breakdowns from these results due to a small sample size. Tables do not show cell results where the number of responses is small, but these are still included in the totals.
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Some self-selection bias may be present. Therefore, responses are illustrative and they should be treated with caution; results reflect the characteristics of those who responded and not necessarily the wider VCSE organisation population.
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The distribution of organisation sizes in the sample is roughly representative of organisation size in the wider sector, but the sample is not representative of other key organisation characteristics.
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Various results from the survey are broken down by organisation sub-sector and size. However, due to the reasons above, these should not be viewed as being representative of the sector as a whole.
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The survey was conducted for a need for rapid insights into the sector at the beginning of the pandemic, and not to obtain a detailed representative view of the sector.
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Key sector stakeholders are aware of the limitations of the data and have been advised not to use the data to make generalisations across the sector
These findings are illustrative and should be treated with caution, as results reflect the characteristics of those who responded and not necessarily the wider VCSE population. Therefore, results should be regarded as possible lines of inquiry that would need to be interrogated through further research before being used to make informed policy decisions. Please contact ocs-analysts@dcms.gov.uk or covid19analysis@dcms.gov.uk if you have any questions or would like to discuss the results in more detail.
4. Results
The timing of the survey is relevant in interpreting the results. The results presented in this release are based on completed responses collected in June, when both the restrictions and the support packages in place were different. Results should therefore be viewed in the context they were given in and caution must be exercised in characterising these findings as an indication of the current sector landscape.
Whilst some published data tables may appear to ask similar questions, results should be viewed individually. Below is an example, using data tables 5 and 6, which relates to the financial resilience of charities.
Table 5: Thinking about the next three months (i.e. from now until mid-September 2020) do you feel that your organisation’s ability to trade as a viable entity is under threat?
Table 6: Approximately, how long do you estimate that your organisation can continue to be a viable entity? (Please select the option that best applies. If you are unsure, please give your best estimate)
Whilst these two questions from the survey are similar, they ask inherently different questions. The results from table 5 depict organisations that believe their organisation’s ability to trade as a viable entity is under threat, but not necessarily leading to closures or large reductions in charitable services. The results from table 6 depict a slightly different picture; how long organisations can continue to be a viable alternative i.e. more emphasis on closures or large reductions in charitable services. As mentioned above, it is also important to note that at the time responses were provided, the restrictions around various support packages were different. For example, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme was due to end in October, which would have had an impact on the responses about the financial resilience of charities.
5. Data Contacts
CSY Analysis (ocs-analysts@dcms.gov.uk)
DCMS Covid Analysis (covid19analysis@dcms.gov.uk)