Sampling of TSOs for interview

In order to assist in drawing out wider hypotheses from the case studies, interviews were conducted with a wide ‘range’ of groups campaigning on UK Child Poverty policy; known as ‘maximal variation’ sampling (Flick, 1998, p70). This allows comparisons and contrasts regarding how different factors affect the methods of Third Sector campaigning to be drawn out between the cases. For this reason, interviews were conducted with policy workers within 9 different organisations to give a wide ‘breadth’ of cases.

The first stage of sampling organisations for interview was the creation of a

comprehensive list of organisations working nationally to change policy and practice in

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the field of child poverty (the relevant population). This list acted as a ‘sample frame’

from which prospective interviewees were chosen.

This was achieved by using a variety of sources (see below), to identify as many different organisations involved in campaigning on issues of Child Poverty as possible:

1. The analysis of the Select Committee was used as a basis for identifying potential organisations (and individuals) for interview. Organisations who gave evidence to the Select Committee’s recent report on child poverty were examined in more detail, and the fact that they gave evidence was used as evidence of an interest in campaigning on Child Poverty.

2. The membership list from the End Child Poverty Coalition was used as a basis for further exploration of member organisations, and was used itself as evidence of an interest in child poverty campaigning.

3. The websites of organisations uncovered in 1 and 2 were further explored for evidence of an active interest in Child Poverty; either in their mandate, or in the work that they have undertaken.

4. The list was sent to two experts with knowledge of the field for comments and suggestions.

5. In some cases, interviewees provided signposting to further important organisations working in the field.

This sampling method identified all the key Third Sector Organisations working on child poverty, and a substantial number of other organisations working in the area and

undertaking some work on child poverty. In total 39 organisations were identified (some of which had undertaken very limited direct work on child poverty). Certainly, enough

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organisations were identified to give a sound basis for selection of interviewees from within this sample frame.

From this list, organisations to be contacted for interviewing were selected. The sample selection in this project responded to two criteria. Firstly, it ensured the diversity of campaigning across the sector was explored, and secondly, it made sure that those organisations which were most involved in child poverty campaigning were considered in most depth and detail. This is known as ‘theoretical’ rather than random sampling, since cases are chosen deliberately and may be chosen “to replicate previous cases or extend emergent theory, or they may be chosen to fill theoretical categories and provide examples of polar types” (Eisenhardt, 1989, p537).

In order to ensure sufficient diversity within the sector was explored, all identified organisations were categorised according to a number of key factors. These were as follows:

a) Recent Relevant Activities

Sample selection focussed more on those organisations with recent activity in the area of child poverty campaigning. An initial indication of Third Sector activities in campaigning on child poverty was given by organisational responses to the Select Committee hearings analysed in the first part of the fieldwork. All organisations which made submissions to the hearings were assumed to have some level of activity within the field, but in addition, submissions often included reference to further pieces of work on child poverty

undertaken by Third Sector Organisations helping to identify further evidence of active engagement in child poverty campaigning.

Further identification of organisational activities in child poverty campaigning were identified from the organisations’ websites, and involved such things as recent reports on child poverty issues, public events on child poverty issues, and media work discussing child poverty.

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This strategy was used because organisations with recent relevant experience in the field were likely to have the most to say about methods and strategies used in campaigning on child poverty, and about the contemporary child poverty policy environment.

b) Organisational area of work:

Since interviews were primarily focussed on those organisations which were most involved in campaigning on child poverty, particular attention was given to those organisations which have campaigning on child poverty at the heart of their mandate.

However, in many cases organisations which campaign on issues of child poverty, also work on other issues. Child poverty may not be an organisation’s core area of work, and they may have a focus on other issues including poverty more generally, child welfare, disability (parental disability and child disability), housing, gender and welfare, families, lone parents, childcare, welfare rights, fuel poverty and children in care.

Organisational work areas were identified on the basis of data from the charity

commission website (particularly the charity summaries available on each organisation), combined with analysis of organisations’ own websites.

In two cases, organisations worked solely or primarily on child poverty, in the other seven cases, organisations also worked on other issues. This helped to explore how the scope of an organisation’s campaign work (the policy areas in which they are active) affects their campaigning on child poverty, including exploration of how organisations work on child poverty alongside (or integrate child poverty with) campaigning on other policy issues. The results of this analysis are explored in chapter 6.

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Table (1): Core work areas of organisations interviewed

Interview Number

c) Campaigning / Campaigning and Service Providing

Many organisations involved in campaigning on issues of child poverty are also involved in the provision of services, either providing services such as advice or support to those affected by the issues directly, or by providing second tier services, such as advice and training to other service providers.

Details of service provision activities were, again, identified from data from the charity commission, and from organisational websites.

All but one of the interviews in the sample were undertaken with organisations involved in both service provision and campaigning. This is overviewed in the table below. This

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allowed exploration of how involvement in the provision of services affects the nature of an organisation’s campaigning, a subject which is explored in chapter 6.

Table 2: Summary of whether organisations interviewed were service providers

d) TSO or Umbrella Organisation/Campaign coalition

In many cases TSOs have a clear identity distinct from other organisations working in the sector. In other cases they are coalitions of different groups campaigning on a particular issue (eg End Child Poverty, UK Coalition Against Poverty, Get Fair.)

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Whilst most of the interviews were held with individual organisations, one was with a representative of a coalition of which many of the other organisations were members. All organisations were asked about their organisational experiences of involvement in

coalitions and collaborative activities. This helped to explore the role of networking in campaigning in the sector. This is a key area of interest, and one which is addressed in detail in chapter 7, on collaborative working.

e) Organisational Size

Although this work only considers organisations that campaign on child poverty on a national level, this does nonetheless, incorporate a range of organisations of different sizes, with different amounts of income, and numbers of members of staff.

Interviews sampled organisations of a range of different sizes, in order to explore how organisational size affects campaigning. The various sizes of the organisations are indicated in the table below. It should be noted that this indicates the total size of the organisation, rather than those parts of it working on campaigning on child poverty.

Table 3: Organisational sizes for sample (based on data from the Charity Commission (2010))

Interview Number Income Staff Volunteers

1 £100m+ 1000+ 10 000+

2 £100m+ 1000+ -

3 £100m+ 1000+ 10 000+

4 £1m-£10m 10-100 -

5 £10m-£100m 100-1000 100-1000

6 £10m-£100m 100-1000 100-1000

7 £1m-£10m 10-100 -

8 £100 000-£1m 1-10 -

9 £10m-£100m 100-1000 10-100

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Interview results indicated that organisational size did have impacts upon campaigning and this issue is addressed in Chapter 6.