Scottish Rural Development Programme 2014-2020: Evaluation of Capital Grant Schemes: Annex B - Survey data

1. Introduction

This is a supporting document to the main report which presents the findings of the independent evaluation of three capital grant schemes funded through the Scottish Rural Development Programme (SRDP) 2014-2020.

This supporting document presents the findings from the online survey undertaken of grant recipients of the New Entrants Capital Grant Scheme (NEGCS), Small Farms Grant Scheme (SFGS), and Crofting Agricultural Grant Scheme (CAGS). The main evaluation report presents summary narrative findings.

Grant recipient survey process

It was not possible to issue the online survey to all grant recipients of the three capital grant schemes.

The Scottish Government (SG) provided contact details of grant recipients for 2018 only (NECGS) and from 2019 onwards (SFGS and CAGS). Data on the current SG APEX IT system are incomplete, as prior to 2019 information and data on the grant schemes was recorded in spreadsheets at an area office level (there are 16 area offices). Work is ongoing to combine the two data sets.

SG issued an introductory email to grant recipients on 13 May 2024 to make farmers and crofters aware of the evaluation, its purpose, and that EKOS would be in touch shortly by email with an online survey to ask for their views and experiences of applying for, and using, the grant funding.

An online survey aimed at grant scheme recipients was then issued by EKOS to the same grant recipients on 15 May 2024, with a reminder email sent on 29 May 2024. A total of 1,688 emails were sent and we received 393 bounce-backs – the survey reached 1,295 grant recipients.

The EKOS emails included information on:

• the purpose of the survey.
• an estimation of how long the survey may take to complete.
• the closing date for responses.
• consent.
• how the information provided would be used and protected.
• a weblink to the privacy notice.

The survey included a question on whether the grant recipient would like to be notified by email when the final report and summary were published by SG and where they could find a copy of the report.

The survey was promoted in a range of ways including:

• through the area offices, Farm Advisory Service, and Scottish Association of Young Farmers Clubs.
• on SG social media channels and Rural Payments and Services webpage
• Scottish Rural Network newsletter and website.
• EKOS asked external stakeholders consulted as part of the evaluation to promote the survey via social media channels, direct email and/or organisation newsletters.

Survey responses

The survey, which was hosted on SNAP software, closed on 12 June 2024 and a total of 225 responses were received from grant recipients. The number of validated responses was 199 – and is the basis for the survey analysis. This represents a good response rate of 15%.

The number of validated responses is lower than the total number of responses received because:

• 18 did not consent to taking part in the survey.
• eight responses were removed as the grant recipient only answered one or two questions.

Survey analysis

When the survey closed on 12 June 2024, EKOS downloaded responses into Microsoft Excel for data review and cleaning prior to undertaking quantitative and qualitative data analysis.

The following chapters of the supporting document present the frequency tables for closed questions - it should be noted that respondents did not answer all questions and base numbers are provided. Qualitative analysis of open-ended questions was undertaken to identify and present common themes.