Fieldwork

The NHPS is a representative sample of the residents of Newham. At Wave 1, a simple random sample of addresses was drawn from the Council Tax listing held by the London Borough of Newham using a random start and fixed interval selection. Residential addresses only were eligible for inclusion in the survey and all persons who had that address as their only or main residence were eligible for inclusion in the sample.

The fieldwork for Wave 1 of the NHPS began on 15 June 2002, the Wave 2 fieldwork was carried out one year later in June 2003 and wave 3 in June 2004. Interviewing for wave 3 of the panel began in June 2004. As with the BHPS, respondents were followed as they moved address as long as they stayed within the borough. In addition, new residents moving into addresses vacated by panel respondents were recruited into the sample and at each of waves 2 and 3 a sample of new build addresses was issued to field so that people moving into the borough were represented within the sample.

The wave 1 to 3 nterviews are carried out face-to-face in respondents’ homes and each adult interviewed received a five pound gift voucher. Where a language other than English was required, an interviewer with the appropriate language skills was assigned to that household. Interviewers were briefed on procedures for establishing language requirements when first calling on a household and where required, translators provided.

From 2005 (Wave 4), the fieldwork is carried out by IPSOS-MORI.