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DSFRS have 83 fire stations and over 1,800 staff who work to protect the 1.7 million people who live in Devon, Somerset, Torbay and Plymouth, alongside the estimated extra 400,000 people who visit this part of the country every year.
In October 2020, DSFRS commissioned DJS Research to undertake a survey amongst 400 businesses and 400 residents. The purpose of the research was to consult with residents and businesses within Devon and Somerset on how DSFRS should approach setting its budget for 2021/22 and on whether the service is currently deemed to be providing a satisfactory and value-for-money service.
The questionnaire for the survey was provided by DSFRS. The contacts for the survey were purchased by DJS Research from a commercial database provider. To ensure that findings form the research would allow for meaningful comparisons to be made, quotas were set by local authority district (LAD), number of employees and broad industry sector for the business survey and LAD, age and gender for the resident survey. We also set aspirational quotas for residents around ethnicity, in order to achieve a large enough sample for sub-group analysis among BAME residents.
In total, 399 interviews with businesses and 402 interviews with residents were completed during the fieldwork period (17 November to 21 December 2020).
