Engagement, consultation and involvement

We often ask for the views of our residents on a wide range of topics. You can contribute to live consultations and also find the results of consultations that have been completed.

If you would like to hear about surveys and consultations as they open then subscribe to our mailing list and we will keep you up to date with what is happening.

Have your say

Past consultations

You said, we did

Talking, listening and working together

Engagement is key to making the most informed decisions and developing fit for purpose solutions and services. This means Talking, Listening and Working Together with residents, people who use services and their carers, and colleagues from the wide range of organisations we work with. This can cover everything from customer satisfaction through to community and service user research, surveys and focus groups, co-production, and deliberative democracy.

MAKING EVERY CONVERSATION COUNT

The North East Lincolnshire Commitment

The Talking, Listening and Working Together (TLWT) commitment is our promise to residents and partners. It’s the foundation of mutual trust and sincere relationships that will help us make the right decisions and support positive change. We have promised to:

Talking

Listening

Working Together

Created by community members and representatives from the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector working as equal partners with the CCG and Council and agreed as the way to do things in North East Lincolnshire.

Our strategy

The talking, listening and working together strategy (PDF, 339KB) sets out how the council and the NHS North East Lincolnshire Health and Care Partnership will work to meet this commitment.

We have a Talking, Listening and Working Together steering group made up of officers from the council and NHS North East Lincolnshire Health and Care Partnership, along with community members and representatives from the VSCE Forum who are working together to make the changes we need to ensure we meet the commitment.

Engagement toolkit

It’s quite easy to think that every problem can be solved by providing the right service. If you talk people who experience that problem, it sometimes becomes clear that a new or revised service isn’t the answer. Effective solutions cannot be designed without understanding the people who are living through what we are trying to fix.

In North East Lincolnshire we have made a commitment talking, listening and working together at every stage of design and delivery.

It is not only the right thing to do, there are also specific legal requirements for public sector organisations to consult, inform, involve, and engage with communities and stakeholders as part of their decision-making processes.

Before engagement planning begins, we need to consider what is relevant, proportionate, or necessary. It should be clear what the aim of the activity is and what people can or will be able to influence.

Engagement should happen at the start of a project. This is not always the case. For example, when policy decisions or changes come direct from Government. Even so, it is best practice to still engage residents and service users ahead of a change to what they are used to being implemented. They can and should be able to influence practicalities about the change and provide a local view.

An exception to this might be something that needs to change because of an emergency. For example, if a service is going to very quickly become unsafe. This could be through a physical problem in the location or a staffing shortage that is going to be a long term issue.

In this case, it is still important to follow the principles outlined in TLWT when delivering messages widely and to all groups.

Engagement planning

Your engagement plan should cover:

Aims/impact and influence of engagement
Understand
Equalities Analysis
Stakeholder mapping
Assessing risk
Timescales
Resources (budgets, staff, kit)
Methodology (how will we talk, listen and work together?)
Analysis – establish who and how you will analyse your results
Sharing results
Feedback
Evaluate

Residents should find out about how they can get involved in things that matter to them in a consistent way. Examples of where opportunities to ‘have your say’ could be regularly advertised are:

Website
Direct contact with relevant groups and services
Email notifications through partner mailing lists
Customer Access Points and Libraries
Social media
Local news outlets
Primary care/GP practices

Engagement teams have lists of people signed up to get involved. They also have contacts within local groups and organisations who can support by spreading the word. Communications teams are also well placed to support with getting the word out.

Accord was developed by the CCG more than ten years ago and has approximately 1500 members who have expressed an interest in health and social care. All members receive a quarterly newsletter, and any members with email address also get a fortnightly update, with details of the latest news, health and care surveys and any engagement being undertaken by public sector partners.
The Council also holds a list of over 5000 community members who have asked to be kept informed of consultations and surveys in NEL. They send out a regular email to these recipients. Information can be included in this bulletin by emailing [email protected].
These bulletins are also circulated to local public, voluntary and community sector partners.
Elected members represent their electoral wards they and have a clear role in the engagement process. There are 42 Councillors Elected Members on North East Lincolnshire Council. An elected member can also be a Cabinet member that has responsibility for a ‘portfolio’ of Council services. The Council’s engagement and democratic services teams can offer advice about working with elected members at ward or portfolio level.
Sector Support are the organisation commissioned by the Council and health partners to support the local voluntary, community, and social enterprise sector. They send out a weekly digital update to over 500 organisations, who can in turn forward your information on to their staff and customers. Sector Support also coordinate the local VCSE Forum, which is a meeting of VCSE organisations once a month at Centre4. If you are interested in attending, contact Sector Support.
VANEL supports and coordinates several local community organisations and projects across the area.
Local Community Forums take place in some communities and wards in the area. These forums often involve local elected ward councillors/members. To find out if there is one in the community your project relates to, contact the ward member.
Healthwatch is an organisation established to find out about people’s views and experiences of health and social care services.
The town, parish and village councils and North East Lincolnshire Borough Council have agreed to publish a charter which sets out how they aim to work together for the benefit of local people. This Charter is the result of discussions locally to establish a new way of working and to confirm existing good practice and teamwork. It is underpinned by the shared principles of openness, mutual respect, honesty, responsibility, transparency and accessibility
Members of Parliament – the members of parliament for North East Lincolnshire are Lia Nici (Greater Grimsby) 01472 426470, [email protected] , and Martin Vickers (Cleethorpes) 01472 603 554, [email protected]. The Great Grimsby constituency covers the main parts of central Grimsby – East Marsh, Freshney, Heneage, Park, Scartho, South, West Marsh and Yarborough. The Cleethorpes Constituency covers the rest of North East Lincolnshire – Croft Baker, Haverstoe, Humberston and New Waltham, Immingham, Sidney Sussex, Waltham, and Wolds, and the Borough of North Lincolnshire wards of Barton and Ferry.
Schools and education settings – Information and contact details for all local schools, academies, pre-schools and special schools is available at: schools in my area.
Business Networks Efactor support the local business community and coordinate a local business network
Chamber of Commerce

It is important to ensure that your communications are accessible, Navigo have created a great guide to developing accessible information online: Digital Accessibility.

The Government have also produced a handy guide for producing hard copy accessible documents and easy read versions: Accessible communication formats.

We hold public meetings to keep the public informed of changes in the local public services. Getting the right people around the table is key to holding a successful public event.

Before you start to plan your listening activity, you should consider the key target group(s) identified on your stakeholder map, and the communities where and for who the issue is most important. You may be aiming for a specific group, considering some groups, or targeting all. Where you choose to go and how you listen will be important. Residents and partners often stress the importance of going to where people are, rather than expecting them to travel to a meeting place.

People should know the purpose of the work, what the information they give will be used for, and what the listening activity will involve. They should know that responses will be anonymous as standard.

Quantitative listening approaches like surveys provide statistical information that can be quickly analysed.

Qualitative listening approaches like focus groups and interviews offer a deeper insight into the quality of experience/s.

Find out more about approaches to listening.

There are many different ways that we can work together with our communities, and we have only listed a few examples below. The Involve UK website gives a good overview of other methods.

Co-production

Co-production is a way of working where service providers, users and potential customers work together to reach a shared outcome or solution. The principle is that those who need or are affected by the service are best placed to design it.

There are a number of great examples of co-production in NEL we can learn from, including most recently the development of a mental health strategy in 2023.

Deliberative engagement

Deliberative democracy takes back decision making to the ideas established in ancient Greece where large gatherings of free and equal citizens took part in authentic discussions to enable consensual decision-making. There are different forms of deliberative process including citizen’s juries, panels, and assemblies but most are underpinned by a series of principles which can be summarised as follows:

The debate should be convened to answer a key question
Debate should be informed and informative, enabling people to explore issues from a range of perspectives based on sound argument rather than personality.
Participants should be willing to talk and to listen with civility and respect.
Participants should represent a range of backgrounds and perspectives from across the general population.

Asset Based Community Development (ABCD)

ABCD challenges the traditional deficit-based approach that tries to solve problems by focusing on the needs and deficiencies of individuals and communities. Instead of starting with a focus on what’s wrong, ABCD starts with a focus on what’s strong, and identifies local assets (people, physical assets etc.) and individual strengths to build sustainable community development.

Participatory Appraisal

Participatory Appraisal is a family of approaches that enable local people to identify their own priorities and make decisions about the future. The organising agency facilitates, listens, and learns.

Survey Analysis

Popular survey software packages often offer many forms of instant analysis. This can include instantly available quantitative results via a live link or scheduled reporting. While a survey is still live, this sort of reporting can help to identify audiences/demographics that need further targeting to increase the response rate. Understanding the difference in opinion between demographic groups helps us to understand how decisions could impact differently upon our diverse communities.

Many different variations of the standard results can be requested to help further understand the responses. These can be segmented results, device used, drop-out analysis, trend analysis, cross– tab analysis, word cloud, text analysis and theming. Analysis outside of cloud-based systems:

Analysis of responses against the local demographic background can be very helpful and is often required. This is often done in excel and usually compares demographic attributes like Ward, Age, Gender and Disability. Theming comments assigns open text fields a theme, or multiple themes and is a helpful way to quantify comments. There are also comments that are worth marking for special consideration and should be viewed by decision makers. These are often unique in nature and put forward a new or unique concern, impact or idea.

Interview and focus group analysis

It is important to thoroughly read and theme the outputs from your focus groups and interviews. Depending on the issue/issues being discussed, the theming is how you will be able to identify the key problems and areas of focus for the next steps of your project. There are different methods for theming research. If your work is focussed on designing a solution to an identified problem, you may want to use design methodology to synthesise your conversations.

If are looking at a particular behaviour, you may want to understand what people have told you in behavioural terms and use a model like COM-B.

The audience will dictate how results should be presented. For example, members of the public generally need an easily digestible set of headline results that’s visually engaging and accessible. Key decision makers, on the other hand, often require more in-depth analysis to understand the situation beyond the option the public most prefers. The length of reports is often dependent on how interested the public were in the engagement exercise and how heavily it is likely to be scrutinised. You could show how widely the engagement was advertised and detail the full methodology of the engagement. Publishing the demographic analysis should also be considered but is not necessary for most engagement exercises.

In presenting results, it is best to include the data from all quantitative questions – the core results. Themed results from open ended questions can also be included. If you are presenting to an audience, and using presentation software, is often a good idea to use anonymised quotes, or ‘personas’ which reflect your findings. These can help you to bring your identified problems or opportunities to life.

The Day Services Review that took place in 2021 is a very good example of presenting a Findings report.

Feedback – You said – We did

The North East Lincolnshire commitment promises that we will provide feedback on the results of engagement activity and how those results have affected decisions. Telling people how their views have influenced an outcome makes them more likely to have their say again in the future.

It is particularly important to share information when the solution is different to the public’s view. This goes some way to helping the public understand the reasons behind a decision. It is best practice to publish your results and their impact as soon as you can. If this is longer than six months, you should take time to update on progress.

Communications about completed engagement activity and its impact should be consistent, and respondents should know where they can get further information from. People prefer getting the results of engagement exercise in the same way that they gave their views. If they responded electronically, you should feedback electronically. If someone gave their view over the phone, take time to return the call. If views were given at community group meetings, go back and give feedback in person. The results of NELC consultations are available at past consultations. Results emails are also sent to engagement mailing lists (Accord and NELC).

Evaluating your engagement activity helps you to learn from experience (what did or did not work well), improve practice, inform future activity, demonstrate impact, and generate learning that can be shared.

How should you evaluate?

You should plan how you will evaluate your engagement activity from the beginning of your project. This will ensure that you collect relevant data for your evaluation from the outset. To develop an evaluation plan, you can follow the steps below:

Aims/purpose – For example, are you trying to understand a group’s experience of an issue of interest?
Objectives – Objectives should be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time limited. An example of an objective would be to run three focus groups, each with between six and ten people from the local community.
Evaluation questions – What exactly do you want to know? These questions should relate to your engagement activities. Who did you reach? Did you reach the people who you wanted to? Was your engagement inclusive? What did and didn’t work well and why? • Has anything changed because of your engagement work? You may also want to think about the process of the engagement itself – Did this run to the timescales you had set yourself? Were your engagement activities resourced sufficiently?
Methodology – Once you have your evaluation questions, you should then think about how you will answer these questions. Will you need facts and figures (quantitative data) such as the number of people reached by your engagement activity? Will you need narrative and descriptive data (qualitative data) to capture perspectives and context? Or will you need a mixture of both? When considering your methodology for evaluation, it is also useful to consider whether you will continually assess and reflect, or whether you will consider outcomes and impact at the end of the process. Other considerations include what time and resource you have for data analysis, who can/will participate in your evaluation, and whether you should create a baseline to measure change against.
Data collection – Once you have established your methodology for evaluation, you can begin data collection. Depending on whether you will evaluate your engagement activities throughout the project, or at the end, will influence at what time periods you will collect your data.
Data analysis – The type of data you collect will influence your method of data analysis. If you have collected qualitative data, you may wish to analyse this by coding the data and then drawing out relevant themes (thematic analysis). Likewise, if you have collected quantitative data, you will analyse this numerically to obtain relevant figures to answer your evaluation questions.
Reporting – When developing your evaluation plan, think about who will be interested in your evaluation. It is important that the project team learns from the evaluation, but you may also want or need to report your findings more widely. You should think about what the evidence you have collected tells you and report your findings to relevant stakeholders accordingly.
See the Evaluation Report of the Mental health strategy coproduction work

When a public body carries out consultation, it must do this lawfully. The Gunning Principles for public consultation were proposed in 1985 by Stephen Sedley QC and accepted by the judge in the Gunning v LB of Brent case. They consist of four rules, which, if followed, are designed to make consultation a fair and a worthwhile exercise. These are:

1. Proposals are still at a formative stage

A final decision has not yet been made, or predetermined, by the decision makers – you cannot have already made your mind up

2. There is sufficient information to give ‘intelligent consideration’

The information provided must relate to the consultation and must be available, accessible, and easily interpretable for consultees to provide an informed response

3. There is adequate time for consideration and response

There must be sufficient opportunity for consultees to participate in the consultation. There is no set timeframe for consultation as the length of time given for consultee to respond can vary depending on the subject and extent of impact of the consultation.

4. ‘Conscientious consideration’ must be given to the consultation responses before a decision is made

Decision-makers should be able to provide evidence that they took consultation responses into account

If a public body says that it is going to engage with people in a certain way about decisions, it is known as the ‘Doctrine of Legitimate Expectation’ and, if they fail to do so, they are in breach of the law. For more information visit Legitimate expectation as a ground for judicial review.

Equalities

The Equality Act 2010 came into force on 1st October 2010 and promotes fair treatment of people regardless of any protected characteristic they may have.

The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) Regulations 2011 came into force on 10 September 2011. These require public bodies to publish relevant, proportionate information demonstrating their compliance with the Equality Duty and to set themselves specific, measurable equality objectives.

Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) came into force in April 2011. It means that public bodies must consider all individuals when carrying out their day-to-day work – in shaping policy, delivering services and in relation to their own employees.

It also requires that public bodies have due regard to the need to:

eliminate discrimination
advance equality of opportunity
foster good relations between different people when carrying out their activities

How to evidence ‘Due Regard’

Case law sets out broad principles about what public bodies need to do to have due regard to the aims set out in the general equality duties. The ‘Brown principles’ set out how courts interpret these duties. For more information about the Brown Principles and the PSED, visit: Public Sector Equality Duty: DCLG Equality Objectives – 2012-2016.

Decision-makers must be made aware of their duty to have ‘due regard’ and to the aims of the duty.
Due regard is fulfilled before and at the time a particular policy that will or might affect people with protected characteristics is under consideration, as well as at the time a decision is taken.
Due regard involves a conscious approach and state of mind. A body subject to the duty cannot satisfy the duty by justifying a decision after it has been taken.
Attempts to justify a decision as being consistent with the exercise of the duty, when it was not considered before the decision, are not enough to discharge the duty.
General regard to the issue of equality is not enough to comply with the duty.

The duty:

Must be exercised in substance, with rigour and with an open mind in such a way that it influences the final decision
Must be integrated within the discharge of the public functions of the body subject to the duty. It is not a question of ‘ticking boxes’.
Cannot be delegated and will always remain on the body subject to it.

It is good practice for those exercising public functions to keep an accurate record showing that they had considered the general equality duty and pondered relevant questions. If records are not kept it may make it more difficult, evidentially, for a public authority to persuade a court that it has fulfilled the duty imposed by the equality duties.

Policy and statutory guidance

There are a variety of policies and guidance documents which set out the principles, context and benefits for public bodies involving communities and service users.

Cabinet Office Consultation principles, 2018 – sets out the principles that Government departments and other public bodies should adopt for engaging stakeholders when developing policy and legislation 
Patient and Public Participation in commissioning health and care – statutory guidance for Clinical Commissioning groups and NHS England and Involving people in their own health and care: statutory guidance – clinical commissioning groups and NHS England, 2017 set out the context, benefits and principles of involving people in health and care, the relevant legal duties and key actions for CCGs and NHS England. CCGs were stood down on July 1 2022. Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) took on their statutory role but the guidance currently still stands.
Framework for patient and public participation in public health commissioning, 2017 – describes how NHS England involves patients and the public in the commissioning of public health services. 
Framework for patient and public participation in primary care commissioning 2016 – as a guide for primary care commissioners to strengthen patient and public participation in NHS England primary care commissioning 
Accessible Information Standard, 2016 – all organisations that provide NHS care and / or publicly funded adult social care are legally required to follow the Accessible Information Standard.
Best Value Duty, 2011 – Authorities should consider overall value, including economic, environmental, and social value, when reviewing service provision 
Equality and Delivery Systems for the NHS (EDS2) 2013 – to help local NHS organisations, in discussion with local partners including local people, review and improve their performance for people with characteristics protected by the Equality Act 2010. By using the EDS, NHS organisations can also be helped to deliver on the public sector Equality Duty (PSED).

Specific legal duties for public services

Different work areas across the public sector have specific legal duties that they need to meet regarding involving service users and communities.

Planning and the Environment  

National Planning Policy Framework provides a framework within which locally prepared plans for housing and other development can be produced and states…  Plans should…be shaped by early, proportionate and effective engagement between plan-makers and communities, local organisations, businesses, infrastructure providers and operators and statutory consultees. 

The Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2017 require local authorities to have a Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) setting out the local authority proposes to involve its communities, stakeholders, businesses and other interested parties in the preparation, alteration and review of the Local Plan, other planning policy documents and the planning application process. The Council have a statutory duty to prepare an SCI and then review and if necessary, update it every five years .

Aarhus Convention – (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters) 

Health and Social Care 

Section 242, of the NHS Act 2006, places a duty on the NHS to make arrangements to involve patients and the public in planning services, developing, and considering proposals for changes in the way services are provided and decisions to be made that affect how those services operate.  

Section 244 requires NHS bodies to consult relevant local authority Overview and Scrutiny Committees (OSCs) on any proposals for substantial variations or substantial developments of health services.  

Section 14Z2 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 places a specific duty on Clinical Commissioning Groups to ensure that patients and the public are involved in the planning of services, developing proposals for any changes to services, and the operation of services. 

Statutory guidance on these duties includes  

NHS Constitution 2010 places a statutory duty on NHS bodies and explains a number of rights which are a legal entitlement for patients. One of these is the right to be involved directly or indirectly through representatives in the: 

Planning of healthcare services. 
Development and consideration of proposals for changes in the way those services are provided; and 
Decisions to be made affecting the operation of services.

Note the NHS Constitution applies to all NHS organisations – including NHS providers and contract monitoring arrangements should reflect this.  NHS England requires CCGs to demonstrate how as part of the Integrated Assessment Framework providers are being held to account in relation to public involvement. 

The Care Act 2014 places a series of duties and responsibilities on local authorities about care and support for adults.  The expectation within the Care Act is that those responsible for commissioning services should develop them on the basis of active engagement and consultation with service users, carers, and providers.   

Children and Families 

Section 19 of the Children and Families Act 2014 sets out the general principles that local authorities must have regard to when supporting disabled children and young people and those with Special Educational Needs under Part 3 of the Act. Local authorities must pay particular attention to:  

the views, wishes and feelings of children and their parents, and young people;  
the importance of them participating as fully as possible in decision-making and providing the information and support to enable them to do so; and  
supporting children and young people’s development and helping them to achieve the best possible educational and other outcomes.

A Local Offer must be developed by local authorities and their health partners, together with children and young people with SEN and disability and their families. 

Article 12 of The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)

Libraries 

Under the Localism Act 2011 every council in England is required to provide a ‘comprehensive and efficient’ library service. This must be done: 

in consultation with their communities 
through analysis of evidence around local needs 
in accordance with their statutory duties

Libraries Deliver: Ambition for Public Libraries 2016 to 2021 says that library services should co-design and co-create their services with the active support, engagement and participation of their communities 

Homelessness – Guidance on housing authority duties to carry out a homelessness review and publish a homelessness strategy. Housing authorities must consult public or local authorities, voluntary organisations, or other persons as they consider appropriate before adopting or modifying a homelessness strategy. Housing authorities will also wish to consult with service users and specialist agencies that provide support to homeless people in the district. 

Methods of listening

Surveys and questionnaires

Developing questions can take some time and there are many wrong ways to ask questions. Ambiguity, bias, or lack of appropriate options will affect the quality of your results. Choosing the wrong question types, incorrectly setting up logic, or asking questions people don’t understand, will affect your responses. If you’re designing your own questions and want to avoid some of the common pitfalls, here are some pointers:

Use a short introduction. Detail why you are collecting this information. Consider the need to re-enforce that a survey is anonymous.
Have a vision and a plan. It’s critical to have a clear understanding of what your objective is. With quantitative research it is much harder to go back and adjust once you have collected your data. With each question it is worth writing down what you are hoping to use the results for.
Provide respondents with enough information. Respondents need to be able to make informed decisions. Information can be provided in the survey or as additional supporting documents. It is important to provide balanced information so that the question is not biased.
Avoid biased questions. It’s okay to use statements and ask if people agree or disagree but it is not ok to ask if they agree. Agreeable people usually agree!
Start general, then get specific. When designing the flow, imagine an inverted pyramid. Start out broad, then narrow as needed. This is a logical way for the respondent to think, making it easier for them to answer the questions e.g., 1. How was the event overall? 2. Now tell me about the specifics.
Avoid order bias. It’s critical not to give away the answer to a question before asking it (e.g., sharing brand names before asking unaided brand awareness). Ensure earlier questions do not influence responses to later questions.
Use clear language and keep your audience in mind. If your terminology or the language used isn’t clear to you or your project group, it won’t be clear to your audience. If there’s any ambiguity, it’s likely to creep into your results.
Use the right tone. Ensure that the tone of the wording is appropriate to the target audience.
Use conditional questions to reduce the length. Electronic forms can be formatted to skip questions that are not relevant to the respondent. In a paper questionnaire you can use ‘If Yes’ or ‘Skip to question…’.
Keep length in mind. Always time your questionnaire to ensure you are within 2-5 minutes. The number of completed surveys drops off drastically when over 5 minutes. Stick to the questions you need to ask. If the survey has to be longer, consider the use of a ‘save’ button.
Bear in mind nonresponse bias. This is when people who respond to your survey aren’t representative, and have different opinions or characteristics of the people who don’t respond. That means you are talking to the wrong people which can give you bad data.
Consider open and closed questions. Surveys often use majority quantitative ( questions with defined answers to select. Quantitative (information that can be shown in numbers and amounts) questions provides statistical information that can be quickly analysed. Numbers of completed responses are important here for statistical significance. Most surveys should also offer the opportunity to add qualitative (the explanation of the quality of experience/s which is not as easy to measure) comment.
Keep your questionnaire neat and orderly. Surveys that are ‘bitty’, poorly formatted, and illogical are a ‘turn off’ for respondents. Keep related questions together.
Consider whether taking an email address is appropriate/necessary for feedback or further involvement. It is good practice to provide feedback. Let the respondent know how you are planning to feedback the results. Don’t forget to thank the respondent and tell them how their engagement will be used. They have completed this voluntarily and if they are to engage in the future, they need to know that their time was appreciated.
Place an end date and return address on all paper questionnaires
Review all questions to ensure they are not leading
Pre-test the questionnaire. Probably your best failsafe to ensure that all of the above points can be considered by someone else. Ask testers to provide serious answers and analyse them. This may identify where a question can be ambiguous or highlight where you need to ask an additional question or for more information. Testing also gives you a better idea of how long it will take to complete so you can let respondents know.

Data that identifies people’s features is usually required for cross-analysis of the data, to make sure that respondents match the demographic features of the area and for Equality and Diversity reporting. It is advisable to adopt a consistent approach and agreed demographic questions. You can use options like don’t know or prefer not to say in your demographic questions, but only when they are appropriate. These are especially useful on especially sensitive questions and allow respondents a way out of answering without abandoning your survey.

Advertising is a key part of the success of surveys.

The Council’s minimum communication standard is covered in the section ‘Communicating ways to get involved’ but it can and should be enhanced for key target audiences.

You could take your survey to out into community venues or community groups and complete it face to face with people.

Most venues will require you to follow protocol such as getting permission, booking a slot, and completing a risk assessment. Allow sufficient time to meet with their calendars. Think about supermarkets, markets, schools, colleges, universities, primary care centres, GPs, workplaces, community centres, interest groups (for example sports, health, hobbies), voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations.

You could also:

Use paid for advertising on Facebook to place it on the newsfeed of your target audience
Use posters and flyers
Incentivise completion (e.g., enter into a prize draw)
Ask respondents to share with their friends and family.

Two women sitting across from each other

Semi-structured interviews

Semi-structured interviews allow you to explore topics in more detail than is possible with other techniques such as surveys. They allow you to delve below the surface of the topic being discussed and explore people’s views in as much detail as possible. They aid your understanding of respondents’ thoughts, opinions, beliefs, experiences, values, barriers and influences etc. With qualitative methods such as interviews and focus groups, the idea is to go ‘deep rather than broad’, so you do not need to look for a statistically representative sample of individuals to interview. It is sometimes appropriate to compensate people for giving their time to take part in qualitative sessions (vouchers, money), to recognise and thank people for their time/contribution.

It is important to ensure that any incentive is not so large as to make it hard to say no to taking part. Any incentive offers should be carefully considered and dependent on the project and resource as you develop your approach.

They are an important tool for listening to communities and can help to illuminate wider determinants, root causes of behaviour and issues, add voices to quantitative data and listen to the ‘quieter’ voices in communities. Conducting individual interviews in addition to or instead of focus groups accommodates people who prefer individual rather than group situations and allows people to share their experiences in a safe setting.

You should identify the purpose of the session and the research question/s you would like to answer and then consider who you would like to take part – does each interviewee need to have something in common? E.g., drive a car, live in Cleethorpes, have a child under 5. Or would you like to interview people across categories e.g, people who go to the gym four times a week, and then people who are never physically active. Respondents should be aware that anonymous qualitative quotes may be used in reporting, and they should be comfortable with that. People’s consent to take part should be based on adequate information. You should make it clear that they are free to withdraw or modify their consent and ask for the destruction of all or part of their data until the end of the project or final report.

You then need to consider how and where you will hold the interviews (community venue, online, your offices). You should invite participants formally- give a brief outline of what will be discussed and approximately how long the interview will take. Decide how you will record the session and then develop your discussion/topic guide with open questions about a topic.

You should have a core list of questions or interview guide, but unlike structured questionnaires, the order in which you ask them will vary. You can deviate from the guide to pursue an idea in more detail or to probe an interviewee’s meanings. Interviews can be conducted face-to-face or at a distance (e.g., telephone or online). You can take notes during the interview, take notes afterwards, or audio record (if your interviewee is comfortable with this and you have their consent).

Writing notes during an interview can interfere with the process of interviewing, however, notes written afterwards may miss out important details. Having two individuals present during the interview, so that one individual can take notes whilst the other asks questions can be helpful. If you are audio recording an interview, the audio recording should be deleted once the interview has been transcribed.

Where and how (e.g., virtually or face to face) you conduct an interview will be determined by who you are interviewing, when, what about, and the need to make your interviewee(s) feel at ease.

Wherever you conduct an interview, you should strive to choose an environment or location:

in which your interviewee will feel comfortable
which is accessible and convenient (consider, for example, factors such as the location’s proximity to public transport routes)
which ensures privacy (e.g., choose an interview location where the interview will not be overheard)
with minimal distractions

Before you begin, recap/explain what the research is about and what the interview will involve. Introduce yourself and any other colleagues who are with you. You may be able to estimate how long the interview will take and you should mention this before the interview starts. For example, “Today’s interview should last between 30-45 minutes”. All of this will help to put the interviewee at ease. You should then confirm that the interviewee is happy to proceed with the interview (you need to make sure that you have the interviewee’s informed consent).

Usually you will start an interview with introductory/opening questions, such as ‘Can you tell me about your involvement in…’ or ‘Please tell me about when your interest in X began?’ These can provide useful contextual information.

You will then move on to your core questions – these are your key research questions. Throughout the interview, you should try as much as possible to ask open questions, such as ‘What are your views on X?’ as opposed to ‘Do you like X?’. You can also ask supplementary questions to help you gain more information about or clarify what an interviewee has just told you, or to explore an interviewee’s ideas and meanings in more depth. For example, you could use follow-up questions, such as ‘Could you say more about that?’.

At the end of the interview, you can ask closing questions to give your interviewee a chance to reflect, share additional information, and mention any relevant issues that they feel haven’t been discussed. A good closing question can be ‘Is there anything else that you have been thinking about which you would like to mention?’ Thank your interviewee for their participation. You should also answer any questions that your interviewee has.

Focus groups

Focus Groups are a means of gathering qualitative data and insight through exploring ideas in a small group setting where everyone is equal and can have a say. When planning marketing, behaviour change and solution design projects they allow time to explore capability, opportunity, motivations, barriers, values, and incentives of a target audience. They usually include 6-8 people, which allows session leaders to hear from each attendee on each question, probe, and keep the group from wandering too much from the discussion focus. Sessions last between 1-2 hours and can involve breaks. Attendees should feel comfortable enough to engage in discussion. You should aim to run more than one group to ensure you hear the voices of a representative sample.

You should identify the purpose of the session and the research question/s you would like to answer and then agree a sampling/targeting framework (who you would like to take part) – do all participants at the group need to have something in common? E.g., drive a car, live in Cleethorpes, have a child under 5. Or would you like to invite people across different categories e.g, people who go to the gym four times a week, and then people who are never physically active. Respondents should be aware that anonymous qualitative quotes may be used in reporting, and they should be comfortable with that. People’s consent to take part should be based on adequate information. You should make it clear that they are free to withdraw or modify their consent and ask for the destruction of all or part of their data until the end of the project or final report.

You then need to consider how and where you will hold the focus groups (community venue, online, your offices). You should invite participants formally, giving a brief outline of what will be discussed. Develop your discussion/topic guide with open questions about a topic and decide who will attend and moderate the session. You should have a core list of questions but the order in which you ask them can vary. You can deviate from the guide to pursue an idea in more detail. You can take notes during the group, afterwards, or audio record (if your attendees are comfortable with this and you have their consent). Writing notes can interfere with the process but having two individuals present during the focus group so that one individual can take notes whilst the other asks questions can be helpful. If you are audio recording a focus group, the audio recording should be deleted once the session has been transcribed.

They can be used throughout your engagement, research, and consultation exercises e.g.,

pre-consultation/ engagement phase to help you to develop your understanding ahead of a wider consultation exercise
during your wider activity with smaller groups to add more detail to your qualitative responses
after – to understand why they have responded the way they have and delve even deeper as you begin to develop solutions

Focus groups are best delivered with an independent/impartial moderator present, who is there to ask questions, probe, and actively listen. This should ideally not be a subject matter expert (someone who works within a service or on the subject being discussed), but if they are, they should not offer their own answers, or opinions.

Moderators are there to ensure that everyone has an equal say, to keep the discussion on track and keep time. They need to be seen as impartial and should be personable, engaging and empathetic.

Ahead of the session the moderator needs to be very familiar with the discussion/topic guide, questions and potential prompts and probes. They should be aware of who is attending and be ready to make introductions. They should then be prepared to follow the discussion guide and keep conversation going throughout the session.

Moderators should deliver a mock group if possible, with potential participants or even people in your team. This can help you to:

see if questions work in practice (open/closed)
develop follow up/probing questions
get an indication of timing and helps to organise sequence of questions
show you if your questions will give you the information you need

Try and avoid inviting people along who are known for dominant/ aggressive behaviour. You can always meet with them on a 1:1 basis or in their own group setting. If a conversation gets particularly heated, remind the group of the ground rules and/or consider a short comfort break. If it gets too bad, wait until a break, and then ask anyone who is aggressive to leave. Ask them on a 1:1 basis.

If someone is particularly quiet, make regular friendly eye contact and try and appeal to their role. If they are the only cyclist present for example, use that as a discussion point to bring them in. Use prompts to bring in others for any situations where attendees are dominant or quiet e.g., “has anyone else had a similar/different experience?”, “does anyone else share that view/see it differently?”

Greeting/ refreshments
Housekeeping
- moderator explains their role, purpose and overview of subject to be discussed
- agree ground rules
- explain data collection, recording and confidentiality/anonymity. Reassure people if they feel inhibited that the recordings will be deleted after analysis and all data will be anonymised.
- ensure that attendees know that you want their views, everything they have to say is important and that there are no right or wrong answers
- let attendees know that they don’t have to talk about anything they aren’t comfortable discussing
Introductions and ice breaker (a little about you and your family, area you live and your relationship to the subject being discussed e.g., do you drive, how many cycles are there in the household?)
Main questions (about 1.5 hours of a 2 hour session). Use broad, open questions. Keep related questions together. To stimulate discussion, you can also:
- use prompts, probes
- score or rate things
- use visuals like pictures, videos etc or audio and ask people to share their thoughts
- ask attendees to people to draw things or make lists e.g., lists of words associated with an idea.
Closing – go back and ask about anything that may have been missed. Ask people if there is anything else they would like to add. Sum up and thank people. Ask if they would like to be kept informed. Explain the next steps and how to claim expenses etc.

Written notes: If you decide to only make written notes then there is no need to record verbatim what was said and by who (must be anonymised) but it is important to be able to attribute comments to people by their group e.g., car driver. There should be a note taker as well as a focus group leader/moderator so that one is focussed on running the session and the other on the notes.

Audio (or online recording of virtual): this can be of real benefit as it ensures that nothing anyone says is missed. It means that you can go away and tape up a full transcript, attribute comments to demographic, or grouping and properly theme what people have said to different codes. In behaviour change/marketing terms you might use the COM-B to code the transcript barriers and incentives to change e.g., capability, (e.g., psychological, physical ability, knowledge, skills), opportunity (e.g., physical, social environment) or motivation (reflective, automatic including habitual processes, beliefs conscious decision-making.)

Video recording- as above but adds body language and participants reactions to what others are saying. As with audio, group members need to give consent to be recorded.

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