Professional Documents
Culture Documents
A model for successful consultation with disabled people & carers in a rural area
How to design and implement an effective method of consultation with disabled people
Contents
The problem The solution The tool The 6 step plan A case study The Unitary Authority survey sample Press release What can be achieved The bonus feature The learning points The last word 3 4 5 6-8 9 10 - 11 12 13 14 15-16 17
The problem
2
We used to provide a consultation service through holding physical meetings of small groups of people for service providers to meet and consult with direct. This allowed our organisation to generate income and gave an opportunity for our members to influence and shape future services. However, the Consultation Panels presented us with the following problems:
Cornwall has poor public transport, hardly any of it accessible and therefore it proved costly and labour intensive to source private accessible transport
Difficult for people to attend meetings as the county of Cornwall is over 80 miles long and many people live in highly ruralised areas Very few truly accessible meeting places available
Consultations were difficult to operate on a large scale and often the small numbers of people who could attend were usually the same people for almost every consultation panel
Hard to find a replacement if consultees had to cancel at short notice due to illness, unforeseen problems etc Lots of logistical work to organise these meetings and often expensive to hold them
Although good for obtaining personal views and experiences, the panels were too small to be viewed as representative of the views of disabled people generally
So, the question was can we find an alternative way to obtain the views and experiences of more disabled people?
The solution
5 4 2 3
6 2 17
11 1 9 9 17 6 8 4
7 4
A former Chairman of Disability Cornwall mentioned how good it would be if could have a type of Citizens Jury which would comprise a large enough number of disabled people to be a representative group for us to consult with as and when the need arose. Combining that and the problems encountered with the consultation service, plus a little bit of creative thinking the DC100 was born! To be eligible to join the DC100 we would need some basic eligibility criteria. We set that as follows: Be a disabled person or a carer Have access to email and check it frequently Happy to receive and complete one survey per month for a period of one year The three most fruitful ways of recruiting DC100 members proved to be: 1) Rent a crowd! Recruiting existing members, friends and people we knew to get us up and running
2) Displaying leaflets about the DC100 and the benefits it could bring
for the voice of the disabled peoples movement at relevant events
3)
Incorporating details for sign up to the DC100 into our existing membership form / packs
4
The
Monkey:provides us with the opportunity to gain the greater geographical spread we were looking for without holding physical meetings
enables us to hold a database of participants, design surveys and email them to everyone with just one click
is easy to use. You can design questions requiring only a simple tick box or multiple choice answer, although you can insert spaces for the 100 member to add in more information if they wish, providing you with more qualitative and anecdotal data
collects all the information so its easy for us to see what people are saying, such as 80% of people said access was poor.
is the best type of survey tool for people who have visual impairments and use reader activated software set questions as compulsory to answer prior to moving on to the next question to ensure you get a thorough response and people dont skip or miss any
C)
surveying, with further detail included at the top of the survey, but dont go overboard, less is more! Stick to just one subject and remember to set a date for when you want the surveys to be returned by. You will need dedicated staff for designing surveys in-house, but for a service provider buying your service why not request they set the questions for you?
If its a social policy type issue, then consider how you can best raise awareness of what your 100 are saying, a press release maybe? Find a hook to hang it on and be aware the media often look for punchy headlines, so to avoid Helping hand for the disabled or some equal horror, try and suggest a good headline in your press release which sums up your story in five words or less. There are some key things to know when writing a press release; layout is important, make sure you can clearly identify it as a press release, date it including an embargo date if relevant, then start with the most important bit of information, ensuring the first paragraph addresses the who, what, when, where, how and whys and then descend the information in order of importance. Always put notes to the editors at the end comprising relevant background information and a telephone number they can contact you on for further details. Look at the newspapers house style and try and tailor your press release to it increasing your chances of getting published. Maybe you could consider a copywriting / press release workshop for your team?
7
B)
If you have been commissioned to do the survey by a service provider then all you simply have to do is to print off the survey results and send to them!
C)
If you are using the survey for the benefit of your own organisation, you may want to call a meeting to consider the surveys findings or present it to your Trustee Board or project steering group.
5) Follow it up
Always call to check your press release has been received and to make contact in general. If the newspapers dont use it, what alternative options do you have, local TV, websites, another relevant publication, or can you rephrase the press release to make it more attractive to the newshounds! Talk to the service provider. Are they happy with the results obtained and would they perhaps like a more specific survey now? Also ask how they will be using the information obtained from your 100.
N.B Keep on their case and ensure they have put the survey results to good use!
6) Feedback
It is always best practice to give feedback to everyone involved in the survey, but especially the 100 themselves, so they feel included and will know their time was well spent and that their concerns and opinions are important and valued.
A case study to show how the DC100 process worked from start to finish for us
On 1 April 2009 Cornwall County Council and its six district councils became one unitary authority, the largest in the country and to be known as Cornwall Council. Previously, Disability Cornwall had challenged the County Council to improve access to its buildings for disabled people and because of this, as part of the process of change, Disability Cornwall was one of the organisations who submitted a tender to access audit all of the proposed One Stop Shop sites around the county. One of these shops was to be situated in each of the 22 towns and large villages in Cornwall. Our tender was unsuccessful and the work went to an organisation out of county, but part of their task was to engage with local disabled people to discover what the problems were. We were randomly hearing back from our members about issues concerning the shops so, when the DC100 was established we designed a survey to find out whether the experiences of disabled people accessing Cornwall Council services had now improved. Follows: A sample of our survey. A sample of our press release which we then sent to Cornwalls local weekly media including The Cornishman, West Briton and Cornish Guardian newspapers (tailoring it slightly to make it relevant to each publications geographical area).
On 1st April 2009 Cornwall County Council and the former six district council's became one unitary authority known as Cornwall Council. Disability Cornwall would like to find out whether the experiences of disabled people accessing Cornwall Council services have now improved. As a disabled peoples' organisation, we are here to represent your views and we intend to use the findings of this survey in a press release to the local media. All responses will be anonymous unless you wish to be identified; it would be very helpful to have a quote if you would like to give us one. Please tick all that apply to you and type any comments in the boxes provided. We are very grateful for your assistance and would appreciate it if you would complete this survey by Tuesday 27th October. 1. Are You:
A person with a disability A carer A parent / carer
2. Cornwall Council now has 22 One Stop Shops (one in each of the major towns in Cornwall). Have you visited any?
Yes No
5. How easy is it to get to the One Stop Shop using public transport?
Easy Not easy N/A
10
7. When you arrived at the One Stop Shop how would you rate the following?
Excellent Provision of accessible parking? Level of the ground outside? Ease of finding the entrance? Accessibility of entrance ramp/doors? Provision of handrails and or large door handles? Satisfactory Poor N/A
8. Once inside the One Stop Shop how would you rate the following?
Excellent Ease of moving around in the building? The welcome you received from staff? Accessibility of facilities? (E.g. low level reception counter / clear interior signs etc.) Consideration of communication needs? (E.g. hearing loop / information in alternative formats) Suitability of accessible toilets?
11
Satisfactory
Poor
N/A
30 October 2009
12
13
often you will send surveys and over what period of time. As an example, clarify how many surveys you will send and how often Surveys can be difficult to compose as the questions need to be phrased correctly to ensure you obtain the information you require. Consider training for your staff
We try and keep to a limit of no more than 15 separate questions concerning one subject matter only, per survey
Surveys will take more time to produce to a good standard than you may think, so allow time for this Test out the survey beforehand with colleagues or friends to ensure it works and to iron out any difficulties
Get training for relevant people. Copywriting / press release workshops may be provided by a local PR Company. Also, could the local universitys research department provide training for composing questions?
There may be times when you may need to ask your 100 members if they are interested in providing further information regarding a specific subject where appropriate. Therefore, clarify what contact details you require such as a telephone number
Holding detailed information on your 100 could help with specific targeted surveys, such as how many are carers or have a sensory impairment etc. We are currently looking into whether this is feasible taking into consideration the Data Protection Act
People can change their email address and may not think to let you know, but some email servers will not allow multiple emails to be sent if just one email is wrong and then nobody will receive the survey at all Not everybody goes online daily and so may not complete your survey for a while. If its time sensitive then you may have to follow up with a phone call People can be put off responding if they do not understand the subject the survey is about, so ensure you give a clear overview of it, which the monkey allows you to do in addition to a covering email
Make the surveys regular so as to keep the interest of the 100 or at least a short email to keep in touch
Thank your consultees and give them feedback so they know how their information was used and how valued their contribution has been Offering small rewards such as a 20 Marks & Spencer voucher can result in quicker responses Above all else, keep it simple
16
So what has our experience shown us? It shows us that an effective model for consultation such as the DC100
can have a direct and positive impact, as demonstrated by our experience with the One Stop Shop in St Ives. But also that the effects are multiple and various, and can have far reaching and lasting affects on the design and delivery of the organisation as a whole. Our DC100 has the potential to become a driver for positive change, feeding in the views of disabled people countywide. It enables us to be more representative as the countys pan-disability ULO and it hasnt escaped our notice that it could become a significant income generator and yet another quality service of real value a ULO can provide. Our DC100 will also serve as an invaluable touchstone, providing us with the intelligence we need to drive a rights-based agenda forward towards lasting and positive improvements to ensure that choice, independence and control is fully realised for people in Cornwall.
Published by: Disability Cornwall Units 1G & H Guildford Rd Industrial Estate Hayle Cornwall TR27 4QZ T/Minicom: 01736 759500 E: info@disabilitycornwall.org.uk
17