Co-production impact
Co-production impact content – we suggest starting with this document. It contains the definitions of key terms and overall guidance with an example.
Download PDFCo-production impact: A resource to support impact assessment
Published: April 2024. Updated April 2025
How to use this resource
This resource is designed to provide insights into how to identify the difference that co-production is making in your work. After learning from previous research and speaking to people working in co-production and people with lived experience, we learnt that there are three key areas within impact that are the most important While the focus is on understanding impact, we have included sections on co-production achievements (short-term outcomes), benefits, feedback and evaluation of the process. We provide a definition for each of these sections to help you choose what you need most and get the right information.
Who is this resource for?
This resource is designed to support co-production groups, people working in social care, and organisations who want to show the impact of co-production and who want to have conversations with and include people with lived experience in the impact assessment process. The resource offers a more accessible version of impact assessment with information about how to tailor approaches to fit your specific needs.
This resource was developed with the support of individuals with lived experience and co-production workers. We thank all individuals from the Proactive Community who took part in the steering group and all members of the SCIE Fliers co-production group and SCIE’s co-production steering group for their contribution.
Impact easy-read summary
Contains an easy-read summary of the impact section to be used by facilitators to include people with lived experience in the impact assessment process.
Download PDFTheory of Change guidance template
This Theory of Change (ToC) guidance template provides more detailed guidance on each step of the impact assessment.
Download PDFDeveloping a co-production impact framework
A resource designed to help individuals and teams in your organisation to create a plan for assessing impact.
Download PDF
Impact
Impact is the major change that is achieved towards the end of the process. It is the main objective that everyone is working towards.
Go to impact sectionCo-production achievements
Achievements that happen along the journey towards impact. It can also be called short-term outcomes.
Go to achievements sectionBenefits of co-production
The benefits of people taking part in co-production.
Go to benefits sectionEvaluation and feedback
Evaluating and reflecting on the process to learn and improve co-production.
Go to evaluation section
What is impact?
There are many ways to define impact, but essentially impact is the key change that is achieved towards the end of a journey to develop projects, services, policies, or anything that is being co-produced.
For this resource, we are using a definition that forms part of an approach called the Theory of Change. This is a framework that helps to understand how projects and organisations can produce impact and make positive changes in society.
Within the Theory of Change, impact is understood as the main change that happens and remains even after the co-production activities have been completed. This means that impact is the goal that everyone involved in a particular piece of work is aiming for, and it usually takes collective effort and time to be achieved.
This resource focuses on understanding the difference co-production makes when compared with not doing co-production, as opposed to a project’s task or a service’s impact more widely.
Why is impact important?
Showing the changes that co-production makes is key to being able to show its importance and to make a case for co-production to be prioritised, expanded and sustained. It is particularly important for attracting funding, as funders usually like to know the impact that their support will have on organisations, communities, and people’s lives. Demonstrating impact is also important to show the government and other organisations the value that co-production can add to social care and make a case for co-production to be prioritised.
“There is a human and a business case behind impact, and it is important to understand impact as it tells us what is working and what is not working, particularly when we have to demonstrate impact and show the positive changes.” – Isaac Samuels, Co-chair of the National Co-production Advisory Group (NGAC)
What if assessing impact is not what I need?
Co-production can happen in many forms, it is a process that should be tailored to individuals’ needs and there is no strict recipe for it. The same applies to understanding the impact of co-production. Different initiatives will pursue different types of impacts, sometimes larger and long-term, other times smaller and short-term. For these reasons, we have divided this resource into four sections so that you can access what is most relevant to you.
Theory of Change
Why Theory of Change?
The Theory of Change is a good way to break down impact into more manageable pieces. While not all organisations and co-production groups use Theory of Change as a base for their work, it can still be used as a framework to help understand how the different parts of the project are linked to impact and how to identify the positive changes that are happening during the journey towards impact.
How does it work?
There are three essential elements that we would like to highlight: impact, outcomes (short and long-term), and activities. Activities and outcomes are the stepping stones that will form the pathway towards the impact, as illustrated below.
Impact
Impact is the key change that is achieved towards the end of the journey and is often part of an objective that all participants are aiming to reach. The Theory of Change can be helpful to break down that journey into various elements and help us to understand where we are and where we want to go. In some cases, a Theory of Change can also be helpful to show how far we have come even though the journey to impact is not completed. Many things are achieved and learned along the way that are essential to pave the way towards impact, but they also have a significant value on their own, to anyone involved in the work. We call these outcomes.
Outcomes
Outcomes are achievements, or positive changes, that happen along the way and are a result of co-production. While impact is the main change to be achieved, outcomes are the stepping stones that form the pathway to achieve impact. It includes, for example, the learning, the partnership and relationship developed, and the development that people and organisations achieve.
Activities
These are the activities that are planned and delivered with the intention of achieving a needed outcome to move a project towards its desired impact. It can include, workshops, meetings, training sessions, or anything that is part of the co-production activities.
Theory of Change resources
NPC – Theory of Change in ten steps
NPC – Creating your own theory of change
Other co-production resources
Co-production Collective – Impact Report 2023
SCIE and TLAP – How to do co-production
SCIE – Examples of co-production
How can Theory of Change be helpful to co-production?
The Theory of Change is a good way to break down impact into more manageable pieces. It can be used as a framework to help understand how the different parts of the project are linked to impact and how to identify the positive changes that are happening during the journey towards impact. For this, we propose an exercise to separate two types of impact: project impact and co-production impact. This is a process that requires reflection and while there is no one single way of doing it, the below structure can provide a starting point.
Backwards mapping
We first start by defining the issue or problem that needs to be addressed and what impact is expected to be achieved. We then work backwards, thinking about the other elements that will form the pathway towards the desired impact.
For further details, access the guidance template.
Agreeing the challenge or issue that needs to be addressed
This will define the direction of the project and will shape all other elements. It is important that this process is co-produced with individuals experiencing the issue to ensure that both the challenge and intended impact are relevant.
- Why is the project necessary?
- What is the challenge to be addressed or what is the improvement needed?
Defining the targeted impact
The targeted impact should be directly related to the challenge and can also be seen as a solution to the challenge. From this point, it is important to differentiate the project impact from co-production impact. This will help to identify with more clarity the difference co-production is making.
See section 1 in the guidance template for further information on how to define a targeted impact and identify the challenge or issue.
Defining the outcomes
These can be described as a breakdown of the impact that will form a path towards the final goal. It will make the impact look realistic and achievable by dividing the journey into smaller parts. Identifying outcomes can be helpful to map co-production achievements even at earlier stages of the process when the impact is still far away but positive changes are already happening. Outcomes can also be defined using the making it real framework. Access our webpage for examples of ‘I and We’ statements.
See sections 2 and 3 in the guidance template for further information on how to define outcomes along with ideas on how to assess them.
Activities
In this part, we identify what needs to be done – all actions, tasks and interactions – that will lead to the above outcomes. It is key that all activities have a clear objective that is directly related to the desired outcome.
See section 2 in the guidance template for further information on how to define activities and how they are connected to outcomes.
Problem or issue to be addressed
This will define the direction of the project and will shape all other elements. It is important that this process is co-produced with individuals experiencing the issue to ensure that both the problem and intended impact are relevant.
- Why is the project necessary?
- What is the problem to be addressed or what is the improvement needed?
- People with learning disabilities don’t have a place to go to make friends, learn new things, have a good time, and feel valued.
Impact
The targeted impact should be directly related to the problem and can also be seen as a solution to the problem. From this point, it is important to differentiate the project impact from co-production impact. This will help to identify with more clarity the difference co-production is making.
- Targeted impact
- Project impact
- To create a day centre for people with learning disabilities.
- Co-production impact
To make the day centre how people would like it to be, that will match their needs and preferences, and that more people will be happy to use.
See section 1 in the guidance template (PDF) for further information on how to define a targeted impact and identify the problem or issue.
Outcomes
These can be described as a breakdown of the impact that will form a path towards the final goal. It will make the impact look realistic and achievable by dividing the journey into smaller parts. Identifying outcomes can be helpful to map co-production achievements even at earlier stages of the process when the impact is still far away but positive changes are already happening.
See section 2 in the guidance template (PDF) for further information on how to define activities and how they are connected to outcomes.
Activities: resources
Evaluation Netway – Logic Model definitions and guidance
Evaluation Support Scotland – Evidencing genuine co-production in the third sector
What are achievements?
Achievements are short-term outcomes that can be understood and assessed individually, separately from impact. While impact is a longer-term journey, assessing achievements can help to acknowledge progress and showcase positive changes that are happening on a day-to-day basis.
It can include – but not restricted to – things that are learnt, such as increasing people’s awareness, and improvement in relationships between individuals and stakeholders.
How do achievements relate to impact?
Achievements are the outcomes that form the pathway towards impact. However, if your choice is to focus only on achievements instead, you can look at each achievement individually and assess specific parts of your co-production journey.
Why is it important?
Co-production is a journey which needs to be embedded in practices and often relies on a change of culture. Therefore, celebrating achievements supports engagement and interest from key stakeholders and allows you to report on progress and positive changes regardless of where you are on your journey. In other cases, achieving impact is restricted by challenges that are beyond the control of co-production such as interruption of funding, changes in leadership priorities, and changes in partnerships. In these cases, identifying achievements can be useful to demonstrate the difference that co-production is making despite the external challenges.
Example
To help better understand and describe the progress of each achievement, a breakdown with a brief description of the activities can be developed. This can also be helpful to define a short-term pathway of the achievement for more detailed reporting if relevant. See example below.
Project achievements
Developing an accessible equality, diversity and inclusion internal policy document.
Activities
- Form a group responsible for developing the policy.
- Discuss and outline key priorities and areas covered by the policy.
- Draft policy document.
- Discuss the document with relevant people in the organisation for feedback.
- Prepare the final version and launch policy.
Ideas to assess achievements
The principles of the Theory of Change can be helpful for assessing achievements. Although the objective here is not to assess impact, the Theory of Change can be used as a framework to identify achievements in a structured way helping you better understand each achievement individually. You can use the guidance template to identify activities and their corresponding short-term outcomes. This can be done independent of whether you have a defined path for impact and how far in the path your project is.
Section 2 in the guidance template (PDF) can be used to support you in defining achievements (short-term outcomes).
Resources
Mencap – Setting outcomes: A guide
Routledge – Evaluating the outcomes of co-production in local government
TLAP – Co-producing an outcomes framework
National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health – Working Well Together: Evidence and tools to enable co-production in mental health commissioning (contains a section on outcomes assessment (pp.30-32))
Examples
This example is based on the dementia peer support network developed through a partnership between East Riding Yorkshire Council and Innovations in Dementia.
The dementia peer support network is being developed based on the Good Life approach. The starting point of the approach is the co-production of ‘’A Good Life With Dementia’ courses co-delivered by people with dementia and facilitated by a member of Innovations in Dementia. The courses are often the starting point for a range of incidental peer support activities, including the development of peer support groups led by people with dementia who attended the courses.
Challenge, issue, or improvement needed
People diagnosed with dementia didn’t have options for tailored support and had to face challenges alone.Targeted impact
Project impact – to create a network of peers across the county led by people with dementia to provide long-term peer support for people with dementia. Co-production impact – to make the peer support groups relevant to the needs of people with dementia and carers, creating a space for mutual support, socialisation, local influence and learning.Outcomes
Project outcomes- Identify locations and venues for courses and peer support groups to take place.
- Using the Innovations in Dementia ‘good life’ model, co-produce a new ‘A good life with dementia’ course alongside local people with dementia.
- People with dementia deliver a six-week good life course (with facilitated support) to peers more recently diagnosed.
- Encourage and support the creation of peer support groups.
- Provide a space for mutual support, socialisation, and learning.
- Identify places that are easy to access, are local, and that offer the facilities needed for people with dementia.
- Make the good life course content accessible and relevant to people with dementia.
- An engaging, relevant, safe and appropriate space is made to enable people with dementia to learn and share together at a comfortable space.
- People with dementia taking the lead in forming peer support groups as a follow-on from the shared learning experience and running regular meetings.
- Local facilitators and people with dementia running the peer support groups independently with the support of local organisations.
- People with dementia and carers being part of a wider dementia conversation (locally and nationally) and becoming increasingly engaged and active in helping shape local services.
Project activities
- Shadow and work alongside Innovations in Dementia – or undertake ‘A good life with dementia’ facilitation training.
- Meet to discuss and identify locations and venues for new courses and groups.
- Facilitate focus groups of people with dementia to plan the good life courses.
- Organise and facilitate each of the six meetings included in the course.
- Picking up from expressed wishes from course participants to continue meeting, engaging in conversations, encouraging, and supporting the creation of support groups led by people with dementia.
- Discussing and deciding the location, format, and frequency of the group between people with dementia and good life facilitator and any other relevant stakeholder.
- Facilitating subsequent peer support group meetings regularly and independently.
- Take part in deciding location and venue, ensuring it is easy to access, in a good location, and offers facilities needed for people with dementia, with a separate space for care partners to meet.
- People with dementia taking part in focus groups drawing from their own experience to play an active role in designing the course content and format ensuring relevance to the learning needs of participants.
- People with dementia helping to deliver all the sessions of the course, contributing with their skills and experience, and sharing power.
- People with dementia taking part in conversations, having opportunities to express their interest in creating a new group or joining an existing group.
- People with dementia deciding location, format, and frequency and taking the lead in setting up the new group.
- People with dementia benefiting from regular peer support meetings, receiving and giving support, and socialising.
This example is based on the Buckinghamshire Council’s experience of improving the carers assessment process making it accessible and relevant to people involved in the assessment.
Challenge, issue, or improvement needed
The carers assessment process was hard to understand, the form was too complicated, individuals felt that questions were not easy to understand, and it was not clear why some information was needed.Targeted impact
Project impact – to review and make improvements to the carers assessment form, increasing accessibility and relevance so it is not a tick-box exercise. Co-production impact – to make the form easy to understand, with clear language and structure, and relevant to carers so they are engaged with the process and understand the reasons for providing the information asked.Outcomes
Project outcomes- Identifying what needs to be improved to make the form clearer and more accessible.
- Improve the form’s structure and visual appearance to improve accessibility.
- Improving individuals’ experience with the carers assessment process.
- People with lived experience helping to define what parts of the form needs to be improved, changing wording, identifying jargons, and unclear questions. Individuals making decisions to ensure that resources, equipment and materials are adequate to their needs and preferences.
- People with lived experience helping to define how the form should be organised and how it should look to make it more user friendly.
- People with lived experience having a positive experience and better understanding of the carers assessment process.
- A series of meetings to go through the form and identify what makes it difficult to understand.
- Change wording, replacing jargon with plain language and make the form clear and relevant to carers.
- Producing an updated version of the forms based on feedback and information collected.
- Having the form implemented and being used across the county.
- People with lived experience deciding what doesn’t make sense and needs to be improved.
- People with lived experience helping to change wording and deciding on better ways to make the form clearer and more relevant.
- People with lived experience reviewing and having the opportunity to make final suggestions.
- People with lived experience using the form and having opportunities to feedback.
This is an illustrative example created during workshops with members of the Proactive Community co-production group.
Challenge, issue, or improvement needed
People with learning disabilities don’t have a place to go to make friends, learn new things, have a good time, and feel valued.Targeted impact
Project impact – to create a day centre for people with learning disabilities. Co-production impact – to make the day centre how people would like it to be, that will match their needs and preferences, and that more people will be happy to use.Outcomes
Project outcomes- To have a detailed plan for all activities to be offered.
- To have a plan for the service agreed and approved.
- To have the building adapted, decorated and furnished.
- To have staff recruited.
- To engage with the community, talk about the new service and gather ideas.
- To have resources equipment and materials in place for all activities and staff duties.
- Individuals making decisions, planning, supporting the delivery of activities and ensuring that the approach is relevant to their needs.
- Individuals making decisions on the service plan and ensuring the service is relevant to people’s needs and processes.
- Individuals making decisions on how the building should be adapted, decorated and furnished according to people’s needs.
- Individuals making decisions on recruitment, including taking part in the interview panel.
- Individuals actively speaking to their peers in the community to gain feedback and include their views in the process.
- Individuals making decisions to ensure that resources, equipment and materials are adequate to their needs and preferences.
- Co-production preparation.
- Series of workshops with the community to hear about their needs and expectations.
- Series of internal meetings to create a plan for developing the service.
- Develop a plan and start work to adapt, decorate, and furnish the building.
- Identify staffing needs, liaise with the HR team, prepare documentation and initiate recruitment.
- Review applications and shortlist.
- Interview and appoint new staff.
- Source all equipment, materials and resources needed for daily activities.
- Liaise with procurement and management teams.
- Creating a co-production group with people with lived experience from the community.
- Workshops to prepare groups to take part in planning meetings.
- Preparing easy-read materials and approaches for sharing information and making decisions.
- Individuals engaging with the community to learn about needs and expectations.
- Individuals taking an active role in meetings and making decisions on:
- The overall plan for the service.
- Plans to adapt, decorate and furnish the building.
- Individuals attending meetings to make decisions on recruitment criteria and shortlisting candidates, plus taking part in interview panels.
- Individuals supporting decisions on suitable equipment, materials and resources.
Resources
New Philanthropy Capital – Theory of change in ten steps
New Philanthropy Capital – Creating your own theory of change
Evaluation Netway – Logic Model definitions and guidance
Evaluation Support Scotland – Evidencing genuine co-production in the third sector
Other co-production resources
SCIE and TLAP – How to do co-production
What are achievements?
Achievements are short-term outcomes that can be understood and assessed individually, separately from impact. While impact is a longer-term journey, assessing achievements can help to acknowledge progress and showcase positive changes that are happening on a day-to-day basis.
It can include – but not restricted to – things that are learnt, such as increasing people’s awareness, and improvement in relationships between individuals and stakeholders.
How do achievements relate to impact?
Achievements are the outcomes that form the pathway towards impact. However, if your choice is to focus only on achievements instead, you can look at each achievement individually and assess specific parts of your co-production journey.
Why is it important?
Co-production is a journey which needs to be embedded in practices and often relies on a change of culture. Therefore, celebrating achievements supports engagement and interest from key stakeholders and allows you to report on progress and positive changes regardless of where you are on your journey. In other cases, achieving impact is restricted by challenges that are beyond the control of co-production such as interruption of funding, changes in leadership priorities, and changes in partnerships. In these cases, identifying achievements can be useful to demonstrate the difference that co-production is making despite the external challenges.
Example
To help better understand and describe the progress of each achievement, a breakdown with a brief description of the activities can be developed. This can also be helpful to define a short-term pathway of the achievement for more detailed reporting if relevant. See example below.
“From a lived experience point of view these are good examples of achievement, which ultimately leads to better outcomes for individuals.”
Isaac Samuels, Co-chair of the National Co-production Advisory Group (NCAG)
Co-production achievements (short-term outcomes)
Project achievements
- Developing an accessible equity, diversity and inclusion internal policy document.
Activities
- Form a group responsible for developing the policy.
- Discuss and outline key priorities and areas covered by the policy.
- Draft policy document.
- Discuss the document with relevant people in the organisation for feedback.
- Prepare the final version and launch policy.
Co-production achievements
- Developing an equity, diversity, and inclusion internal policy document that is easy to understand and address individuals’ needs.
Activities
- Recruit, prepare materials, and train individuals to co-produce the policy.
- Help to decide key priorities and areas covered by the policy ensuring it addresses individuals’ needs.
- Help to produce an easy-read version of the policy document.
- Share the easy-read version with other people with lived experience for feedback.
- Prepare the final version and launch policy.
Ideas to assess achievements
The principles of the Theory of Change can be helpful for assessing achievements. Although the objective here is not to assess impact, the Theory of Change can be used as a framework to identify achievements in a structured way helping you better understand each achievement individually. You can use the guidance template to identify activities and their corresponding short-term outcomes. This can be done independently of whether you have a defined path for impact and how far in the path your project is.
Section 2 in the guidance template can be used to support you in defining achievements (short-term outcomes).
Resources
Mencap – Setting outcomes: A guide
Routledge – Evaluating the outcomes of co-production in local government
TLAP – Co-producing an outcomes framework
National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health – Working Well Together: Evidence and tools to enable co-production in mental health commissioning (contains a section on outcomes assessment (pp.30-32))
What are ‘benefits of co-production’?
These are the benefits to all individuals involved in co-production and can include aspects of their personal development, how they feel, and how they do things. It may include individuals feeling more valued, having an increase in confidence, an increase in independence, a better sense of belonging to a group, and developing knowledge and awareness.
How do benefits relate to impact?
Understanding the benefits of co-production is key to demonstrating the positive changes that co-production is making in people’s lives. In co-production, it is essential that the people involved are getting something valuable out of the process and that taking part is relevant to their lives. Moreover, professionals, practitioners, and policymakers, as well as service providers and organisations, also benefit from co-production.
Why is it important?
To be able to report on the benefits is important and shows the relevance that co-production has for individuals, professionals, and organisations. It is a way to demonstrate that people learn, develop skills, build relationships, improve ways of living and working, and gain confidence and independence. Recognising these benefits enhances the case for why co-production matters and why we should have time and funds allocated specifically for co-produced efforts.
Ideas to identify the benefits of co-production
To understand the benefits of co-production to individuals it is key to develop a structured way to hear about their experience and the benefits they gain from the process. Each individual, or group, will have their preferred ways to provide their views and it is important that they are able to make such a decision.
Ways to collect individuals’ views
In groups – organise group activities and encourage individuals to share their views.
- These can be dedicated sessions, or they can be part of a planned group activity.
- Ask open questions and encourage conversations between individuals. Some themes could include:
- Opening themes – for stimulating reflection and starting conversations: perceptions of the process, favourite activities, any relationships they built during the process, and overall experiences,
- Core themes – for encouraging individuals to talk about the benefits: what was learnt, what they can take away from the process, any changes in the way they feel and understand things, improvement in confidence, self-worth, skills, and socialisation.
- Structured conversations – these types of conversations will be limited by the questions asked to individuals. It is often based on a list of questions which the interviewer/one asking questions goes through in a consistent manner with all individuals. It gives fewer opportunities for the individuals to shape the conversation, making it less spontaneous and open. However, it increases the consistency of the information collected.
- Semi-structured conversations – the conversation is guided by open questions and general themes that will be used to prompt the individual to express their views and shape the conversation by proposing other themes. The interviewer/one asking questions may ask follow-up questions to encourage the individual to expand on certain themes. Each conversation will be different however the themes covered will be the same.
- Themes for individual conversations can follow the same suggestions as outlined above – under group conversations – with the addition of other specific themes to encourage individuals to talk about their singular views. Some suggestions are the importance of co-production in their lives, reasons that encouraged them to take part in the process, and their aspirations for the future in terms of co-production
- It is very common for individuals to express their opinions and how they feel about taking part in co-production during or after their involvement. These can be a rich source of information to understand benefits as they are spontaneous and often honest and detailed.
- Ensure different channels of communication are available so individuals can choose what best suits them. For example, written and voice notes, online messaging, face-to-face, and feedback post boxes.
- Ensure you have a good system of recording this type of feedback such as a logbook or form. Record the date and the subject (what is the feedback about) and make note of what has been said. It is a good idea to share the note with the individual and confirm that it reflects their views
- Although these can restrict accessibility and limit the amount of detail collected, this approach can reach more people and require fewer resources to collect the information needed.
- Common ways of using forms and questionnaires are by providing individuals with the form or collectively by distributing or making the questionnaire available to a wider number of people.
Benefits of co-production as outcomes
When defining outcomes and creating a pathway towards impact, some benefits of co-production can be defined as outcomes to be achieved within that pathway. If that is the case, you can follow the guidance for creating outcomes and include these within your pathway to impact.
See sections 1 and 2 in the guidance template for further information on how to define outcomes and identify the challenge or issue.
Resources
Co-production Collective – The value of co-production (contains examples of benefits of co-production)
SCIE and TLAP – Co-production what it is and how to do it (contains a section on benefits of co-production)
SCIE and TLAP – The difference co-production makes
Community Fund (an example of assessing and reporting co-production benefits)
Health Watch Suffolk – The value of co-production within health and social care (literature review on values and benefits of co-production)
Expert Link – The power of co-production: Unlocking unexpected benefits for participants
University of Gent – Benefits and risks of coproduction: a preliminary literature review
How do feedback and evaluation relate to impact?
Feedback and evaluation will provide a good insight into whether activities are achieving their objectives and why people engage or do not engage in activities. It will give a general sense of the quality of the activities and will help to make changes to ensure they are effective and will contribute to generating the expected outcome.
Why is feedback and evaluation important?
Collecting feedback is crucial for learning and improving the co-production process. It will give you insights into how individuals are experiencing the co-production process, allowing activities to be tailored to individual’s needs and preferences, which can help to make the overall process relevant, suitable, and engaging.
Ideas for collecting feedback
There are many ways to collect feedback and it is important an approach is chosen based on individuals’ needs making sure it is accessible and suitable to them. Below we suggest a few approaches as a starting point.
- These are the most common ways of collecting feedback. If designed in an accessible way, it can work for a diverse range of individuals’ needs.
- Although these can restrict accessibility and limit the amount of detail collected, this approach can reach more people and require fewer resources to collect the information needed.
- Themes covered may include positive and challenging experiences, what worked well and what needs improvement, rating their experience and the benefit gained, other activities of interest, how they feel before and after the activity, rating the quality of the activity, and rating the practical arrangements and delivery of the activity.
In groups – organise group activities and encourage individuals to share their views.
- These can be dedicated sessions – if seeking feedback for the entire or large parts of the process, or it can be part of a planned group activity – if seeking feedback on that particular session.
- Ask open questions and encourage conversations between individuals. Some themes could include:
- Opening themes – for stimulating reflection and starting conversations: perceptions of the process, favourite activities, any relationships they built during the process, and overall experiences.
- Core themes could include – the positive and challenging experiences, things they liked and what they didn’t, what can be improved and how, what would they do differently next time, would they take part in again and why, and would they recommend the experience to a friend and why.
- Recording the information – define an approach to record the information and make it consistent throughout the process. Usual approaches include note-taking, audio recording, and asking individuals to put their ideas on boards and sheets as part of the activity. For any form of data recording, It is crucial to follow relevant GDPR, data protection, and confidentiality policies.
- Individual conversations or interviews – give individuals the opportunity to openly talk about their views and provide detailed feedback. A variety of approaches is available in individual conversations, the most common being:
- Structured conversations – the conversation will be limited by the questions asked to individuals. It is often based on a list of questions which the interviewer goes through in a consistent manner with all individuals. It gives fewer opportunities for the individuals to shape the conversation, making it less spontaneous and open, but it increases the consistency of the information collected.
- Semi-structured conversations – the conversation is guided by open questions and general themes that will be used to prompt the individual to express their views and shape the conversation by proposing other themes. The interviewer may ask follow-up questions to encourage the individual to expand on certain themes. Each conversation will be different however the themes covered will be the same.
- Themes for individual conversations can follow the same suggestions as outlined above – under group conversations – with the addition of other specific themes to encourage individuals to talk about their singular views, e.g. if activities have met their expectations and needs, details about their experience, and their specific benefits and challenges.
- It is very common for individuals to express their opinions and provide feedback spontaneously. These can be a rich source of information as they are spontaneous and often honest and detailed.
- Make sure you have a system to record this type of feedback. A logbook or form can be a good way to record this information. Record the date, the subject (what is the feedback about) and make note of what has been said. It is a good idea to share the note with the individual and confirm that it reflects their views.
Resources
IPC Brokes – Co-production checklist (contains a section on feedback)
