You are here: home how we work good practice how to gather views on service quality references and resources

Find information about

How we work

SECTION 5 FURTHER RESOURCES AND GUIDANCE

This section includes a selection of further resources and guidance. The comments on each are based on the views of the authors of this guidance.

(1) Accounts Commission (1999), Can’t get no satisfaction? Using a gap approach to measure service quality

This is a detailed guide to the Servqual approach which examines customer satisfaction across different aspects of services by assessing customer expectations, views of current services and any gaps between the two. This helps managers to identify and prioritise improvements to the service. It helpfully breaks down the different determinants or dimensions of service quality (such as reliability, responsiveness and competence) which are relevant to most services and assesses the importance attached to each of these by customers. The approach allows comparisons of different customer groups and different parts of a service, for example, different area offices. Be warned that using Servqual will show that most of the time services will be failing to meet expectations; it’s necessary to be prepared for this and to use the information to prioritise where to put service improvement efforts. Whilst potentially useful, Servqual is quite a technical approach requiring understanding of inferential statistics and survey design and may require external support to ensure the approach is conducted well. It may be worth considering other ways of assessing expectations.

(2) Audit Commission (1999), Listen Up! Effective Community Consultation

This paper does not discuss consultation methodologies in detail, but focuses on the importance of planning consultation, good practice principles, overcoming common obstacles to effective consultation and evaluating the effectiveness of consultation exercises. It suggests it is possible to consult on complex issues as well as smaller more tightly focused consultations on matters of service detail and address the need to develop a strategic approach to consultation across an organisation. The report provides specific advice to local authority members about using consultation in making policy and improving services. There is also advice on involving members of the community directly in carrying out consultation and how to manage vocal minorities. Good practice principles are set out to ensure that consultations are useful in practice and related to a decision that the agency intends to take, rather than being undertaken for their own sake. It highlights key competencies in consultation and the need to make consultations inclusive, but does not go into technical details. It also sets out key questions to ask when evaluating consultation exercises. The examples are drawn from across public agencies and are likely to be very useful for social sector landlords.

(3) Audit Commission and Housing Corporation (2004), Management Handbook

Housing – Improving services through resident involvement, Audit Commission

Available at: http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk

This handbook argues that housing organisations should have a clearer idea about why they are involving residents, should offer different levels of and routes to involvement and participation and should have a better idea of the costs and benefits of resident involvement. It provides some tools and case studies which may be helpful thinking through the design of approaches to resident involvement. These need to be suited to the local context and offer different routes to involvement for both individual tenants and tenants groups. It also highlights the need to understand your tenant profile and their preferences for communication and to reach all sections of the community by using creative and tailored approaches that encourage involvement.

(4) Chartered Institute of Housing (2000), Quality and Customer Focus: Good Practice Briefing No. 19, CIH

This good practice briefing focuses on the delivery of quality housing services. It discusses what is meant by ‘quality’, ‘customer care’ and ‘customer focus’. The guide acknowledges that quality in social housing is about service outcomes, not outputs and that outcomes desired by customers are less easy to measure than outputs. It does look at some ways in which landlords can test the quality of services, but is not a detailed guide to methods.

(5) Chartered Institute of Housing (2003), Housing Management Standards Manual Version 2.7, CIH

This manual, designed for use on intranets, provides a comprehensive framework of standards for housing management services covering all types of landlord in England, Wales and Scotland. The chapters on Customer Care and Service User Involvement both contain good practice examples of interest, although those specifically on testing customer satisfaction tend to focus on the use of surveys by social landlords. Whilst these examples contain ideas and hints, this is of limited value as a practical guide to methods.

(6) The Housing Corporation (2002), Customer Involvement: Opportunities for Learning from the Private Sector?, Office for Public Management

This report suggests that the housing sector is less likely to involve customers in market research and product design than the private sector. It suggests that in an increasingly competitive world, a shift in approach could help social landlords. The examples included suggest that the private sector uses similar quantitative and qualitative methods to seek customer views, but how they view their market may be different, for example, in distinguishing between current and potential customers and more explicitly seeking to understand the changing lifestyles of customers, improve product design and services and predict future trends.

(7) Housing Corporation Best Practice Bank

Although the material here is related to the regulatory code and guidance that applies in England, this web site is worth a browse for good practice material of wider relevance on Continuous Improvement including Best Value and benchmarking and Involving Residents.

(8) Improvement and Development Agency (2000), Feeling the Pulse: Interpreting and Using Public Opinion Research in Local Government, IDeA

This is a guide to using the results of survey based research in local government. It provides checklists of questions to ask when reviewing the findings of surveys and there is some guidance for analysis of survey data. It also looks at using research results to set priorities and translating the results into action. Although there is much helpful advice in reviewing research, the real value comes in being able to build this advice into the design and commissioning of surveys, so that decisions about what gets included in a survey, are based on a sound and clear assessment of how the results are intended to be used.

(9) Improvement and Development Agency (2004), Local e-Government Now: Building on Success, IDeA and socitm

This is the latest review in the Local e-government now series which reviews the progress and practice of local e-government implementation. The report contains articles written by practitioners working in different types of organisations with different perspectives on the progress and challenges facing local e-government development. It also contains case study examples from across the UK of local e-government implementation that demonstrate how councils and their partners are building on previous work to improve local services. The case studies were selected to provide good examples of e-government implementation in terms of three themes: transformation through corporate policy change, working with partners and implementation of e-government by smaller councils. This report also identifies four challenges for those involved in the implementation of e-government: building on customer care to develop a new customer experience; building on consultation to encourage greater participation by citizens; building on information to enhance service delivery and building on outcomes to increase public value.

(10) Laird, A., et al (2000), Assessment of Innovative Approaches to Testing Community Opinion, Scottish Executive Central Research Unit

This considers the use of innovative approaches to community consultation across a range of public sector organisations in different policy contexts. It highlights the need for improved strategic planning and management of community consultation, for more formal and systematic evaluations of the effectiveness of consultation and for more outcome evaluations to be undertaken. Approaches to evaluation are suggested and guidance is provided (including practical examples) that aims to encourage and stimulate thinking around the use of different consultation techniques.

(11) Laird, R., & Greaves, K (2000), Effective Research for RSLs, Housing Corporation

This research manual provides guidance to help Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) to improve the organisation and the quality of their research into tenants’ views and expectations about service quality. The authors point out that the guidance applies to research about customers of general housing needs only. The manual contains checklists of research competencies for both managers and staff and describes the most commonly used types of social research and when to use them. Introductory guidance on how to use different methods is given and there is also advice on reporting results, basic principles of ethical standards in research and a glossary of research terms. The guidance emphasises that to make maximum use of research it must be built into and integrated with the RSLs’ organisational strategies and advice is provided on how to do this. Also highlighted is the importance of a co-ordinated approach to research organisation, planning, implementation and feedback activities and advice on achieving these is provided. The guidance is based on widely accepted good practice and examples of uses of research by RSLs feature throughout.

(12) National Housing Federation (2003), Running STATUS: a Guide to Undertaking the Standardised Tenant Satisfaction Survey, National Housing Federation

STATUS is a standardised, postal tenant satisfaction survey approved by the Housing Corporation and ODPM in England and Wales. The guide covers all aspects of the process, including considering how tenant opinion relates to the Best Value process and the relationship between STATUS and other types of tenant feedback. Although STATUS is not used in Scotland, some of the material in the appendices may be of interest to Scottish social landlords. This includes both housing association and local authority versions of the STATUS questionnaire, example letters to tenants, a bibliography and glossary, a model report, draft brief for contractors, and an explanation of how statistical reliability is assessed. There is also guidance on how best to recruit external contractors.

(13) Office of Public Service Reform (2002), Measuring and Understanding Customer Satisfaction, MORI

This report provides much of interest to the debate about measuring satisfaction with public services. It discusses the role of expectations and looks at different ways to identify priorities for improvement, including SERVQUAL. There is a good discussion of the meaning of satisfaction and the technical aspects of measuring and interpreting attitudes through the use of different types of rating scales. This should be recommended reading for anyone tempted to lump the ‘very’ and ‘fairly’ satisfied customers together to paint a better picture of performance.

(14) Positive Action in Housing (2002), Promoting Inclusion of Minority Ethnic Communities: A Best Practice and Training Guide for Scottish Tenant’ Groups, PAIH

This aims to provide guidance about how tenants’ organisations can promote inclusion and involvement of all minority ethnic groups. The guide briefly sets out the legislation relating to unfair discrimination and the legal responsibilities of tenants’ groups. Strategies are suggested for reaching minority ethnic groups and for communicating with and involving groups and individuals. The importance of equality and diversity awareness training is highlighted and suggestions for the content of training are made. Examples of good practice are included that demonstrate some practical steps for promoting inclusion. The appendices contain resources such as a model equal opportunities policy, suggested contents of an equal opportunities pack, exercises relating to diversity awareness and contact details for further sources of information and help.

(15) Reid-Howie Associates (2002), Good Practice Guidance Consultation with Equalities Groups, Scottish Executive Central Research Unit and Equality Unit

This provides guidance to ensure that equalities groups are not excluded from public consultation exercises. It highlights the importance of considering equality issues from the start of the consultation and considers the many barriers to participation that can occur at all stages of the consultation and how to address them. The main methods of consultation, how to choose between them and how to combine them are explored and guidance is provided on how to reach ‘hard to reach groups’ and how to publicise consultation events. Practical issues related to carrying out an inclusive consultation are examined such as staff attitudes and skills, timing, accessibility, providing information and feedback and guidance is provided on organising inclusive events. Practical examples from statutory and community-based organisations are provided throughout.

(16) Robertson, D and McLaughlin (1996), Looking into Housing: A Practical Guide to Housing Research, CIH

This is designed for housing practitioners who wish to carry out research. It includes chapters on project planning and design, commissioning research and a number of methods including observation and case studies. A second edition is forthcoming. Note that the content is similar to Robertson, D and Dearing, A (2004) discussed below.

(17) Robertson, D and Dearing, A (2004), The Practical Guide to Social Welfare Research, Russell House Publishing

This book has its origins in a previous publication by the Chartered Institute of Housing ‘Looking into Housing: A Practical Guide to Housing Research’ 1996. It includes information on a number of research techniques that is common to both books but this edition addresses the conduct and commissioning of a wider range of social research, including service user consultation. As a result, this edition is more relevant to the broader Community Planning and regeneration policy areas. It does discuss the challenges of user involvement in research but does not include information on participatory methods. The appendices include a sample research brief and research contract.

(18) Scottish Executive (2004), Consultation Good Practice Guide

This provides a series of checklists to ensure all options are considered when deciding how to run a consultation exercise. It refers to Scottish Executive guidelines, but is also likely to be useful for RSLs and local authorities undertaking consultation, whether through issuing written consultation papers or undertaking non-written consultation exercises. It refers to the need to target groups less likely to respond to a written consultation paper and gives advice on accessing specific groups. There is also guidance on organising inclusive consultation events and outlines of some research methods that could be used. It also includes a section on evaluating the consultation process itself and an annex includes guidance for the analysis of written consultations.

(19) Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (2001), Guidance Booklet No. 11: Good Practice for Interpreting and Translating, SFHA.

This booklet on interpreting and translating aims to provide registered social landlords with information and good practice guidance on how to work with interpreters; what to expect from interpreters and translators in terms of quality; how to prepare text for translation, and contact details for public service interpreting and translating services, including costs.

(20) Scottish Parliament (2004) Participation Handbook, Participation Services

This provides lots of practical suggestions on how to seek individual and collective views. The focus is on increasing interaction and creating better dialogue through individual, small and large group methods. Lateral thinking is encouraged and there are a number of creative ideas for methods that can promote more active engagement and those that may work better with more marginalised or excluded groups.

(21) Sinclair, Frauke (1999) The Active Community – Innovative consultation and participation methods for housing, available from the Association of London Government

This looks at ten research and consultation techniques that can help to build successful consultation and participation, drawing on case studies from housing and other public services. Most of the techniques examined are designed for use with groups, rather than individuals, although it does include the use of satisfaction surveys. The report makes the link between the objectives of consultation exercises and the techniques that may be suited to meet those objectives.

(22) Stevenson, R., & Gibson, P (2002), Customer and Citizen Focused Public Service, Scottish Executive Central Research Unit

This evaluates how Scottish public services organisations use customer feedback about services to support continuous improvement within public services. It also examines the range and impact of processes used in citizen consultation on decision making in public sector organisations about issues such as the planning, development and delivery of services. The research identifies research methods currently used by public service organisations to obtain customer feedback and to consult with the public. It provides advice about the appropriate application of different research methods in different circumstances and advice is offered about how to reach ‘hard-to-reach’ groups. The research also examines the necessary support structures and capacity requirements of public sector organisations to ensure their focus on customer and public service needs. Examples of good practice drawn from a range of public service providers in a variety of locations across Scotland are provided throughout the report.

(23) Walker, R. M (2003) Continuous Improvement for Housing Associations: Discussion Paper, The Housing Corporation

Available at: http://www.bankofgoodpractice.org/

This paper discusses the implications and impact of continuous improvement in the housing association sector. Continuous improvement is defined as on-going process innovations that are focused on the strategic goals of the organisation. It is seen as a process of fine-tuning and on-going adaptation to improve organisational performance. This goes beyond traditional formal performance measurement systems that focus on ad hoc assessments of outputs to assessments of outcomes such as effectiveness, fairness and impact on quality of life, which are less easy to measure in traditional quantitative ways. It develops a model of continuous improvement that shows a need to develop a strategic approach if continuous improvement is become a ‘way of life’ which supports organisational learning. This is a useful conceptual and discursive review of themes and challenges, rather than a practical, hands-on guide.

Previous page Next page

Terms & Conditions | Freedom of Information | bookmark this website | © Crown Copyright