Find information about

Section 3 Issues and concerns in research and consultation

3.13 Options for organising and managing research and consultation

Once the strategic framework for service user research and consultation is in place it will be necessary to consider a number of matters relating to the organisation and implementation of the strategy. There are different options for the organisation of research and consultation functions within social landlord organisations which are discussed more fully elsewhere (see references (11)).

Whilst there will need to be clear responsibility for the co-ordination and forward planning of research and consultation, this may be part of a centralised research function or part of a post with wider responsibilities and will vary according to the size and resources of different social landlords. A utilisation-focus for research and an emphasis on using feedback for learning and action suggests that interest in and responsibility for research and consultation should be more dispersed throughout the organisation.

Developing a research and consultation programme

It is likely that most organisations will want to develop a research and consultation programme of specific projects planned to be carried out. This should be linked to corporate objectives and be based on ideas from staff at all levels and service users themselves.

However, ‘research and consultation’ should not be thought of as solely about fairly large, specific projects which may be contracted out. There will need to be a balance between a planned forward programme of specific projects and flexible scope and resources available for small scale opportunities that arise and for making provision to fund research and consultation as part of other activities that are going on anyway. Research and consultation should be built into existing ways of communicating both with staff and service users. For example, one idea to make the most of contact with groups of service users might be to fund a ‘research and consultation hour’ or occasional additional time after regular meetings or events to explicitly seek views on service quality.

Undertaking research and consultation in-house

Many research and consultation exercises can be conducted by in-house staff.

Front-line or operational staff can be involved at all stages of the research and consultation process in much the same way as service users themselves. For more on this see the section on using research to promote participation and build capacity. The case for doing so is much the same in terms of building on their unique knowledge and enhancing the credibility and use of the findings.

Not all approaches will require detailed knowledge of research techniques and there are a number of options for providing specialist input where this is necessary. This guidance includes examples where operational staff have undertaken some tasks associated with research and consultation. For example, see the section on service specific, recent contact or exit surveys.

One of the issues of using staff is ensuring that sufficient allowance is made for the time that research and consultation will take and providing appropriate training and support. A frequent concern is that objectivity will be compromised. The relationship between objectivity and quality is discussed more fully in the section on the principle of adopting ethical research practices.

Greater use can also be made of existing contacts between staff and service users and feedback from staff. Greater involvement of staff may also help to get your colleagues interested in service user feedback, help to build ownership of the findings and support learning and action.

The pros and cons of contracting out research and consultation

Research and consultation is often contracted out to external contractors or consultants. Many organisations do not have the time, resources or expertise to undertake the work in-house. Some prefer to commission all or part of the process from external agencies. Staff, service users, councillors and board members may see this as providing independence, greater objectivity and credibility, such as was the case in Moray.

One drawback of contracting out is that the opportunity to develop staff skills and expertise is lost. However, contracts could include an element of skills transfer, training or staff capacity building, so that over time more functions or elements of the research can be managed in-house. Another difficulty is that the distance between the client and the contractor can make it difficult to ensure that the key lessons from the exercise are fully understood, accessible and usable by the client.

Contracting out can offer advantages, particularly for managing relatively short term projects. However, it does require active project management to oversee the process, to monitor and manage the contract to ensure it is undertaken to the agreed timetable and to the required specifications. It is important to ensure that contractors take adequate account of the local context and any specific factors that may impact on the design and conduct of the research, rather than applying off-the-shelf or routinised approaches. This is discussed more fully in the section on the principle of ensuring that methods are fit for purpose.

A utilisation–focus to research that ‘designs use in’ to the research is particularly dependent on a strong and clear understanding of the local context and intended use, which will need to be provided by the client. There is no short cut to user engagement in the research planning process.

An understanding of technical research and consultation processes is also important to appreciate the practical implications and limitations of a range of quantitative and qualitative research methods and how these impact on data quality. It is the failure to appreciate the importance of these factors and the arms-length approach to project management that can undermine the quality of contract research.

Options for commissioning external contractors

Decisions about contracting out are likely to be taken as part of the development of a research and consultation programme.

There are a number of options for contracting out. It may not be necessary to contract out all elements of the programme of research and consultation or indeed, all aspects related to one particular approach, such as a satisfaction survey. It is also possible to commission an external contractor for an agreed number of days per year on a ‘call-off’ contract. This kind of more flexible arrangement can allow for the provision of informal advice, training, assisting in designing specific projects, aspects of data collection such as focus group facilitation, help in drawing up briefs and commissioning other external contractors as well as carrying out research and consultation exercises.

The cost of letting a contract involves costs to the client organisation and to the prospective contractors. The list of competitors should be based on an initial shortlisting or ‘expression of interest’ process that allows a reasonable assessment to be made of the real interest and likelihood of contractors submitting a proposal. In this way, the number of competitors can be kept short at the point where detailed formal proposals are to be produced.

Procurement

Each organisation is likely to have its own standing orders or protocols on procurement. EU procurement rules may apply for large contracts.

Research management

More detailed guidance on commissioning and managing social research is available from the Social Research Association.

Designing a research and consultation brief

Any research will require a clearly articulated purpose, linked to a project management plan, whether or not it is to be contracted out. A plan for in-house research and consultation will be similar to the headings used in Figure 3.4 which outlines suggested headings for a research and consultation brief where the work is to be contracted out.

Figure 3.4 Suggested outline of a research and consultation brief

Previous page Next page