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Section 4 Techniques and Tools

4.05 Customer and other panels

A Panel is essentially a group of customers or service users who have consented to be part of a pool of people which will be used to select samples to take part in periodic research and consultation exercises. They are sometimes referred to as user groups. A variety of methods may be used to collect data from Panels; for example, Panels can be used as a basis for sampling for a survey or a source of people to recruit to focus groups or other qualitative approaches.

This is an appealing approach for many social landlords. The scope for the use of Panels goes beyond their use as a source of participants for survey work. However, because of their convenience, Panels run the risk of over-reliance by landlords. Panels need to be actively monitored and refreshed to maintain the desired level of ‘representativeness’ and are not immune from all the common problems of research fatigue that are evident in other approaches.

Practice Point

• Both the design and maintenance of the Panel and the individual methods used with the Panel influence the quality of the data collected in this way and need to be considered.

When might a Panel be useful?

Establishing a Panel is a convenient and visible way to recruit people willing to provide feedback on their experience of services.

As with any sample, a key issue is to decide how important strict statistical representativeness is given the purposes for which the Panel will be used. To be statistically representative, Panels should be selected in the same way as samples for general surveys. See the section on sampling for more guidance.

Basing a Panel on a non-probability sample may be acceptable given the purpose and use to be made of the data. In practice, Panels tend to be based on self-selection; willing people are recruited through targeted mailings and publicity. However, quota sampling can be used to ensure that the membership reflects the demographic profile of the wider population of service users. Panel members may differ from the wider population by the fact they agreed to take part and over time may become conditioned and more knowledgeable than the population that they are supposed to ‘represent’.

Loss of Panel members over time means that the Panel needs to be continually refreshed. It may be difficult to recruit members from lower socio-economic groups, ethnic minorities and young people. Downward trends in response rates over time may highlight research saturation or disillusionment amongst Panel members. Panels require active management; the composition of the Panel should be reviewed regularly and new members recruited.

Despite their convenience, Panels may not be the best way to seek feedback from certain groups who may be missed out by traditional recruitment methods. Research focusing on the views of certain groups, such as young people, minority ethnic communities and people with disabilities may require separate, targeted recruitment to ensure sufficient numbers and the participation of these key groups. Recruitment through voluntary and community groups or through snowball sampling is likely to produce more informed feedback.

As with other approaches, Panels should be part of a wider research and consultation strategy rather than seen as the answer to all consultation requirements.

How does a Panel work?

It is important to distinguish between the size of Panel and the size of samples, which are selections of sub-groups from the Panel.

The size of the Panel will depend on the expected frequency of consultation exercises with the Panel, anticipated loss of members over time and the range and type of services being consulted on, particularly the likelihood of recent service use.

Local authority wide Citizens Panels tend to be between 1,000-2,000 people. Panels comprising users of specific services or tenants may not need to be of this scale.

Decisions about sample design and size for each exercise that draws on the Panel have to be taken in the light of the purpose of each exercise and will be different for quantitative and qualitative approaches. One of the dangers is that Panel members may be assumed to be service users and that they are asked questions about services of which they have no recent experience.

Incentives to join a Panel run the risk of biasing the sample, as with any other sampling approach. However, it may well be worth offering incentives to respond to surveys and for participation in qualitative exercises.

Each of the methods used with the Panel, such as surveys or focus groups should be fit for the purpose and appraised on these grounds.

All Panel members, service users, staff, committee or board members and councillors should all be informed of findings and notified of actions proposed or taken as a result of consultation exercises undertaken using the Panel. When reporting back, it may be worth considering including all Panel members, rather than just those that have taken part in the specific exercise, in order to demonstrate how the Panel is used and maintain its profile.

Using Panels: checklist

√ Ensure that the establishment of a Panel is part of a wider strategic approach to research and consultation.

√ Consider the full range of options for how the Panel may be used to ensure it is of sufficient size and that key groups of people are included in the Panel in sufficient numbers.

√ Be aware of the limitations of the Panel; don’t use it just because it’s convenient. Make a clear case for its use each time and use complementary methods to seek the views of those not included in the Panel or the sample drawn from it.

√ Ensure there is a tightly defined focus for each survey and ask quite specific questions on which changes to operational practices can be made. Keep regular surveys using the Panel short and simple.

√ Note that some issues, such as allocations, are not easily addressed through use of a Panel. Other approaches may be more appropriate to explore such issues.

√ Be aware that it may be some time since Panel members have actually used a particular service, so it may be necessary to increase the sample size to ensure enough recent service users are included or adopt a different approach.

√ Note that it may not always be possible to track changes over time, if there is a desire to focus on different topics each time.

√ Small achieved sample sizes sometimes mean that it is not possible to analyse the data on a sub-group basis such as area or tenure.

√ Maintain membership of the Panel on a continuous basis; make sure that people really understand what’s involved when they sign up to it.

√ Consider whether strict statistical representativeness is less important than efforts to ensure that the diversity of customers have the opportunity to be included.

√ Ensure that the organisation as a whole ‘buys-in’ to the Panel to ensure that best use is made of the opportunities to get feedback on the full range of services. This may be achieved through clear linkages to action plans, improvement planning and explicit selling of the benefits to other staff.

√ Ensure that Panel members, service users, staff, committee or Board members and councillors are informed about the way the Panel is being used and the specific results of each feedback exercise in which Panel members are involved, so that they are aware that their views have been acted on. This should include reporting findings to all Panel members each time, even if they have not participated in a particular survey.

Alternatives and related approaches:

• General satisfaction surveys and opinion polls

• Continuous monitoring surveys

• Service specific, recent contact and exit surveys

• Mystery shopping

• Using comments, compliments and complaints as feedback

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