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ANNEX 3: TOPIC GUIDE
Job No; 1407
Improving Services in Rural Scotland
Topic Guide
General Introduction to the Topic Guide
This Topic Guide sets out the list of topics that will be covered in this study. Each discussion or depth interview has a dynamic and a quality of its own. Thus, it may be that some topics are less relevant or of little interest to some respondents. It may be that some subject matter is not covered in the order given below.
In addition the moderator will also include in each discussion any areas of interest or relevance that are raised by the respondents during each, which contribute to the topic under discussion. These later introductions will also be incorporated into any subsequent discussions.
1. Moderator Introduction:
WELCOME, INTRODUCTION TO FACILITY/HOTEL, EXPLANATION OF TAPE RECORDER/VIDEO RECORDING
Thank you for coming along this evening. My name is ……………………. and I am the researcher who will be talking to you today. A representative from the client, The Scottish Executive, is also here to observe but not participate in the discussion (first group only). Her interest is purely from the perspective of a researcher, she is not a policy maker. We are here to take part in a focus group which is a discussion moderated by me but essentially run by you - in that it is focused on your views and ideas.
To ensure that we do not miss any of your comments, we tape record each discussion. Only the executives working on the study (ie me) listen to the tapes or read the transcriptions. Accent is a member of The Market Research Society, and in line with their Code of Conduct, we are not permitted to pass these recordings to anyone else without your agreement, so the confidentiality of your responses is assured.
I will be going through a series of questions and would like you all to be open and honest in your views. There are no "right" or "wrong" answers, so please don't feel that that you need to agree with everyone else. I would like to hear all of your opinions, because it is only by knowing them that we can ensure that recommendations that we make to our client are based upon how a cross section of the public feels.
Hopefully you will have had a chance to complete the diary we sent you. If you have, please use it as a prompt during the discussion.
The discussion will last about 120 minutes. Does anyone have any questions before I start?
Ensure Respondents Are Happy And Settled Before Continuing
2. Background (5 minutes)
Discuss: Name, age, length of time living in location, occupation, hobbies and interests.
3. Agreeing a Range of Priority Services (40 minutes)
We are going to be talking about the range of services that you currently receive and the range that you would ideally like to receive for you and for this community (moderator to ensure that both services that are currently used and ones that are not used are included). The Scottish Executive is very interested to know what sort of services you consider a priority for your community. When we talk about services we mean public services ( e.g. health provision such as GPs, health visitors, midwives), private services ( e.g. shops, banks and other businesses) and voluntary services ( e.g. provided by the community or voluntary groups such as youth clubs).
(Spontaneous recall): Thinking of all the services which you consider important for all members of your community, let's make a list on the flipchart of:
- those that you already receive and consider valuable
- and also new ones which you would like to receive.
(As list is being drawn up, the moderator should question why the service is important and who do they think would benefit from this service. This is to ensure the group considers the benefits rather than just listing all the services they can think of).
(Prompted see showcard 1) Looking at this list of services, are there any that we have missed and need to put on our list - why? Why are they relevant? Are there any on the list that are not relevant for this community? - why? - explore. We must make sure that we are only including those services you think are a real priority for this community. We want to determine the top 10 most important issues here for improvement - so which would the top 10 be and why? Can we rank these priority services at all? Are any more important than others? Why and how?
(The moderator should come up with a list of 10 key services which form the core priority services for them and their community. The moderator should explore differences expressed by any particular groups eg age, social class, lifestage).
Thinking about these 10 key services, how ideal are they? Is each one what you would want? Why? Why not? How relevant, practical and desirable is it as an ideal? (The moderator should get a real understanding of what their ideal community picture is in relation to what they have now).
4. Considering Access and Delivery (40 minutes)
We have now come up with a focused list of 10 services we believe this community sees as a priority and which they would benefit from. I now want to turn to your experiences and views on accessing these services.
Can I begin by discussing what access means to you for each of the 10 services?
How easy are they currently to access? What are the current difficulties here?
For each of the 10 services we need to assess how you would rate the current access on 4 levels:
- below your expectations
- meets your expectations
- exceeds your expectations
- delights you.
Now, looking to the future we need to know how you would want that access improved - and what impact it would have on your satisfaction levels. It may well be that it is not practical to offer the level of access that delights but we need to find some form of access or delivery that meets your need and expectations. So for each service, how can that service be delivered to meet your needs or expectations? Why do you say that? Would it be the same for all members of the community? Why? Why not?
It may be that we need to think quite creatively about how these services might be accessed, I'd like us to look at some innovative ideas for accessing services. (Showcard 2 if necessary as a prompt to creative thinking). Thinking creatively, how do you think these priority services already listed on the flipchart can be delivered/ accessed? How could you see it working? What are the barriers in your community to access and what are the benefits for access issues? (Explore for across all members of community).
What about the issue of co-locating services? These are services sharing the same building such as GP, mid-wife, voluntary or even private services such as an office or shop. Does this happen with services now? How well does it work? (Explore). What if services currently offered to you were co-located? How would that impact on you? Why? What if new services to be introduced were co-located? How would that impact on you and the community? Why? How would it impact on access to services? (Explore but the moderator should ensure an appropriate balance is struck between co-location and other service delivery options).
What impact would that have on your community? Why do you say that?
(Moderator should explore any differences expressed by any particular groups eg age, social class, lifestage)
5. Considering Quality (40 minutes)
We now have a list of the 10 types of services you consider valuable and how they would be delivered or accessed to meet your needs. Now we need to consider 'quality' issues. I now want to turn to your experiences and views on the quality of these services. Can I begin by discussing what quality means to you for each of the 10 services? How good is the quality of current provision - what are the current difficulties, if any, and what are the reasons for those difficulties? Equally, what is good about the quality of those services and what are the reasons you give for saying that?
For each of the 10 services we need to assess how you would rate the current quality on 4 levels:
- below your expectations
- meets your expectations
- exceeds your expectations
- delights you.
Now, looking to the future, we need to know how you would want that quality improved - explore. Taking each service or service type, what quality issues need to be considered? Why? What impact would that have on the community? Why do you say that? How does that differ across the community? Why does it differ?
Are there any other 'quality' issues which we need to consider for each service or service type and if so what? When talking about quality we might mean opening hours, cost etc. (Moderator should brief respondents to get them thinking about the factors that determine satisfaction or dissatisfaction with each service based on their experiences).
Again, thinking about the issue of co-locating services ie services sharing the same building such as GP, mid-wife, voluntary services or even along with shops and office. What if services currently offered to you were co-located - how would that impact on you in terms of the quality of service? Why? What if new services to be introduced were co-located? How would that impact on you and the community in terms of the quality of service? Why? How would it impact on access to services? (Explore, but moderator to ensure an appropriate balance is struck between co-location and other service delivery options.)
(Moderator should explore differences expressed by any particular groups eg. age, social class, lifestage).
6. Communications
What existing channels of communication are there for you to make improvements to your community - who are they with (moderator to explore knowledge of CPPS, LAs, individual service providers etc)? What do you think of them? How effective are they? (Positives and negatives of each to be explored.) Do you feel you have the opportunity (and desire) to communicate? How?
How would you ideally like to communicate the needs of this community to those who can make a real change to the range, access and quality of services available to you and your community? I'm talking about communications that enable you to contribute towards shaping the provision and delivery of services in your community? How could it be improved for you? (Moderator in particular prompt if necessary on how to maintain an ongoing dialogue between service users and service providers so that an accurate insight into required and desired services is achieved.) Why do you say that? How is it different for other members of the community? Who do you want to be able to talk to and why? What impact would it have on your community? Why?
(Showcard 3 to be used as prompt for innovative communication solutions). (Moderator should explore differences expressed by any particular groups eg age, social class, lifestage)
7. Thank and close
Finally, please remember to leave the diary.
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