Questionnaires
Questionnaires provide everybody with an opportunity to ‘have their say’ and when carefully planned, designed and analysed, can provide you with a lot of valuable information about your community and what it thinks.
We would recommend that a questionnaire is one of the final pieces of consultation you carry out. Use all the information you have collected from your other events, discussions and research to inform your questionnaire.
Before you begin
Before putting together your questionnaire you should have a good idea of:- What issues different people in the parish face and what they feel are the problems and opportunities
- What influence and plans service providers and outside organisations have on the parish
- What information is already available for example previous appraisals, surveys etc
Questionnaire design
Make sure your layout is clear and attractive and you have an introductory statement explaining the purpose of the questionnaire. Every question should have a purpose and it is important to consider the question wording and types of question style you choose to use. Remember the importance of piloting your questionnaire with a small sample of people.Distribution and collection
Think about how you can achieve a good response rate. Publicise when the questionnaire is due to be delivered and consider when you are going to send the questionnaire out; avoid busy holiday periods. Consider whether there is an existing distribution network that you can take advantage of. The best return rates have been achieved when the questionnaire has been collected door to door.Analysis
There are a number of options to consider; there are various software packages on the market, someone in your parish may already have the skills and time to help out, or BRCC has developed an analysis programme ‘Easy Questionnaire Master’ which is free to Parish Plan groups.Resources available
Beds RCC can offer advice and support at every stage of the questionnaire design process. We have the following resources available to help you design a successful questionnaire:- Questionnaire advice document ‘How to construct, distribute & analyse a questionnaire successfully’
- Example questionnaires from other parishes
- Model questionnaire, containing example questions
- Excel analysis programme ‘Easy Questionnaire Master’
- Questionnaire workshops on a regular basis, this workshop can also be brought out to individual steering group meetings
- Questionnaire proof reading