Mapping and understanding
my area’s assets
Links People Community Patterns Networks Together This document was created in association with Spice Innovations Ltd, a registered charity and social
enterprise.
Spice's agency time credit applications encourage people to engage more in the design and delivery of public
and community services and support people to take more active roles in their communities.
Employing co-design and co-production techniques, Spice works with local people to envisage how they would
like their communities to be, and how they would like to engage. It identifies people's skills, interests and
talents and finds new ways for these skills to be used in the community.
Contributions are rewarded with credits that can be used to access events, training and leisure services, or to
trade time with neighbours, organised through a central community agency.
Spice began as a University of Wales institute, working mainly in the Welsh Valleys and has since spun out as
a social enterprise, working across the UK.
www.justaddspice.org
2 Introduction
The NHS Five Year Forward View introduces Integrated Personal Commissioning (IPC)
as “a new voluntary approach to blending health and social care funding for individuals
with complex needs. As well as care plans and voluntary sector advocacy and support,
IPC will provide an integrated, budget that will be managed by people themselves or on
their behalf by councils, the NHS or a voluntary organisation.”
The IPC approach recognises that improving health, care and welling outcomes will
mean reaching beyond existing models of formal NHS care services.
The programme is aimed at individuals who have high levels of need, have both health
and social care needs, where a personalised approach would address acknowledged
problems in current care provision and help prevent further deterioration of their
health and enable them to retain their independence.
This document presents a methodology to describe and assess existing community
capacity and assets, identify gaps and present opportunities for innovative and user-led
responses within an economically efficient community model.
3 Contents
Introduction to this mapping tool
5-6
The Mapping Process
7
Chapter 1 – Setting the Objective
8
Refining your Mapping Objectives
9
Writing a S.M.A.R.T. objective
10 - 11
Reflection checklist for a S.M.A.R.T. objective
12
Linking with outputs and existing local information
13
Setting your objective: The Five W’s
14
Chapter 2 - Setting the level
16
Defining the levels
18 - 19
Mapping methodologies
20 - 25
Practical tips and hints to consider
26
Chapter 3 - Analysis and Understanding of Mapping Findings
27
Data and Findings Analysis
28 - 29
Chapter 4 - Completing your Mapping: Writing your report
30
Informing, influencing and Impact
31 - 32
4 Introduction to this mapping tool.
What is a mapping tool?
A mapping tool is a resource to help you to identify and understand –
•
•
•
what assets and community capacity are already available in service and
community provision
gaps and assets available for peer support and in the community
where resources will need to be invested to deliver the common framework.
And an opportunity to –
• reflect on the selected approach to build community capacity and peer support
• review the evidence in the business case
• review, analyse and understand the outputs from the mapping
• take stock of the most appropriate areas to focus community capacity and peer
support on using the information they have reviewed and gathered.
This process allows the user to develop a strategic approach to community capacity
building by developing a detailed understanding the local context including both assets
and gaps. This information may then be used to support the commissioning business
case. It also contributes to knowledge building of voluntary, community and social
enterprise (VCSE) provision within the scope of the mapping and to identify peer
support in a local community, producing a broader, more comprehensive and wider
range of options and services to individuals.
Peer Support, and broader community centred approaches form a key part of IPC and
can be described in the following formats •
•
•
Informal and formal peer support, as one to one or group support
Peer support as a broader community capacity building approach to IPC.
Local co-production peer networks co-producing IPC at a strategic level.
5 Why is mapping community capacity important to Integrated Personal Commissioning?
The overarching aim of Integrated Personal Commissioning (IPC) is to redesign
conventional approaches to health and care with people living with complex health
conditions. IPC promotes an asset based, integrated, person centred approach where
people are empowered to take a more active role in their health and wellbeing.
Creating the conditions locally to achieve these aims is a key task of commissioners
across the health and social care system.
This tool provides a structured process and framework to identify and assess assets
and gaps in the local community with individuals and groups with lived experience. It
also helps local IPC sites to choose where to invest in community capacity and peer
support and what the most appropriate approaches are to take. Remember, there will
be assets in every area which are unknown to the statutory sector, so this tool can be a
starting point for understanding any area’s capacity and potential including ‘unknown
unknowns’.
This mapping and reflective tool is designed to be used within the wider
implementation of the five key shifts of the IPC programme, which are:
Who can use this tool?
This tool can be used by anyone who is interested in or needs to understand the assets
and gaps in services for a particular group of people, or within a particular area. It can
be used by commissioners of services, local organisations providing services, and by
individuals with lived experience who want to contribute to the local business case for
community capacity. You may wish to produce your own business case after
completing your mapping, and there is an IPC tool to support you with this called
‘Developing a Business Case for Change’.
6 The Mapping and Reflective Process
1. Agree your
Mapping
Objective
• What gap in knowledge does this process fill?
• Is there a clear geography or client group that
you are targeting?
• What strategic objectives do you want this
process to contribute to?
2. Select the
level of mapping
for your
objective
To select the appropriate level you need to consider:
• Resource available to you including budget and
time
• Other colleagues that can work with you
• Access to people relevant to your topic
• The scope and boundaries of your objective
3. Complete your
mapping and
create your
report
For your final report it is important to consider:
• Commissioning
• Business Planning Processes
• Appropriate funding bodies linked to your
mapping.
• Develop a business case for services identified
as lacking or inadequate.
4. Reflect and
analyse
information
• Reflection of your mapping outputs & purpose
- Did you achieve your objective?
• Analysis of your outcomes
- What to do next?
- Continue mapping to a modified objective
- Share your findings
7 Chapter 1 – Setting the Objective
In life, the more prepared you are for a situation, the more you can expect to get out of
the experience. The same applies when considering the purpose of the mapping you
want to complete. It is crucial that you give time to consider, assess and reassess your
mapping objective as this is the foundation for all decisions, resources and activity you
plan and complete throughout the mapping process, as well as how useful the
mapping will be strategically going forward.
Case Study 1 – understanding local context before starting mapping.
Community Catalysts is a Social Enterprise and Community Interest Company. They work with organisations to
identify and harness the talents and imaginations of people in communities and organisations to provide
imaginative solutions to complex social issues.
Community Catalysts were invited to work with public sector health and social care organisations in a local
authority in rural England. They were tasked with helping key stakeholders determine what was needed to
develop a more personalised, creative and community driven care and support options for local people. The first
part of this work was a mapping exercise to find out what services, supports, groups and resources were
already in the area.
When Community Catalysts started this task, they began by checking if any mapping had been completed by
other organisations in the area. They discovered several existing directories or lists of services, supports and
community resources with a health, care or support focus. One list had been co-produced by people with lived
experience and had over 3000 entries. The different lists had been compiled by different public or third sector
organisations and each had a slightly different focus e.g. supports for children and families, resources for carers
or social care services. Some of the ‘mappers’ or list holders were aware of the other lists and others were not.
There was a lot of potential overlap of mapping activity.
Community Catalysts realised that to undertake the mapping exercise they planned would not be adding
anything new. Instead they decided to work with all the mapping organisations and list holders to collate the
existing information.
By taking the time to find out what mapping had already been done Community Catalysts were able to meet their
brief. They were also able to introduce the different public and third sector organisations to each other and help
them to make connections. As a result the mapping task took much less time than anticipated and the resources
saved were able to be used on a second phase of work to actively nurture new community health and care
options.
www.communitycatalysts.co.uk
8 Refining your Mapping objective The setting of your mapping objective will usually begin from a question or problem
you experience, which you will then need to reflect on. If you think mapping is the best
way to move forward you will need to turn this question or problem into a mapping
objective by focusing on how mapping can contribute to resolving this.
These are examples of starting questions that you may be asking –
- You think there is a gap in peer support for people with complex mental health needs
and would like to gain a greater understanding of existing provision across the
statutory and voluntary sectors to help your commissioning and service design
planning.
- You want to be able to signpost clients to community based services across a range of
areas and need to develop a database that can be accessed by teams who will do these
referrals.
- You want to develop a 10 year dementia strategy for your area, which is a mix of
urban and rural areas, which will include development of existing services in addition
to commissioning of new services. You specifically want this strategy to be coproduced.
As you work through this chapter, you will develop your question into a mapping
objective. This objective will be the basis of all the mapping activity that you complete,
so it is important to take the time to develop and refine your objective to be clear and
specific to what you want to map.
When you are deciding on your mapping objective ask yourself, it is S.M.A.R.T?
By this we mean is it –
S pecific
M easurable and M eaningful
A chievable
R ealistic and R elevant
T ime-bound
9 Writing a S.M.A.R.T. Mapping objective Review your mapping objective against these following steps to test your objective and
refine it.
Specific
Have you reviewed and simplified your objective to be as specific as possible?
Have you identified different parts of your objective that make it whole? These may
include different groups of people / geography / service needs / different stakeholders
including people with lived experience.
Measurable and Meaningful
Is your objective measurable – are there existing national standards or data that you
can compare your objective to?
How meaningful is your objective – is it relevant to IPC development and strategic
objectives locally?
Is what you are aiming to map able to be mapped and understood and if so how?
Achievable
When setting an objective, it is very important to really consider what you can achieve
with the resources available to you. It is best practice to consider all the elements
necessary to achieve your mapping objective including –
•
•
•
time (yours and others)
resources (rooms, travel)
input from others (stakeholders, people with lived experience, subject matter
experts)
Realistic and Relevant
The most successful mapping comes from an objective that has considered and
identified what can realistically be achieved within the resources available to the
person completing the mapping. While it can be tempting to ‘over-promise’, a realistic
objective will recognise the potential and limits of resources available and set the
objective appropriately.
A good objective will also be relevant to the area and / or group you are mapping, and
will fit in with strategic objectives locally. You should also be clear regarding the roles
and functions of everyone involved in your mapping, clearly identifying who is
responsible for different parts, and when you need this input for.
It is also important to consider the methods that you will use to map your objective, as
these will have different implications on the time and resources you need – for
example, collecting and analysing data from existing datasets takes less time than
10
collecting information for a new dataset, but may not directly answer your mapping
objective. Similarly, holding focus groups within the community you are mapping will
provide you with collective information, but may not produce detailed personal stories
that you can collect with one on one structured interviews.
There is more information on the different methods and approaches that you should
consider on pages 19 – 22.
Time-bound
It is impossible to set a successful objective without considering the time available to
you to complete your mapping. Underestimating the time you will need at this stage
will most likely result in poor or inadequate mapping outcomes.
When you are assessing the time you will need, do talk to others who have experience
in mapping and take time to understand the work you need to complete to map your
objective.
Telling a story with your mapping
When you are mapping your objective, it is important to give context to the services and
support that you map. This means going beyond the basic facts of the service or
support you are mapping such as opening times, attendance rates etc, and capturing
the whole picture through conversations with providers and users. This could give a
context to services that appear costly or underused at first assessment and provide a
‘why’ through a broader perspective to support this, such as time of services,
challenges with access, scheduling with other services in the area etc.
This will allow you to structure your mapping methodologies to generate detailed and
complete answers to your objective, and also ensure that your findings can be
interpreted accurately and appropriately.
Case Study 2 – flexibility when mapping to achieve optimum outputs.
Age Concern Luton were commissioned to produce a comprehensive directory of dementia services by Luton
Dementia Action Alliance (DAA).
However, when Age Concern spoke with people in Luton living with dementia, their families and support
networks, it became apparent that clear and accurate information was most important and, at the time, most
lacking.
Age Concern reported back to the DAA and a new objective was agreed – instead of a simple service directory,
which could become out-dated quickly without regular review and updating, Age Concern Luton and the DAA coproduced a Dementia Information guide, which covers all areas of information identified as important by those
participating.
You can download this information guide here http://www.luton.gov.uk/Health_and_social_care/Lists/LutonDocuments/PDF/Luton%20Dementia%20Guide.pdf
11
Reflection checklist for Setting the Objective
DoyouknowWHATyourmapping
objectiveis?IsitS.M.A.R.T?
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
DoyouknowWHYyouare
mappingthisobjective?
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
DoyouknowWHOyouaregoing
toworkwithandWHENyouwant
toachieveyourmappingtargets?
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
DoyouknowWHATresourcesyou
need,WHEREtofindthem,and
HOWmuchtheywillcost?
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
12
Linking with Outputs and existing local information
It is essential that you take time at the beginning to think about the end of your
mapping – what outputs would you like to achieve, and how could you maximise your
opportunity to achieve them? By considering and identifying appropriate outputs that
link with your objective you optimise the potential impact and influence that you could
achieve with your mapping. Focussing on outputs at this stage helps to move to
thinking through the practical methods to achieve your objective,
In order to do this, you may want to do some research into the following, relevant to
your objective and local structures. Some may already exist and others you may need
to explore in your mapping process:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Local Integrated Personal Commissioning Programme outcomes
Commissioning strategies from NHS and local authority
Voluntary Sector Organisation Business Plans
Local Authority Corporate Plans
Specific Alliances (e.g. Dementia, Mental Health, Children and Young People etc)
Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) for your area
Service User Forums
If you do identify an overlap with your mapping objective and the priorities or objectives
of any of these bodies, do make sure that you introduce yourself and explain the
mapping you are about to complete, and how it could be shared and used to evidence
outputs and achieve goals at higher levels.
It is also good practice to reach out to partners and stakeholders share your mapping
objective with them, as some may have completed other mapping work and be willing
to share this. Use of social media and working with local bodies at this stage can be
useful to contact a large audience quickly and make connections.
When reviewing or considering outcomes from previous mapping, it is important to
consider the following:
• How old is this piece of mapping?
• Was it co-produced?
• Is the mapping objective relevant to your objective?
• What were the outputs this mapping, and were they implemented / acted on?
Did it influence market shaping? If not, why not – are these reasons to consider when
setting the outcomes of your mapping?
13
Setting your objective: The Five W’s
If you are still not confident that your objective is as refined as it could be, or would like
to test its robustness, consider this following set of questions against your mapping
objective.
Who?
•
•
•
•
•
Is there a client or population group that you are targeting?
Who is best placed to do the mapping?
Who else may need to support or collaborate?
Who are the key stakeholders that have a say in decision making about this
process and how do they want / need to be involved?
Are there other experts / expertise that will be needed to complete this?
What?
• What type of activity are you aiming to understand?
• What gaps are you seeking to uncover?
• What mapping has been completed before, and can you access and use this?
Where?
• Is there a defined geography in which the mapping will take place?
• And / Or is there a service system (e.g. learning disability service) to be mapped
and understood?
When?
• What are your start and end dates? And what is the reasoning behind this?
• Are they reasonable and possible within existing resources and timelines?
Why?
•
•
•
•
•
What is the ultimate reason for this mapping?
How do you want the information you produce from your mapping to be used?
How does it align to IPC development and strategic objectives locally?
Does your objective cross over with any other similar work happening or has it
happened in the past?
What outputs could your mapping feed into? Please refer to the section on
Outputs in Chapter 27 of this guide for more information.
If you are satisfied that your objective answers these questions, you are ready to write
your mapping objective.
14
Creating your objective
Can you complete this sentence for your objective?
We are completing this mapping exercise to _______________________ and
________________________ in order to _____________________.
This fits with our local IPC objectives through helping to __________________ and
__________________ .
The mapping exercise will start on _________ (date) and we intend that it be completed
by __________ (date).
If you can, then you are ready to move to the next stage of the process. If you feel your
objective cannot fit into this template, then you may need to go back and re-assess the
purpose of your objective, and refine this through the steps previously outlines, until
you are satisfied with how it fits to this template.
15
Chapter 2 - Setting the level
Once you have your objective set, the next step is to decide on the level of mapping that
you will undertake.
There are two levels of mapping that you can choose from –
Level 1: Desk based review combined with outreach events.
This level combines some initial desk based research with some targeted outreach to
produce detailed information linked to key groups or specific places or both.
Level 2: In-depth large scale mapping process involving local people and
organisations.
This level will produce a range of data and experiential information. It is useful to
assess complex systems and should unearth a range of formal and informal support in
communities.
Selecting the level for your objective
In order to make the decision on which level is most suitable to map your objective, you
will have to consider the depth and breath of the information that you want to collect to
inform your objective – i.e. how far you want to ‘cast your net’ and ‘drill down’ into your
mapping to satisfy your objective.
It may be helpful to consider the format of the evidence that will be most appropriate
for resolving your objective.
If you are starting with an objective where you are mapping a large population or
working across a large geographical area, you will need to chose outreach events
(explained in more detail on page 22-24) that allow you to contact and engage with
large numbers of participants easily.
This type of mapping is most likely to produce a dataset as an output that can be
statistically analysed to generate more general, evidence based statements.
If your objective seeks to uncover trends in thought and opinions, and dive deeper into
your mapping objective, then you will begin with a broad dataset relevant for your
objective (either existing or one you produce) and drill down using a representative
sample of participants.
This type of mapping will produce detailed information through appropriate outreach
events where you identify themes and trends as your outputs, which you will analyse
and report on to conclude the mapping of your objective.
16
There are also practical elements to consider when assessing the most appropriate
level for your mapping including:
•
Time available to you
•
Other colleagues that can work with you (and their available capacity)
•
Access to people relevant to your topic including (but not limited to):
o Organisations
o
o
o
o
Service providers
Front-line workers
People with lived experience
Commissioners
o Families and friends of your target group
•
The scope and boundaries of your objective including (but not limited to):
o geographic location
o client group / age / need
o ethnicity and diversity of the local population
o natural connections in the community eg culture, faith links…
Case Study 3 – Maximise your insight through choice of mapping methods.
Spice Innovations were invited by Chorley Council to work with them on ‘The Chorley Conversation’. This aim of piece of
work was to hold a ‘conversation’ with individuals and service users across Chorley so that their lived experiences could
be used to redesign public services.
The Chorley Conversation has consisted of three elements –
• A residents survey sent to a large sample of residents to gauge general views and levels of satisfaction,
particularly on Chorley Council
• A series of workshops with groups
• In-depth interviews with individuals
The workshops and interviews were planned around four thematic areas:
• people who regularly use services
• young people
• people from rural areas
• people who live in low income areas
While the survey gives a broad population-wide picture, the workshops and interviews focussed on the experience of key
groups and individuals in the community. Spice targeted groups and individuals that use services on a regular basis
either now or in the past to understand more about how people with more complex levels of support navigate and
engage with services.
Use of these specific outreach events allowed Spice to produce the following outputs to support the final
recommendations of the report –
A robust dataset (open survey with 1,299 responses and focus group workshops)
Transcripts of interviews with participants (structured in-depth interviews where the same set of pre-designed questions
were put to all participants),
The final outputs of this piece of work are a list of 6 key recommendations for Chorley Council, which they are now
implementing in their redesign of public services.
You can download and read the full report here https://democracy.chorley.gov.uk/documents/s59162/FinalReportTheChorleyConversationReport2015.pdf
17
Defining the levels
Level 1: Desk based review combined with selected outreach events.
Level 1 mapping is an in-depth method of mapping a wide evidence base to investigate
your objective. This level of mapping may be most appropriate where the objective is
focusing on broader examination and consideration of statutory, community and peer
support relative to your objective, and identifying unknown assets in the area.
The desk based element of this level will be complemented and supported by the
outreach events you organise. These are explained in more detail on pages 20 - 23.
Examples of desk based research that you may use include:
•
Longitudinal studies of existing datasets
•
Various forms of surveys – online and / or paper surveys
•
Telephone or face-to-face interviews
Examples of outreach events that you may use include:
•
Focus groups
•
Workshops
If you are using existing surveys or datasets as a starting point to map your objective,
you must ensure that the data collected matches with your objective, otherwise you
risk undermining the outputs / final report of your mapping.
Through well designed questions in a survey there is potential to identify and map
more informal or unknown sources of support and activity, such as peer support. This
is also possible by ensuring there is a good diversity of participants in focus groups or
other outreach events that you organise. This should allow you to ‘drill down’ to the
appropriate depth to map your objective comprehensively, and also provide greater
insight and understanding of the complexity of need of the group you are mapping with,
which you can include in your final report.
18
Level 2: In-depth mapping with local people and organisations.
This level of mapping is recommended for an objective that has specific elements of
focus which will necessitate mapping of significant breath and depth of information to
answer your objective effectively. Mapping at this level will produce rich, deep and
meaningful data for your objective through in-depth interaction with those you map
with.
Typically, Level 2 mapping is used to gain a deeper understanding of underlying
reasons, opinions, and motivations of the population you map.
Through this mapping level, you will work with service users and people with lived
experience, and go deeper to map your objective and generate the evidence necessary
to produce meaningful outputs for your mapping analysis. It also provides the
necessary scope to map and understand complex service systems and the ability to
engage the seldom heard and experiences of people with the most complex care and
support needs.
Information collection methods for this level may include:
• Focus groups
• Structured or semi-structured interviews with small groups or individuals
• Shadow sessions with the client group you are mapping
Mapping at this level must be planned and considered in detail, as it can be intensive
and requires appropriate resources and time to produce meaningful and high quality
outputs. This may also mean identifying and sourcing specialist skills if not available
in-house. You will need to consider evidence and the number of participants that you
need to make your findings robust, and ensure your interviewees can participate by
checking and accommodating their needs including access, support and language /
translation services.
In summary
Before you select the level to map your objective, take the time to consider and identify
the most appropriate outputs to map your objective successfully. There is more
information on outputs on page 26 - 27.
Failure to pre-plan adequately before beginning this level of mapping will increase the
risk of escalation of time and resource necessary to complete the mapping of your
objective to the standard necessary for meaningful outputs.
The most important question to ask when considering which level to choose is –
“Can I achieve my objective with the mapping level I have chosen?”
19
Mapping methodologies Having identified the level most appropriate for your objective, you now need to select
the appropriate methodologies to produce the outputs best suited to your objective.
To achieve your mapping effectively and efficiently, it is essential that you consider –
•
Your objective and the outputs you wish to achieve
•
Resources available to you including:
o time and potential costs
o access to communities and participants
o support from colleagues
Desk based research
This type of research is required for level 1 and level 2 mapping, and is a basic starting
point for all mapping. Desk-based research is self-guided research that can be
completed with very few resources – a desk, telephone and internet connection.
Successful desk based research is a thorough investigation and collation of existing
evidence that relates to your objective. This will include:
•
•
•
•
Published reports and articles from other organisations (local and national)
Public datasets including:
o Office for National Statistics datasets,
o Mental Health Services Data Set (MHSDS)
o Mental Health Minimum Data Set (MHMDS)
o Personal Social Services Adult Social Care Survey (ASCS)
Publications and studies from NHS England
Completed mapping from other local organisations that relates to your objective
You may want to include use of social media and other platforms as part of your deskbased research. In addition to assisting you in finding out what completed mapping
already exists, and attracting and advertising for peer support and participation in
outreach events, use of such platforms allows for you to start virtual conversations with
providers and users from the beginning of your mapping.
Surveys (paper / online)
Surveys are appropriate for level 1 and level 2 mapping, and are mostly used to collect
information and data from a large group of people that can be analysed to provide
statistical evidence to support the outputs that you are mapping.
20
Designing a Survey
A survey is used to ask a set of questions from which data will be generated from
analysing all the responses.
When developing a good survey you must focus on your mapping objective and list out
the information that you are trying to capture. Once you have identified what you are
looking for, you can begin to structure the questions that will help you capture the
information. Once you have developed your survey, you should go back through the
questions and determine if each of the questions is providing you with information that
you need. Any question that is not providing necessary information should be removed.
There are two different types of questions that can be used to collect information. The
first is called a structured or fixed response question and the second is called nonstructured or open question.
Structured Questions
Structured questions are questions that offer the participant a closed set of responses
to choose from. Structured questions make data collection and analysis much simpler
and they take less time to answer and analyse. When writing the selection of
responses for a structured question, you should make certain that the list covers all
possible alternatives that the participant might select and that each of the answers is
unique (i.e. they do not overlap).
You must also ensure that all of the responses are similar so that no single response
stands out except the answer that is true for them. This helps to ensure that you are not
leading participants to a particular answer by making that answer different from the
others, and avoids bias in your responses.
If you are trying to get a participant's opinion about something it is best to have them do
a rating against a question or statement using:
•
•
Numerical rating: ‘0 – 5’ where 0 is the lowest rating and 5 the highest
Likert Scale: ‘strongly disagree, disagree, undecided, agree, strongly agree’.
Non-Structured Questions
Non-structured questions, or open-ended questions, are questions where there is no
list of answer choices from which to choose. Participants are simply asked to write
their response to a question. It is best to use non-structured questions when you are
exploring new ideas and you don't really know what to expect from the participants.
Open-ended questions let you get more insight into the participants' thoughts and ideas
about a subject. The disadvantages to using open-ended questions is that it can be
much more time consuming and difficult to analyse the data, particularly if you have a
large number of participants completing your survey.
In general you should try to minimise the number of open-ended questions in your
survey questionnaire. If you find yourself designing a survey questionnaire where the
majority of the questions are open-ended, then you may need to consider using a
different output method, such as focus groups or workshops, for your mapping
21
Outreach events
Outreach events are organised activities where you go into the community and invite
participants to meet and discuss their needs, experiences and challenges within their
community. These events are critical to mapping your objective as these provide
specific information and insight to local conditions and needs, which will be the
foundation or evidence base of the outputs you map.
Before deciding on the outreach events that you will hold to inform your mapping, you
need to consider the following practical questions –
•
•
•
•
•
What preparation do I need to complete before the event and do I have the skills
to do this preparation myself? If not, do I know who I can work with to complete
this work? You may need to find an experienced facilitator to work with you if
you do not feel confident to run your chosen event independently
How much time do I have to organise and hold this event?
What budget do I have (for rooms / materials / lunch / travel expenses of
attendees etc) or do I have a budget?
What am I mapping through this event, who is best to contribute to this and are
that available / willing to attend?
Is my chosen event accessible to all that I would like to attend?
Once you have a clear understanding of the practical criteria and resources available to
you, consider the following outreach events overleaf, and select those most appropriate
for the objective you are mapping and the level you are mapping to.
The range and scale of outreach events you decide to hold must be considered in
relation to:
•
•
•
•
the objective you are mapping
the geography of the area
the client groups you are working with
the resources available to you, particularly time and money
The following list of events is not exhaustive, and you may think of other events that are
more appropriate for the objective you are mapping.
When you select your event, focus on the data or evidence that you need to map your
objective, as the quality of the data and information you collect to inform your outputs is
the priority, and this can be achieved through thoughtful selection of appropriate
events.
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Examples of outreach events include:
Focus groups
A focus group is an organised event where a small group of people are asked about
their perceptions, opinions, beliefs, and attitudes in relation to your objective. Questions
are asked in an interactive group setting where participants are free to talk with other
group members. During this process, you must ensure that the information produced
by the group is captured and recorded. Care should be noted to select members of the
group carefully for effective and authoritative responses
This event can be used for level 1 and level 2 mapping. In order to optimise the data
and stories that you can generate, you must pre-plan the structure of the group to
encourage participants to engage and share their opinions and stories relevant to the
objective that you want to map.
You must also make sure that your focus group is adequately facilitated, and those
facilitating have the skills to encourage discussion and gather findings.
The size of each focus group and the total number you hold will depend on the objective
that you are mapping, and the depth of information that you require.
You must write an account of each focus group which will include –
•
•
•
•
The size of the group
The profile of participants
The findings you extract from the information shared and discussed
Transcripts from any discussions / group interviews recorded
Structured Interviews
Structured interviews are an excellent method to record personal stories from people
with lived experience, and can produce a wealth of content from which themes and
trends can be extracted to generate findings and inform your mapping outputs.
Typically this is a method most suited to level 2 mapping, as it is a method that allows
you to ‘dig down’ for trends and themes from participants’ stories and lived experience.
A structured interview will be designed to pose the same set of questions to all
interviewees, so all responses can be compared and reviewed together to identify
themes and trends. Structured interviews use open-ended questions. An open-ended
question is one that is objective, doesn't lead the person being asked, and results in an
answer with many words. Examples of open-ended questions are those that may start
with
•
•
•
•
"What happened…?"
"Why did you / he / she / they…?"
"Tell me about your…?”
"What do you think about…?"
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There are specific characteristics of open-ended questions, which you should consider
when preparing the questions for your interview. These include:
•
•
•
•
Requiring a person to pause, think, and reflect before answering
Answers will not only include facts, but personal feelings, opinions, or
ideas about a subject.
When using open-ended questions, the control of the conversation
switches over to the person being interviewed, which begins an
exchange between the people. If the control of the conversation stays
with you (the person asking questions), you are asking closed-ended
questions.
Be mindful with questions that have the following characteristics:
answers provide facts, they are easy to answer and answers are given
quickly and require little to no thought. Questions that reflect these
things are closed-ended, and while useful for setting a scene with a
participant, will not ‘drill down’ to the deeper levels of information that a
structured interview can achieve.
Interviews can be completed with anyone you feel appropriate, including (but not
limited to):
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
front-line staff
service users
people with lived experience
friends and families
organisations
commissioners
service providers
When you hold interviews with participants, you must ensure that you record and
transcribe the interview, so you can review these and identify themes and trends for
your analysis and outputs. You must also ensure that you respect the confidentiality of
those that you interview, removing identifiable information such as full names,
addresses or specific details that may make them identifiable.
Shadow sessions
Shadow sessions refer to recording the daily life of the clients you are mapping,
whereby you capture the total activity and engagement of the person by ‘shadowing’ or
being with them for at least one day.
This is an excellent method for level 2 mapping, which provides you with an opportunity
to map the unique experience of the participants that you are working with. This can be
a very intensive method of mapping, but is extremely insightful, as it combines the
reality of a participant’s daily routine with an opportunity for the participant to share
their thoughts and feelings about what they value and why.
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Again, using this method will require preparation and objectivity from the mapper to
ensure your observations are factual and the information you collect is not leading or
influenced by your opinion or emotions.
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Practical tips and hints to consider
1. Manage expectations
When you are meeting with people as part of your research activities, it is
important that you are clear about the purpose of your research so those
participating are clear about the reason of your mapping – don’t be tempted to
over-promise, or present aspirations as guarantees!
You must also ensure that you explain the process of your mapping with all
participants, including the methods you will be using to generate your data and
information, how you will use it, and the confidentiality of the mapping. You
must also get the explicit consent of participants to take part.
2. Make sure you and your mapping researchers are supported
Mapping is a powerful activity – you are speaking with a huge range of people,
from providers to those with lived experience, and they will allow you insight
into their daily lives. While this is an incredible opportunity to meet and
understand the opportunities and challenges facing populations in our
community, it can also be emotional. For you to remain focused, professional
and empathetic during your work, it is important that you are supported
practically and emotionally by your organisation. Discuss this with your line
manager or superiors before you begin your mapping, and keep them updated
as your mapping progresses and needs possibly change.
3. Understand your client group
It is good practice to engage with and refer to specialist support at all necessary
stages of your mapping, particularly where your experience may be limited, and
there may be safeguarding considerations.
It is important that you remain objective when you complete your mapping.
Limiting the scope of your mapping to your own experience or feelings will
jeopardise the potential of your mapping, and may produce biased outputs
based on feelings, not fact.
4. Recognise and manage the resources that you need
It is important that there is continuous assessment and reassessment of the
resources necessary as you begin and work through mapping your objective.
Over-ambitious planning beyond the limits of the resources available to you
(time and money), or lack of review as you progress is poor practice, and will
negatively impact on the outputs that your mapping produces.
5. Be realistic and flexible with your mapping objective
When you consider the levels for mapping, and the resources necessary for the
outreach events most suited to your objective, it may necessary to return to your
objective and refine, or, if resources are limited, rewrite your objective, so the
mapping you need to do is possible within the resources available to you.
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Chapter 3
Findings
-
Reflection
and
Analysis
of
Mapping
The final stage of a mapping exercise is to reflect on the process and outputs and
analyse the findings of the mapping itself. Analysis of findings must be completed
using a structured and objective approach, which develops and models the findings
into evidence based outputs for your final report.
Reflection Questions
Before you drill down into the outputs that you have produced through your mapping,
you need to reflect on the overall story that you have mapped.
By reflecting on the whole community capacity process this will provide you with the
direction to make an informed choice about the approaches to community capacity that
your report will focus on.
Questions that you should consider at this stage include:
• What were your initial expectations?
• Have these expectations changed? How? Why?
• What did you observe?
• What seems to be the root causes of the issue addressed in your objective?
• What other work is currently happening to address the issue?
• What follow-up is needed to address any challenges or difficulties?
• What information can you share with your peers or the community?
The following questions are an introduction to a general analytical assessment of the
outcomes your mapping experience has achieved, in relation your mapping objective –
• What was the mapping objective and was it achieved? If not, why not?
• What were the strengths and weaknesses of the process and what could have
been better?
• How would you evaluate the mapping process in relation to outcomes,
resources needed and clarity of next steps?
You should also refer to the following IPC tools • IPC Developing a Business Case for Change
To guide your evidence for your proposed business case
• Co-Producing IPC
To identify opportunities for the participants you mapped with to build social
capital and co-produce IPC within a co-production peer network relative to the
assets and gaps identified in your mapping
• Peer support for IPC
To incorporate peer support throughout your report as appropriate
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Data & Findings Analysis
At this stage, identified key stakeholders should be appointed to review the data and
findings (evidence) to produce the outputs from this mapping and the person who
completed mapping step back.
Production of an evidence-based analysis of the information collected by mapping must
follow a factually structured procedure, which is impartial.
If this is not possible, then the person leading the analysis must ensure that their
approach is without personal opinion or emotion, and get peers or key stakeholders to
review the analysis throughout the overall procedure, not just at the end when the
report is completed.
Data Preparation
This involves practical checking and logging of the data you have collected such as
checking the data for accuracy, entering the data into a spreadsheet or transcribing
interviews / focus group work and developing and documenting a database structure
that allows you to map and track your data collectively and comparatively against other
sources of evidence (such as JSNA, other datasets, published research findings that
relate to your mapping objective etc.).
Descriptions of how the data were prepared tend to be brief and to focus on only the
more unique aspects to your study, such as specific questions that are asked via survey
/ questionnaire and relate directly to your mapping objective.
Descriptive Statistics
This is using the data you have collected to simply describe what the data shows – eg.
number of participants, gender, age range etc. as well as proportional responses to
specific questions (eg 70% of participants said they were happy / very happy with the
service) which you will create by analyzing responses to surveys / questionnaires you
collected through your mapping.
By using descriptive statistics you are producing summaries about the group that you
mapped with and the measures (data collected through answers to questions) you
used to generate this data. This information is typically presented using simple
graphics analysis, like bar / pie charts or graphs, and is simply describing what is,
what the data shows.
If you are mapping an objective for which there are published findings from a
recognised dataset (e.g. ONS survey, National Mental health minimum dataset, your
local Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA)) then you can compare your descriptive
findings against this larger dataset, and draw comparisons and conclusions about the
local situation against these datasets. This will allow you to demonstrate how similar or
different your mapping output is compared with national trends and expectations.
At this stage, it is critical that you constantly question the findings that you are
describing in relation to the objective that you set out to map, to make sure you only
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show the most relevant or important information. If you don’t do this you may "miss the
wood for the trees" when writing up your report, as it will have too much detail, and the
central line of the results i.e. the outputs of your mapping, could become diluted or
buried within too much information. Typically extensive analysis details are relegated
to supporting appendices or through access to the whole dataset (by sharing the
anonymised dataset / transcripts separately), reserving only the most relevant data
analysis the report itself.
Findings and Outputs
Identifying and developing your outputs through findings from the data you have
collected through your mapping is a critical part of analysis, and also the most
vulnerable to bias, as, the conclusions you present extend beyond the immediate data
alone.
You use this method to draw out and identify trends and themes that are consistent or
significant enough to draw conclusions about the needs or opinions of a larger, similar
population from the data you have collected through interviews or shadow sessions.
You must be able to support each output or finding that you state with evidence based
analysis of the information your mapping collected. This gives a robustness to your
findings that will stand up under external scrutiny and validity to your final report.
As this is a particularly complex method of analysis, it is recommended that other key
stakeholders are involved in this stage, if not leading on it. This is because the activity
of mapping is an intimate experience and the person mapping may struggle to be
objective when identifying trends and themes from peoples’ stories.
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Chapter 4 - Completing your Mapping: Writing your
report
At this final stage, you collate your mapping, outputs and analysis into a final piece that
can be used to achieve the objective you've set.
This final piece of work could be:
•
A written set of recommendations
• A report which answers the objective you originally set
The format of your final report will depend on the information and evidence that you are
presenting, and the target audience, which could be the body or organisation that
commissioned you to complete the mapping work, or the body or organisation that you
want to consider the work you have completed.
The most fundamental output of any mapping activity is to:
•
Present the findings and outputs of your analysis which responds to the
questions set in your objective
•
Describe the services and support available
•
Detail how well these services and support meet the needs of those using them
•
Identify what gaps there are and how these might be filled.
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Informing, influencing and Impact
The outcomes of your mapping can be used to inform, influence and impact on the
following –
IPC Developing a Business Case for Change
You can use the outcomes of your mapping to develop a business case for funding
applications for services identified as lacking or inadequate. There is an IPC tool to
support you with this called ‘Developing a Business Case for Change’, and it is highly
recommended that you refer to this when preparing and writing your business case.
Similarly, it is worth identifying appropriate funding bodies where your mapping
objective could fit in with their business case, as this may lead to funding opportunities
supported by the findings of your mapping activity.
Influencing and contributing to Strategies
This can be at a local, organisational or regional level. As discussed in Chapter 1, your
objective could link with and contribute to
- Commissioner Strategies
- VCSE Business Plans
- Local Authority Corporate Plans
- Specific Alliances (such as Dementia, Mental Health, Children and Young
People etc)
- Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) for your area
- Service User Forums
Commissioning and access to funding
All commissioning intentions set by the Local Authority (LA) or Clinical Commissioning
Group (CCG) are publically available. Your mapping objective may fit with a
commissioning intention for either or both, or it may highlight a gap in services that
needs commissioning. If it is the latter case, then your mapping could be the evidence
base for commissioners to consider.
There is huge potential for ‘cross fertilisation’ to occur through your mapping activity as
this can link services at front-line levels and inform commissioners of examples of
best practices and innovation that they may not be aware of.
You can also use the IPC business case tool to produce a report for commissioners to
consider investing in community capacity and peer support, using the evidence from
your mapping to support this.
Partnership Working
Through your mapping research, you may identify providers or services that, by
working together, could develop working partnerships or complimentary programmes
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which could provide for the gaps in service and need identified by your mapping.
You may also want to consider engaging with lead providers in the private or
commercial sector to provide pilot services where gaps have been identified, as they
are often able to carry risk and manage services successfully.
In addition, the findings of your mapping could also aim to link in with organisational,
local, regional or national programmes or campaigns if appropriate. This will give a
focus to your mapping as you work through your research and events, and give you a
framework to structure your findings against.
Successful mapping will give a clear and detailed report of the reality your objective is
focusing on, while also propose future actions that would improve this via solution
focused outcomes evidenced by the findings and conclusions of your outreach events.
All mapping should be seen as an on-going and ‘live’ part of your organisation’s
practice, and rolling review dates should be scheduled for all mapping completed,
where content can be reviewed and updated as necessary, and output targets assessed
and re-agreed as appropriate with current climates. It is also advisable that
responsibility for regular review, updating and recirculating of mapping outputs is
embedded with a role in your organisation, not a person.
There is also potential to share your work internally within your own organisation, or
externally with other organisations or stakeholders if the information is sharable.
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