Derbyshire 3D

Summary
What happened?
What difference has ICT made?
What was learnt?
Find out more

Summary

This case study describes how the East Midlands regional ICT champion helped a sub group of Third Sector Support for Derbyshire (3D) to design an online survey for front line organisations to identify their support needs now and in the future. This information was then used to inform the consortium’s development strategy.

3D is a project of Derbyshire Rural Community Council and aims to improve, develop, and deliver the best possible third sector support services and organisations for Derbyshire. It also provides a directory listing skills and support services provided by local infrastructure organisations.

What happened?

The regional ICT champion participated in three sub group meetings to assist in the designing of the survey in order to make it as inclusive as possible taking into account the limitations of online surveys.

The design aimed to ensure that the information gathered was as useful as possible i.e. to identify the support needs of different groups and to not be intimidating. The survey was then circulated via Consortium members to ensure that front line groups received the information from a trusted source and an organisation that they already had a relationship with.

The information was then collated and presented to consortium members and the findings emailed back out their member groups.

What difference has ICT made?

There are several key outcomes from this use of ICT:

A better informed Consortium Development Strategy which is based on sound evidence
It helped ensure that the Consortium Development Strategy was deemed fit for purpose and this has secured future investment from Capacity Builders
The approach has assisted in the planning of services by giving a clear direction for the development of services, interestingly the research reaffirmed that all the existing services were relevant, used, needed and would be required looking into the future.

What was learnt?

The need for increased time in order to facilitate more rigorous research and thereby a more comprehensive study. Given more time 3D would have liked to explore a wider range of formats and processes for the survey
Reflecting back there are improvements that could be made to the online survey layout, by redesigning into smaller chunks which would have assisted in the ease of access on screen
The limitations of online surveys - in terms of access to all sections of the community, i.e. different languages and people with a learning disability - it was important to have a range of choices in order to ensure engagement from all sections of the community. In this case, focus groups were used to broaden engagement.