Commissioning Guide 5
How to commission inclusive research or engagement
Inclusive research or engagement helps an organisation understand the experiences, needs, views or barriers experienced by particular people or communities.
1. What is this service?
It might involve research, interviews, surveys, focus groups, workshops, user research or other forms of engagement.
2. When might you commission it?
- employee experience
- customer experience
- service-user needs
- community priorities
- barriers to access
- lived experience
- reactions to proposed change
- why an existing intervention is not working.
3. Before you commission
Ask:
- What decision will the research inform?
- What do we already know?
- What don't we know?
- Whose perspectives are missing?
- How will participants be recruited?
- What accessibility requirements exist?
- Are there safeguarding considerations?
- Will participants be compensated?
- What will happen with the findings?
4. Define your brief
Specify:
- research questions
- population
- sample
- recruitment approach
- methods
- accessibility
- confidentiality
- data requirements
- outputs
- timetable.
- Do not start with ‘we need a survey’. Start with the question you need answered.
5. What to ask providers
- How would you design the research?
- Why are these methods appropriate?
- How would you recruit participants?
- How would you include people who are harder to reach?
- How would you address accessibility?
- How would you avoid tokenistic engagement?
- How will qualitative evidence be analysed?
- How will participants' confidentiality be protected?
- How will findings influence decisions?
6. How to compare proposals
Assess:
- research design
- participant strategy
- inclusivity/accessibility
- analytical approach
- ethics and safeguarding
- quality of outputs
- practical usefulness
- value.
7. What good looks like
- has a clear purpose
- reaches the people who matter
- makes participation accessible
- treats participants respectfully
- explains how their input will be used
- reports different perspectives honestly
- translates findings into decisions.
8. Things to watch out for
- consultation with no decision attached
- over-reliance on easy-to-reach participants
- tokenistic representation
- no explanation of recruitment
- unclear handling of sensitive disclosures
- confusing anecdote with evidence
- promising representative findings from an unsuitable sample.
9. What should you receive?
- research design
- recruitment plan
- participant materials
- findings
- anonymised themes
- quantitative analysis
- qualitative analysis
- recommendations
- presentation
- participant feedback materials.
10. After commissioning
Agree:
- shared
- interpreted
- acted upon
- communicated back to participants
- evaluated.