Guidance on evaluation and wellbeing surveys for staff and impact volunteers

Introduction

Our mission is to end social isolation and loneliness in older people; evaluating loneliness and wellbeing helps us to understand the extent to which we are achieving that. It helps us know that what we do is working and better understand how a particular service or activity makes a difference.

We ask older people a set of questions when they first join one of our services and then at roughly six-month intervals. This method gives us insight into how people feel when they join us and changes over time.

Speaking to our older people on the telephone gives us the best chance of hearing from as many people as possible (as opposed to, say, sending out a survey and asking people to send it back).

This guidance is designed to help you make these calls. It covers:

• The survey: questions we ask, how they were developed, and why we ask them
• Our analysis: what we do with people’s responses and why it matters
• Best practice: how best to approach asking wellbeing questions
• Advice: guidance on handling difficulties, such as someone not understanding a question, or someone becoming upset during the call.

We’ve put this guide together drawing on guidance from the Office for National Statistics and other organisations that use these questions, secondary research on conducting these questionnaires, and advice from experienced volunteers who’ve made hundreds of these calls between them.

We hope that it will give you the guidance and tools you need to conduct telephone wellbeing surveys with confidence, but if you come across anything that you think should be added to this guidance, please let us know via impact@reengage.org.uk.