Case study: Families Commission online polling website - The Couch

The Families Commission role is to “promote the interests of all families and promote a better understanding of family issues and needs amongst government agencies and the wider community”.

The Families Commission Act 2003 states that the Families Commission must create mechanisms to gather the views of  stakeholders, such as Māori, Pasifika and other ethnic and cultural groups in a variety of family configurations. The Couch is one of the ways the Commission does this, by conducting regular online polls and surveys.

The overall target market for Couch members is very broad, as essentially it is all New Zealand families. Anyone is able to join the site. There are currently 3,801 registered members.

Panel members are invited to provide their views on topical family issues. Polls go out every six to eight weeks and most take just a few minutes to answer. There are occasionally longer, more in-depth discussion topics requiring written responses.

The Couch’s   connection with policy depends on the needs of the various Families Commission projects. For instance, it is used to:

• inform parliamentary and other submissions
• inform public statements by commissioners
• supplement policy research
• help identify trends and themes for further research
• collect narrative statements available for public education
• create community among The Couch membership, the Families Commission's constituency, by informing members of each others’ experiences. This is a kind of validation exercise that helps people relate to one another.

The priority of The Couch is to put people first, not the technology. Those behind its design and operation strive to enact principles of respect, reciprocity and trust by engaging people online. The Commission itself has strong principles of community engagement.

The Couch is modelled on online citizens panels from the United Kingdom and on the Government of Queensland's edemocracy approach.

The connection between polls and the Commission's policy work is important and something that is considered when every poll is developed and conducted.
 
The structure of The Couch is built around a variety of polls:

• Quick Polls are a maximum of five questions and help position the Commission for parliamentary select committee submissions or public statements.
• Exploratory Polls aim to find out members' priorities.
• Research Polls supplement the research work of Family Commission staff on issues like perceptions of out of school childcare.

To December 2008, the Commission conducted 26 'polls' and two ‘questionnaires'.

One year after The Couch was founded, a poll was held to find out what members thought of it. Many members said that they appreciated the opportunity to comment on family issues. However, many wanted tangible results from answering the polls.

“I would like to see evidence as to how information gain from Couch polls has made a change to services, support and policies.”

“It would be good to get more feedback as to what the information collected contributes to, who is it given to and what do they do with it?”

In response to this feedback, The Couch has had a direct impact on the work of the Families Commission:

"Members' responses have been generous and have provided us with a wealth of experience and views which are proving very useful for the Families Commission's work.

One highlight has been the use of Couch members' opinions in our report When School's Out: Conversations with parents, carers and children about out of school services.

Another milestone in Couch activities will be the inclusion of responses from our Families and Alcohol Poll in a Families Commission submission on the Government review of restrictions on the sale of alcohol to young people."

When setting up polls, all parts of the Commission are involved. The policy and research team has subject area and question design expertise. The Couch team is expert in the use of language and communication with members. Internal testing of questions is conducted to ensure their quality and clarity, and polls are signed off by the Families Commission board and its managers. The timeline from poll inception to release is about one month.

The Couch project manager provides a voice for the needs of Couch members. There is not always a good match between the way researchers want to use The Couch community and ensuring a good response from Couch members (e.g. long questionnaires, complex language, etc.). The team running The Couch sees itself as playing a guardian role to ensure Couch members are treated in accordance with sound community engagement principles.

Practically, this means being more rigorous about how the information will be used. This includes making a clear statement about how results will be put to work. An in-house editorial team was set up to ensure polls on The Couch have clear objectives which match how the Commission will use the information for its various purposes.

It has been important to ensure decision-makers on the Families Commission board and management team have a high level of confidence in how the website is being run. For each poll this involves providing a risk analysis, contextual information about the purpose of the poll and an outline of how information will be used.

Recognition received by The Couch is shared in addition to the Commission’s regular statistics. It's acknowledged that it's not just facts and figures that help keep decision-makers supportive. Using novel online tools is relatively rare in New Zealand so understandably many decision-makers are unfamiliar with the approach being taken. Working to win their confidence with good news stories is important for The Couch's success.

Marketing The Couch to its constituents - both families and agencies - is also important. A strong marketing focus has been a major contributor to the site’s strong membership numbers. The Couch team has been present at many community events around the country, and has engaged families through 'Fun Family Photos' - families have their picture taken with a fun background and can download them from The Couch's website. The team also has 'goodies' to hand out so people can take away branded items like packets of jellybeans. Moreover, The Couch team has literally taken a red couch (the logo of the site) to various family events to attract interest and sign-ups.

The team is also working to engage other agencies that may have use for The Couch's findings. Presenting and sharing the results is a valuable way of making sure data is used effectively. But it is not yet a systematic part of ongoing work. A data sharing policy between the Families Commission and other agencies is being developed. As in any field, relationship management is incredibly important.

It is essential to maintain a relationship with Couch members, in order to make them feel their input is worthwhile. This is achieved through regular email correspondence and feedback about the results of polls and questionnaires they have filled out. Members also need to know what effect the results have had and how this information is being used.

When two staff members who were key to The Couch left earlier in 2008, there was less active management of The Couch for a few months. This contributed to a declining number of respondents to the polls. Once these issues were addressed there was an increased response rate to polls. Polls on violence in children’s media (DVDs movies music etc) and work-life balance especially in relation to family meal times, have been popular, showing that Couch members will respond in large numbers when they see the topic as current and relevant to their lives.

Other key learnings are:

• Engaging people across the organisation to generate ideas for new polls increases The Couch’s value to the Families Commission.  Sometimes the pressure to keep polls up has meant some poll topics were being chosen at the last minute and prepared hurriedly. To prevent this, the Commission has examined its advocacy and research priorities for a year out and set up and approved a list of Couch topics to complement these. Room has been left for flexibility or polls on emerging issues should they arise.
• Risk management is important to this project. Key questions at the start of any online engagement are: "What value will this bring to our programmes?" and "Will engaging undermine our reputation or put current programmes at risk?". The Families Commission board signs off on final poll questions.
• As part of poll promotion, there is a need for marketing - both to engage and increase the membership and involvement with other agencies.
• There is an uncertainty around managing data - both sharing it in accordance with privacy laws and ensuring its continued quality. Presenting relevant, reputable information is critical for the credibilty of the overall results. Poll results are only one part of the research into Commission’s policy on any issue.
• The role of the project manager is important in leading The Couch work, building staff confidence and being the members' advocate within the Commission.
• The skill set of the team making The Couch work is important - web editoring, marketing, public relations, policy, community engagement, project management, survey design, Web design and IT. These skills combine to help drive the process at its various points. The right people are needed to ensure the feedback loop works well at all stages.
• There seems to be an opportunity for standards in this area but they may not need to be reinvented. Social research quality standards should presumably apply, especially where online engagement is contributing to policy-making. On the other hand, there may be special considerations for the online environment. As an emerging area, it may be too soon to develop standards.
• Further efforts can be made to make poll results more engaging and interactive with improvements such as good data visualisations. The Commission is investigating ways to more effectively market The Couch and make it more useful to members and the Commission, by making it more interactive and providing better, faster ways to give feedback to members on how their responses have been used.

Case study uploaded December 2008.