Prioritising User Engagement
Producers must prioritise user engagement to identify areas of high importance and understand the impact of changes
Our view
- We are seeing good examples of user engagement across the statistical system, but this is not consistent and engagement with a wider breadth of users of statistics is still too limited.
- Engagement with users can help producers to better understand the value of their statistics and whether they can reduce or stop production to help them meet new and emerging needs. This is increasingly important given the current pressures on funding and resourcing. Without this information, producers will not be able to effectively allocate resources across their statistical outputs.
- Statistics producers need to take more active steps to seek the views and understand the needs of their full range of users. Producers should be more transparent about how users can make direct contact, and about any planned developments or changes.
- Producers should ensure that their statistics serve the public good, by having a clear understanding of the drivers behind priorities – ensuring they are balancing the needs of government with those of wider users, especially when these are not fully aligned.
Statistics are produced so that they can be used to make important and impactful decisions. It is therefore vital that producers have a strong understanding about the needs of their users and the questions that they are trying to answer. Without this information, producers are not able to ensure that the statistics remain relevant and useful. Most producers have strong relationships with their key users, especially when these users are within government. However, our regulatory work has shown that many producers still have limited engagement with wider users including academics and the public. In addition, we have heard that users often struggle to contact producers directly, as contact details are not consistently made available. We understand that there are often many barriers to in-depth user engagement. These include identifying users and having the resources and funding to develop and carry out different engagement approaches. In addition, it can be difficult to balance the needs of internal users, such as ministers, with the needs of users outside of government. An example of good user engagement, as highlighted in our ‘Lessons learned for health and social care statistics from the COVID-19 pandemic: 2022 update’, is the ONS COVID-19 Infection Survey strategic development hub. The hub was set up to better understand who was using the statistics and how to meet their needs. This allowed ONS to publish outputs targeted at different audiences. As the statistical system continues to adapt to new technologies as well as pressures on funding and resources, it is important that efforts are concentrated on the most important areas. Producers should ensure that their statistics serve the public good by having a clear understanding of the drivers behind priorities – ensuring they are balancing the needs of government with those of wider users, especially when these are not fully aligned. Producers should be engaging with their users to determine which statistics could be discontinued or produced less frequently. Working with users to identify these outputs will enable producers to free up additional resources so that greater value can be added in areas of high priority. We have seen several instances over the last year of producers reviewing statistical outputs with users to help inform decisions about pausing or stopping publications. For example, The Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted) conducted a review of its statistical publications in early 2022 and, based on the feedback received, sought to increase the use of data commentaries (alongside management information releases) and slightly reduced the frequency of some official statistics where data was available as management information. Ofsted also replaced its dataview product with a Five-Year Inspection data tool and implemented changes around accessibility. It is also important that producers are regularly sharing transparent and detailed information on current and upcoming developments for their statistical outputs. This approach ensures that users are fully informed of any potential changes to the statistics and are able to actively contribute to the decision-making process. We have seen several examples of this from across government over the last year including the Department for Work and Pension’s statistical work programme and updates from the ONS on development plans for funded occupational pension schemes in the UK and the cost of living. However, this approach is not consistent across government which means that some users are still being excluded from important conversations.
Why is this important and what is the impact?
- If producers do not engage with a wide range of users, then there is a risk that their statistics will not remain relevant and fit for purpose.
- Without effective user engagement, producers will not be able to identify high-priority areas as well as outputs that could potentially be stopped or reduced. Without this information, producers will not be able to effectively allocate resources across their statistical outputs.
- Producers must share information publicly about their development plans so that users are made aware of any changes and are able to contribute to them. Without this, producers are at risk of making changes to the statistics that negatively impact their use.
What do we want to see from the statistical system and what are we doing to support this?
- User engagement should be embraced and never undertaken as a tokenistic exercise. Producers should be regularly engaging beyond their key users to gather views and feedback which then form part of their decision-making processes. There are several resources available to support user engagement including our regulatory guidance and the Analysis Function user engagement guidance.
- In our regulatory work we hear from users that not knowing how and who to engage with can be a significant frustration and barrier. Producers should actively encourage users to engage with them directly. This can be done through simple steps such as having clear contact information for pieces of work, responding to engagement requests promptly and developing a process whereby regular engagement is maintained. This will ensure that users of statistics can more easily find the ‘right’ person. Producers should be more transparent about how users can make direct contact, and about any planned developments or changes.
- Producers should be regularly reviewing their statistical outputs and taking steps to cease or reduce the production of outputs where needed. More guidance on this can be found in our November 2022 blog.
- Producers should look to share more public information on their current and upcoming development plans.