Consultation techniques used in South Lanarkshire

Our Partnership has a variety of techniques it can use to assist with consultations, some of which are listed below.
Opinion meters are free standing electronic devices which can be placed in supermarkets, sports centres, libraries or shopping arcades. A series of multiple choice questions can be asked which will give a snap shot of opinion on a particular issue.

Option finder handsets use the same technology as the TV gameshow, "Who wants to be a millionaire". This allows participants to give their views quickly and anonymously and generates lively debate. Option finder can be used with small groups or at large conferences and seminars and has proved to be very popular.

Online surveys can be arranged on the council's website or staff intranet to seek people's views. Online surveys are used where traditional paper questionnaires are not suitable. These surveys have proved very popular with young people who can access computers at school and the council's youth facilities, as well as at home.

Focus groups are normally comprised of eight to ten people. These groups are more conducive to gaining a better in depth understanding of people's opinions.

Appreciative enquiry techniques aim to encourage people to come up with solutions to problems by focusing on positive achievements and evaluating how we can build on this to improve services. They are particularly useful in consultations where a degree of negativity has surrounded a subject. Appreciative enquiry enables you to work through this and helps build a vision of the right order which things should go in.

The more traditional postal surveys and face-to-face interviews are also used.