How to develop a survey
Find out how to effectively develop and use a survey in your work, as well as common questions you can ask.
About the guidance
Healthwatch commonly use surveys to gather quantitative and qualitative data. This guidance covers the elements you need to consider to construct a good quality survey:
- When and when not to use surveys
- Initial considerations including purpose, complying with data protection legislation and consent statements
- Question types, including screening questions
- The importance of careful question wording to ensure your survey is free of bias
- Different types of answer options
- Skip logic
- Other considerations, including survey length, demographic data, logical order and minimising mandatory questions
Question bank
We’ve developed a document that pulls together useful questions which you can use in your surveys. This includes standard demographic questions and other questions.
If you have any SmartSurvey licences under the Healthwatch England Business Enterprise Account, you can find most of these questions in a shared question library.
Developing a survey
Question bank