Introduction
Surveys
We publish our methodologies and guidance openly to be transparent about how Public Health Intelligence (PHI) works, and to enable others to reuse, adapt, challenge, or improve our approaches.
This document reflects the current practice of the PHI team at the time of publication. It is not intended to be a comprehensive guide to the subject matter, nor should it be regarded as corporate policy, formal organisational guidance, or a mandated approach outside the PHI team.
Different approaches may be equally valid in other contexts, organisations, or service areas, and practice may evolve over time. Anyone seeking to apply methods or recommendations from this guide should critically assess their suitability for their own objectives, context, and requirements.
What is this guide for?
This guide has been developed to support Health and Wellbeing staff at Camden to design and deliver high-quality and effective surveys as part of their work.
Surveys are one of the most common ways we collect information from residents, service users, professional stakeholders, and staff. However, they are only effective if planned, designed and delivered well.
This guide is intended to help staff feel more confident in conducting surveys.
If you are considering carrying out a survey, this guide can help you get the most out of it.
How to use this guide
This guide follows the main stages of the survey process from start to finish, from planning and designing your survey, to delivering and analysing your results.
You can read this guide from start to finish or dip into the sections which are most relevant to the stage you are at in your project.
Each chapter highlights key considerations, some common mistakes to avoid, and practical examples of surveys in a public health context.
You will find useful checklists, templates and other resources in the checklists and templates section to support you further in your survey work.
If you work in Camden’s Health & Wellbeing department and are planning surveys involve the following or are unsure about designing and delivering your survey, reach out to the Support from Public Health Intelligence team for support and advice:
Large surveys could involve big numbers (e.g., 100+ participants), cover multiple services or groups, or run over a long period of time.
Complex surveys require advanced methods such as sampling for representativeness, advanced branching or skip logic, or validated scales.
Highly sensitive surveys might cover sensitive topics (e.g., mental health, abuse) involve vulnerable groups or collect personally identifiable/sensitive data.
Checklists and templates
To support staff to design and deliver high-quality surveys, this section includes a set of practical tools that can be adapted for your own projects. These resources are designed to save time, improve consistency, and help ensure good practice throughout the survey process.
These resources can be used to help you plan, design, and deliver effective and ethical surveys.
Survey Planning Checklist: a stage-by-stage checklist covering the full survey lifecycle, from planning your survey to reporting your findings.
Information Sheet and Consent Form Templates: adaptable templates to ensure clear communication with participants and adherence to ethical practice.
Survey Process Map: a visual overview of the key stages involved in planning, designing, and delivering your survey.
Support from Public Health Intelligence
Camden’s Public Health Intelligence (PHI) team developed this guide to help staff in Health & Wellbeing design and run surveys for insight and engagement, research, and evaluation activities. The aim is to support high quality survey work across the department by promoting good practice in survey design, analysis, and reporting. As PHI has limited capacity, we are unable to provide direct support for all survey projects. This guide is intended to help colleagues undertake survey work independently. PHI provides survey support only for Health and Wellbeing projects that meet agreed eligibility criteria.
Where support is agreed, PHI may be able to provide advice on:
Planning your survey
Refining your objectives
Advising on sampling approaches
Considering ethics and consent
Survey design support
Reviewing draft questions
Helping with survey structure and flow
Providing advice on accessibility and inclusion
Technical guidance and quality control
Providing advice on survey platforms and tools
Troubleshooting issues with data collection
Guidance on piloting and pre-testing your survey
Advice on managing incomplete or poor-quality responses
Analysis and reporting
Signposting tools and methods for analysing your survey data
Support with more complex analysis of your survey data (e.g., identifying differences between groups)
Advising on how to present findings clearly to various audiences, including producing findings for external publication