Proposals to Introduce a Statutory Duty of Candour for Health and Social Care Services: Consultation Analysis

2 The Consultation Responses and Respondents

2.1 This section provides information about the individuals and organisations that took part in the consultation.

Number of responses received

2.2 The consultation received 109 responses - 7 from individuals and 102 from organisations. (See Table 2.1.)

Table 2.1: Number of respondents

2.3 Most respondents (87 out of 109) submitted comments that addressed the consultation questions. However, 22 respondents (20%) submitted comments in free text - in the form of a letter or short report. These latter responses often related to the questions in the consultation questionnaire, but most also included additional material which did not directly address the questions.

2.4 Table 2.2 below provides a breakdown of the number and type of organisations that responded to the consultation. Organisational respondents included NHS and local government organisations; third sector agencies; agencies responsible for the scrutiny and regulation of professional practice and / or services; and a range of organisations that support, train or represent health and social care professionals. A complete list of organisational respondents is included at Annex 2.

Table 2.2: Organisational respondents

Percentages do not total 100% due to rounding.

* Other organisational respondents included: law organisations; research and academic organisations; campaign groups; and organisations in the private sector.

Approach to the analysis

2.5 The consultation questionnaire included both closed and open questions and therefore both quantitative and qualitative analysis was undertaken.

2.6 In relation to the closed questions, descriptive analysis was carried out to identify the number of respondents who ticked 'yes' and 'no' to express their agreement or disagreement with the individual proposals. In cases where respondents submitted their views using the consultation questionnaire, if they did not tick 'yes' or 'no' to a particular question, but then went on to make comments in relation to that question, yes / no responses have been imputed on the basis of an analysis of the respondents' comments. However, if it was not clear from the respondent's comments whether they agreed or disagreed with the proposal, if they expressed uncertainty about their views, if they ticked both 'yes' and 'no', or if their comments discussed different aspects of a particular proposal, without stating their agreement or agreement, their response was coded as 'Other'.

2.7 Similarly, for the 20% of respondents who did not submit their views using the consultation questionnaire form (see paragraph 2.3 above), if their comments explicitly stated that they agreed or disagreed with a particular proposal, then a yes / no response was imputed to the associated tick-box question. The figures in the tables in subsequent chapters therefore include some imputed responses. Details about the number of responses imputed for each question are included at Annex 3.