In 2016, Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service (HFRS) had a challenge. They were publicly consulting about a significant restructure to the Fire Service, but were concerned they were not hearing the voices of everyone they serve. They were keen to hear from people whose voices are less often heard. Would the restructure have any additional or different impacts on these communities? And how could insights help to inform the implementation process? HFRS wanted to find out if a proposed restructure would have any additional, or different, impacts on the communities or groups.
Action Hampshire was commissioned by HFRS to carry out a series of focus groups with priority communities eg. Sign Language Users, transgender people, people struggling with their mental health, parents of disabled children, informal carers … We provided a small amount of funding to enable our specialist partners across the HFRS patch to pull together a group of their beneficiaries that could be consulted on HFRS proposed changes.
We chose communities that we felt were less often heard, and approached our member organisations (working within these communities) to ask for their help.
We gave each organisation a small sum of money, and they brought some beneficiaries together in a room. Our Research & Engagement Team facilitated focus groups to discuss the proposed restructure, together with a uniformed Fire Office.
We carried out 11 focus groups in different parts of Hampshire with:
- people with chronic lung conditions
- carers (providing unpaid care to adult family/friends)
- Nepali residents, many of whom were recent arrivals
- people with visual impairments and their families
- parents of children and young people with special needs
- transgender or transitioning people
- people living with mental health conditions
- people with learning difficulties
- older people
- British Sign Language users
- people with physical disabilities
HFRS said
“The insights gained from the focus groups were vital to ensuring our plans were fit for purpose and ready to keep everyone in our community safe not leaving anyone behind. The relationships Action Hampshire has with so many different groups allowed us to hear things we would not otherwise have heard, shaping our way of thinking about the future of our Service”.
The project also had unintended impacts…
Focus group participants learnt a great deal about how to reduce their fire risk, and feeling reassured about what they should do in case of fire “thank you. I feel much happier now I know what to do”. Participants also really appreciated the chance to express their views to Hampshire Fire & Rescue personnel “we feel listened to now”.
