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3.8 Involving people: Interviews

What are qualitative interviews?^[1]

Qualitative interviews provide a way of gathering in-depth data about a particular issue. They can be conducted either face-to-face or over the telephone, usually using an interview guide. You can find an example of such a guide here. They can vary in the degree to which they are structured; semi-structured interviews typically help achieve a consistent approach across interviewers while also being flexible enough, and containing enough 'open-ended questions' that interviewers can explore some issues in more depth. They are usually undertaken one-to-one, i.e. with one interviewer speaking to one participant, however, there may be occasions where it is appropriate to vary this, for example, if the person being interviewed is from a vulnerable group and/or requires particular support such as a translator.

Why use this method?

Interviews can:

• allow for in-depth exploration of issues ^[2]
• be conducted by non-specialist researchers, with appropriate support, for example, 'peer interviews' where patients/public are facilitated to interview others with whom they share characteristics, e.g. use of service; medical condition; ethnicity; age etc. ^[3]
• provide a useful way of engaging people who prefer not to voice their views in groups, or when issues are sensitive. ^[2][3]

When?

Interviews might be useful in the following stages of the IP process;

• Preparation – it may be useful to conduct some interviews with stakeholders to complement and/or elucidate the findings from other areas of planning work
• Evaluation of outcomes – in order to assess the difference that your IP programme is making, it may be helpful to explore stakeholder views at key milestones. Detail from project planning/strategic planning documents could inform the development of the interview guide, in order to assess the extent to which the project is achieving the outcomes anticipated.

Things to consider

• You will need to think about how to identify the particular groups of people to interview. Who might be able to advise you? How will you get in touch with your proposed interviewees?
• Make sure your interviewers can explain your data protection policy to interviewees as well as how their answers will be used and by whom, and the level of confidentiality of which they can be assured
• Interviews are best conducted in places where the interviewees are most comfortable, such as in their own home or at a centre they use regularly. How will you make sure this happens?
• Are there any condition- or context-specific issues that apply to your particular group of interviewees? For example, some people may feel more comfortable in interviews if they have a friend, relative or carer there too.
• Interviews can be time-consuming – especially if you are asking many open-ended questions – and your interviewees may not be willing to give up too much of their time. Have you timed your interview beforehand so that you can be sure you won't run out of time before you get to the most important questions?
• You will also need to set aside considerable time for analysing the answers, particularly where there are a lot of open-ended questions
• Your interviewers need to have a good understanding of the subject area, in order to ask exploratory questions that really 'get to the bottom' of the issues.
• All in all, interviews can be expensive, especially if you hire specialist researchers to conduct them and use interpreters for interviewees whose first language is not English.

on the next page: Involvement methods: surveys