Our forms have been designed to make it as easy as possible for people who have experienced unacceptable behaviour to inform the relevant teams about it. The needs and ease of end-users have been balanced alongside the data our partners need to track trends and report to stakeholders.
The diagram below summarises both the anonymous and contact advisor reporting routes:
Advisor
Anonymous
The most important questions go first
Our forms have been designed to make it as easy as possible for people who have experienced unacceptable behaviour to inform the relevant teams about it.
Implementing best practice
The form design uses elements from the Government Digital Standards. It complies with best practices to ask the right questions, in the right way, in adherence to government standards and guidelines.
Choices
Multiple choices and radio button questions are ordered in alphabetical or numerical order. This is to remove any unconscious bias on our behalf in presenting information to the end user.
Ethnicity
The ethnicity order and usability is based on the Government Digital Standards best practice for gathering and collecting sensitive information and data from people.
Gender identity
We have opted to cover numerous genders in this form whilst also allowing people to self identify and define. It is important to be inclusive of all genders and acknowledging that we cannot force users to identify with our definitions and need to allow for the freedom of choice.
Sexuality
As with gender, our aim is to be as inclusive as possible and ensure we’ve considered as many communities as possible, whilst empowering people to self-identify.
Should we include free text boxes?
It’s important to allow people to describe what they’ve experienced in their own words. All of our forms are designed to empower reporters to use their voices to share their experiences. These questions are optional but are encouraged.
As such, it’s important that we work with our partners to understand the benefits of giving reporters a voice and how to deal with cases where individuals are identified in anonymous reporting, and the organisation being ‘on notice’.
If something is raised, or someone is identified in an anonymous report, the organisation may hold this data for the period outlined in their privacy notice. This can help prevent further unacceptable behaviour to others.
