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Improving patient, family and colleague witnesses’ experiences of Fitness to Practise proceedings
Improving patient, family and colleague witnesses’ experiences of Fitness to Practise proceedings

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1.1 Types and format of information

We know that people use websites to source information, either on webpages or in downloadable documents, but these are not always very accessible:

The first quote reads: ‘Information on Social Work England’s website was helpful and informative.’ The second quote reads: ‘I read all public guidance available on the internet via Nursing and midwifery Council and nursing practice guidance.’ The third quote reads: ‘An internet search led me to the General Optical Council.’
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The first quote reads: ‘Information on Social Work England’s website was helpful and informative.’ The second quote reads: ‘I read all public guidance available on the internet via Nursing and midwifery Council and nursing practice guidance.’ The third quote reads: ‘An internet search led me to the General Optical Council.’

A General Optical Council Patient Witness also said:

The quote reads: ‘And then the website itself, the information they give is clear and specific, but it’s not worded in a way that’s very accessible. But whether there are legal constraints on that, I don’t know. It’s very hard not to start making things ambiguous isn’t it when you start to depart from a technical language.’
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The quote reads: ‘And then the website itself, the information they give is clear and specific, but it’s not worded in a way that’s very accessible. But whether there are legal constraints on that, I don’t know. It’s very hard not to start making things ambiguous isn’t it when you start to depart from a technical language.’

But people also valued speaking to an actual person:

The first quote reads: ‘I had emails and phone calls with one person which made me feel more comfortable and allowed me to ask questions.’ The second quote reads: ‘It was helpful to speak to someone on the phone.’ The third quote reads: ‘I obtained all the information I needed to following discussion with a member of staff who was extremely helpful.’
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The first quote reads: ‘I had emails and phone calls with one person which made me feel more comfortable and allowed me to ask questions.’ The second quote reads: ‘It was helpful to speak to someone on the phone.’ The third quote reads: ‘I obtained all the information I needed to following discussion with a member of staff who was extremely helpful.’

Most information provided was in written form, but every person in our focus groups expressed that they would like the information in different formats such as simple flowcharts, images and videos along with documents to download based on individual preference. One participant said:

The quote reads: ‘You need a website which you can download documents which have all the information because lots of people can't read online very easily on for some whatever reason and they like to have something in hand so they can refer to on any occasion, you know when the sitting. Informatics with … some people find it helpful to look at and sort of pictures …, videos are a good idea as well because we lots of people go to YouTube for instructions …’
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The quote reads: ‘You need a website which you can download documents which have all the information because lots of people can't read online very easily on for some whatever reason and they like to have something in hand so they can refer to on any occasion, you know when the sitting. Informatics with … some people find it helpful to look at and sort of pictures …, videos are a good idea as well because we lots of people go to YouTube for instructions …’

Videos were seen as desirable to people in our focus groups:

The quote reads: ‘… a video so you can see the perspective. You know that there are some of the theatres when you book a seat it says this is what the stage looks like from where you’re sitting. So, what would the room look like from where?’
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The quote reads: ‘… a video so you can see the perspective. You know that there are some of the theatres when you book a seat it says this is what the stage looks like from where you’re sitting. So, what would the room look like from where?’

Although it is possible to pause and revisit videos, best practice for the delivery of information through videos suggests that they should be no longer than six minutes, and where videos go beyond this, they should be segmented (Brame, 2016). Some regulators had videos much longer than this. To comply with UK Government standards (2022) videos should also offer captions or a transcript for accessibility purposes.