Discussion Board Evaluation

Thank you for looking at this survey. I am working with Family Rights Group to evaluate their online discussion board for Family and Friends Carers. The online discussion board can be found at: http://www.frg.org.uk/FandFCForum/

As part of this evaluation, I am carrying out this online survey for family and friends carers who use the discussion board. I would really appreciate it if as many family and friends carers as possible can complete this survey and I would like to hear from the range of people that use the discussion boards, including people who only rarely visit the discussion board and also people who read the posts on the board but do not post themselves. The survey should take 10-15 minutes to complete. The deadline for responses is the 10th of August. I would also like to interview some family and friends carers about their experiences of using the online discussion board. Please see below for more information about the evaluation or click the Next button at the bottom of the page to start the survey.

More information about the evaluation
This evaluation is part of my Masters dissertation for the University of Birmingham. I feel very strongly that children should be brought up within the family where possible and that family and friends should have support to care for children who cannot live with their parents. For my dissertation I am looking at the support available to family and friend carers, also known as kinship carers or connected person carers. I am evaluating Family Rights Group’s discussion board for family and friends carers, also known as the online forum. I would like to hear the experiences of family and friends carers that use Family Rights Group’s discussion board. I would like to find out how family and friends carers use the discussion board and how they benefit from using it.

I am not carrying out research on behalf of Family Rights Group however I am working with the Charity to carry out this research including incorporating questions which will help Family Rights Group to understand the impact of the Discussion Board Service. The Charity hopes that this information will help them to have a better understanding of who uses the discussion board, how it has affected them and ways to possibly improve the service.

I am also carrying out interviews with family and friends carers. At the end of the survey, there is an opportunity to say whether you would be willing to take part in the interview. The interview should take 20-30 minutes.

If you would like to take part in the interview but not the survey or if you have any questions about the survey or the evaluation, please email rxs210@bham.ac.uk

Thank you in advance for your support.

Roseanne McGlade