The NHS England “Friends and Family Test” (FFT) was announced by the then prime minister in January 2012.
It consists of a simple feedback question, along with the ability to provide brief comments.
Care Opinion has enabled the collection of FFT data since 2015, in a number of ways:
- After sharing a story, an author is invited to complete the FFT question for each service the story is about
- When using invitation links with kiosk mode, subscribers can ensure the FFT question is asked before or after the author shares their story
- When viewing a service page, someone can complete the FFT question for that service
- Additionally, subscribing organisations can create “hybrid workflows” which move seamlessly from Care Opinion to the organisation’s own feedback collection platform, or the other way around
For example, ULHT links from its own SMS-based system to Care Opinion after FFT data has been collected, allowing patients to add extra detail if they need to.
Guidance on question wording and other aspects of data collection changed from April 2020, and Care Opinion remains fully compliant with the newer guidance.
While FFT is high-volume but low-impact, Care Opinion stories are the opposite, providing information, inspiration and motivation for learning and change. As the team at the Royal Free neuro rehab centre note: “We didn’t find our surveys or FFT responses very helpful when it came to making our services better. Our team definitely relates much more to the stories people are sending us, which are rich with detail.”
But it isn’t either/or – our platform makes it possible to have the best of both worlds, collecting narrative and FFT feedback in ways that fit with the needs of many diverse services, and offering multiple options for reporting and data export to your own systems.