Evaluation of the Food Standards Pilot in Wales: Annex 4 End of pilot interview guide for pilot Local Authorities

Background

1. Please can you introduce yourself and your role within your authority? 

• Length of service
• Change in role – amount of time they spend on standards – whether this is consistent
• Whether role was different through the pilot

2. Can you explain, in general terms, the changes your LA has made to accommodate the pilot?

• How have you used the management information system (MIS) to accommodate work carried out during the pilot
• New staff / Staff reallocation
• Developed new processes
• Held any additional training sessions (internally? Training with the FSA)

3. How easy did you find it to adapt to the new pilot and make the changes required? (excluding temporary scheduling spreadsheets and additional data submissions)

• What worked well – probe emails, online training (including support received by the FSA)
• What more was needed – probe frequency, format

Pilot Process and Challenges

We’d like to understand more about how you have experienced the journey of the pilot from the beginning to its end. We have identified high level categories of the implementation of the process. 

• Support received to participate
• Using the proposed new model
• Identifying non-compliance
• Impacts of participation

4. Please can you talk us through your experience of the pilot, in the steps outlined above, and highlight any stages of the process that were difficult for your organisation?

• Probe for preparation before the pilot started (trainings, new risk model)
• Probe for ease of use of the risk rating scheme and intelligence use
• Probe for understanding of the new approach
• Probe for changes in number of non-compliances identified and resolved, consistency of the approach 
• Probe for changes in sampling, if any
• Probe for resources, skills, capacities

5. What were the specific challenges you faced whilst implementing the pilot?

• Probe: mention challenges discussed in the last interview and check how they overcome them
• Practical challenges
  • Ease of use
  • Staff
  • Data gathering
  • MIS systems
  • Computer issues/training needs
• Cultural challenges
  • Organisational adjustment to working
  • Staff buy-in

6. How were the challenges overcome?

• What did you struggle with the most?
• Are any of these challenges likely to be experienced by other LAs? Why? 

7. What helped you, and your team, work with the proposed new model being piloted?

8. How do you think this experience differed for the following:

• Staff
• Food businesses (FBOs)

9. How do you think the proposed new risk model identifies FBOs that present the greatest risk? Is it more effective / consistent when compared to the prior model?

• Do you feel the model is consistent in identifying and resolving non-compliances?
  • Identifying issues before/as they emerge
  • Responding to future risks 
  • Resolving non-compliances

10. Thinking about the process: 

• Is there anything throughout the process that has worked well?
• Any areas that have worked less well? Why? How were this overcome?

11. Please can you describe how your LAs delivery of food standard controls has changed as a result of being part of the pilot?

• Number of interventions being delivered
• TRIs
• Non-compliances identified
• Overall staffing resources

Use of Intelligence

We’d like to understand more about how your LA has been using intelligence

12. How does your organisation typically gather intelligence? 

• How is this recorded?
  • Ease of uploading data?
• How is this intelligence communicated?
  • Communicated to whom?
  • Accessed by whom?

13. Has the way that your LA uses intelligence changed throughout the pilot?

• How? 
• Definition of intelligence – is there a broader classification? 
• Type of intelligence shared
• Data updating/sharing
• Resource planning 
  • Operating pro-actively?
  • Staff
  • Prioritising FBOs presenting greatest risk
• Identifying non-compliance
• Communication with the FSA/LAs

14. How has your use of data changed throughout the pilot?

• Frequency of collection
• Quality of data being collected
• Communication of data 

15. How has your use of sampling changed throughout the pilot?

• Changed in what way?
• More effective?

Remote Interventions

We’d like to understand more about how your LA has been using RIs. 

16. Did you conduct any RIs during the pilot? (if no- do RIs have a place, are they useful)

17. How effective have you found RIs?

• Why/why not
• Staff perception of effectiveness
• Workload/ease of completion 
• FBOs experience/feedback
  • Which businesses are more suited to RIs?
  • How FBOs receive them? 
• Identifying non-compliance

18. What are the main benefits of RIs?

• Targeting resources/saving staff time 
• Gathering data

19. How will you use RIs in the future?

• Resource planning
• Guiding 

Reflecting on the Pilot

20. Did you capture any learning from the pilot? If yes, how was this captured and shared? 

• Format – (e.g. training sessions or team meeting updates) and perceived effectiveness
• Audience – whether within organisation or across LAs (peer to peer sharing?)

21. How has the pilot impacted on relationships with the FSA?

• More frequent communication?

22. How do you think the new risk scheme will impact relationships with FBOs?

23. Has there been any unintended consequences of the pilot? Please explain with examples?

24. How prepared do you feel to continue with the proposed new model without the FSA support?  

• Any support needed? What kind?

In the Future

25. What is your overall perspective on the pilot? 

26. What impact do you think the pilot will have on identifying and addressing non-compliances?

• Allergens
• Sampling
• Intelligence use

27. How do you think the implementation of the pilot will affect relationships:

• with other LAs
• with FBOs
• with the FSA

28. What could have helped the pilot to have been more effective?

29. Do you have any recommendations/suggestions on how other LAs can adapt to the new system?

• Best practices?

Close 

30. Is there anything you would like to add on this pilot which we have not already discussed?