Public Health Wales NHS Trust and Bangor University are carrying out a follow-up survey to a national survey on housing warmth and health and well-being in Wales, which took place during January-March 2022. M.E.L Research is carrying out the survey on behalf of Public Health Wales NHS Trust and Bangor University.
Only people who still live in Wales and that took part in the last Housing warmth and health and well-being in Wales survey are being asked to take part in this follow-up survey.
Last winter we asked people in the Housing warmth and health and well-being in Wales survey 2022 about their household heating and health. We are now running a follow-up survey about people’s ability to keep warm and well at home this winter. This study is important as it will give us information to help inform services and interventions in winter.
No. The survey is completely voluntary – it is up to you whether you take part. You are free to stop the survey at any time, and you do not have to give a reason. A decision to do this will not affect your rights, any current or future health treatment, or any services you receive. You are free to withdraw your personal contact information and consent to being contacted from the study at any time by contacting M.E.L Research (contact details below).
We welcome all participation in Welsh and English. M.E.L Research will contact you in your language preference recorded during the last survey. If you require an alternative language, please let M.E.L Research know by email at phw.survey@melresearch.co.uk and they will do their best to make the arrangements.
You are welcome to change your language preference at any time while taking part and can do so by contacting M.E.L Research.
Between January and March 2023, participants that provided contact details to take part in future research, during the last Housing warmth and health and well-being in Wales survey, will be contacted by M.E.L Research and invited to take part in the follow-up survey. If you decide to take part in this research, you will be asked to complete a short survey either by telephone or online. The survey usually takes less than 20 minutes to complete.
If email was your preferred contact method, you would receive an email invitation with a personalised link to the survey to complete the survey online; please do not share this link with anybody else. The survey can then be completed in your own time by the closing date that will be noted in the email. Ahead of the closing date, if you have not had a chance to respond we will follow up with you via email and may also telephone or text you (with your permission) to remind you of the survey closing date.
If telephone was your preferred contact method, an interviewer from M.E.L research will contact you via telephone to complete the survey with you over the phone or to arrange a call back at a time that suits you. The telephone interviews will be recorded for training and quality purposes; these will be managed by M.E.L Research and deleted three months after the interview. For more information, visit M.E.L Research’s privacy notice here.
The follow-up questionnaire contains most of the questions you answered as part of the last Housing warmth and health and well-being in Wales survey (January-March 2022). This includes questions about your household heating use and indoor temperature, your level of thermal comfort, health and health-related behaviours and for some general information about you. There are no right or wrong answers, and no answers that you provide will affect any services you access.
Your honest answers are important to us and the information you provide will be kept strictly confidential. The researcher will not tell anybody that you have taken part and your answers will be pseudonymised and linked to your previous survey answers using a personal identifier code; that is, a special number that only the research team can identify you from.
If you choose to be contacted about future research, we will keep a record of your name and contact details, which will be stored separately to the answers you provide to the survey questions and held until all future research has been completed. Public Health Wales may share your personal contact details with another research company conducting future research on behalf of Public Health Wales. You may then be contacted at a later date to ask if you would be willing at that time to take part in future research.
Your personal contact details will be destroyed at the earliest opportunity in line with Public Health Wales policy or if you decline to be contacted again.
Your answers will not be shared with anyone beyond the research team, UNLESS you reveal an intention to harm yourself or somebody else, information indicating somebody may pose a serious risk of harm to you or the public, or the intention to commit an act of terrorism. This would be discussed with you before telling anybody else.
All information is treated as confidential and will be stored securely. Only authorised individuals from Public Health Wales and M.E.L Research will have access to your contact information. Bangor University will hold pseudonymous data files but do not have access to the personal data. No individuals will be described or identified in any reports or papers which may result from this study. Public Health Wales’ privacy notice is available here.
You are free to withdraw from the study at any point and can do so by contacting M.E.L Research (contact details below). Your personal contact information (name and phone number and/or email) will be deleted following the withdrawal notification and you will not be contacted again.
As outputs from the data are being regularly produced, it is likely that some of your data will have already been included in an output, and so it will not be possible to withdraw your data from those outputs.
This study has been reviewed by the Bangor University Healthcare and Medical Sciences Academic Ethics Committee. A research Ethics Committee is a group of independent people who review research to protect the dignity, rights, safety and well-being of participants and researchers. The study has also been reviewed by the Public Health Wales Research and Development Office.
M.E.L research trained telephone interviewers will treat you fairly and with respect. However, if you have any concerns about the study, including the way you have been approached or treated, please contact M.E.L research:
Tel (Freephone): 0800 073 0348.
Email: phw.survey@melresearch.co.uk
If you have any other questions, please contact Public Health Wales at:
Email: phw.warmth@wales.nhs.uk
If you would like to make a complaint independent from the research team, please contact: Complaints.publichealthwales@wales.nhs.uk
Click below to view or download a copy of our participant information sheet:
Click here to view or download a copy of our debrief leaflet:
On behalf of Public Health Wales NHS Trust and Bangor University, M.E.L Research is inviting a small group of people living in low-income households* who completed the Housing Warmth and Health and Well-being in Wales follow-up survey (January-February 2023) to take part in a case study this winter. The case study will involve measuring the air temperature and humidity in participant homes using two small devices placed in the home over four-six weeks, and asking some in-depth questions in a telephone interview to better understand how people in Wales keep warm at home over the winter months. Participation can be in Welsh or English languages.
If you have been contacted by M.E.L Research about this study and would like to know more, please view the participant information sheet
Information about the devices that measure temperature and humidity can be viewed here: Data logger information sheet
A thank you for taking part leaflet which has information about services you may like to access, such as Advicelink Cymru, Citizen’s Advice, StepChange, Nest, National Energy Action and other national helplines can be accessed in the debrief leaflet
*For this study, households are classified as ‘low-income’ if:
a) survey respondents aged under 65 years live in a household with income less than £19,999 per year.
b) survey respondents aged 65 years and over live in a household with income less than £19,999 per year and in receipt of means-tested state benefits (Warm Home Discount Scheme).