Communication Access Review for Saffron Housing Trust
INFORMATION ABOUT THE FOCUS GROUP OR INTERVIEW
Introduction
Saffron Housing Trust are aware that they don’t always manage to communicate well with residents and staff who have communication support needs. They are trying to improve this situation by running focus groups to help us look at how we can improve the accessibility of communications within Saffron Housing Trust.
We have invited you to take part in the focus group or one-to-one interview as we need the views of adult residents or Saffron employees with communication support needs.
Description of the focus group
The focus group has two steps.
- We will ask you to complete a short survey asking about your personal characteristics, e.g. age, ethnicity, communication access needs etc. This allows us to describe the diversity of people taking part in the discussion in any project reports. We will ensure all information presented in reports is kept anonymous. It will take about 10 minutes to complete this survey.
- Then we will ask you to take part in a 2 hour long discussion with 4 other people with communication support needs and a facilitator. The discussion will be about how we can improve the accessibility of communications within Saffron Housing Trust. We will have some ideas for improvements for you to give your opinion on. And we would love to hear your ideas about how else we can improve Saffron’s communications. The discussion will be recorded and transcribed. Ideas and anonymous quotes may be published in project reports.
Saffron staff will be allowed to suspend their usual tasks if they are selected to participate. All participants will be paid back for their out-of-pocket expenses e.g., travel costs, costs for bringing an essential carer, costs for childcare. Please contact Katherine Deane, k.deane@uea.ac.uk if you have any queries as to what expenses would be covered.
Description of the one-to-one interview
The focus group may not suit everyone who wishes to contribute to this project. Therefore we will be offering residents and staff who cannot attend a focus group for any reason the opportunity to take part in a one-to-one interview.
The one-to-one interviews will have the same steps and ask about the same topics as the focus group, but will not last more than 1 hour. The one-to-one interviews will be offered in one of three ways:
- Video call (e.g. on MS Teams)
- Telephone call
- Face-to-face interview to be held at your home or at a Saffron venue
We will discuss with you the best way to ensure you can take part in the one-to-one interview. The interviews will be recorded and transcribed. Ideas and anonymous quotes may be published in project reports.
Access arrangements
We would like to make sure there are no access barriers to you taking part in the focus group or one-to-one interviews. It is perfectly acceptable for you to have assistance when completing the survey or when taking part in the focus group or one-to-one interview. We believe the Qualtrics survey platform is compatible with most screen readers. If you have any problems with this or would prefer a survey to be emailed or posted to you, we can do this. We can e-mail you the survey electronically as a Word documents or as a pdf format document. If you want a hard copy document, we can provide this with standard sized text (12 point font) or large text (16 point font). If you are completing the survey in hard copy, we will provide you with a stamped addressed envelope to return it. We would prefer that the survey was completed before the focus group was held, but we will have hard copy versions of the survey available on the day to be filled in.
The focus group discussions will be held in accessible venues i.e., step-free access, with accessible toilets, and a hearing loop. You are welcome to bring along an essential carer or communication partner; just please let us know so we have enough refreshments etc. British Sign Language interpreters will be provided at two of the focus groups; please let us know if you need this.
If you have any other access needs for either the focus group discussion or the interview, please let us know and we will try to accommodate them. Please contact Dr Katherine Deane, Project Lead and Access Ambassador at the University of East Anglia by email at k.deane@uea.ac.uk or by post to School of Health Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ.
Can I withdraw from the focus group or interview?
If you decide not to participate in the focus group you need to let us know this immediately. Once the focus group starts whilst you can withdraw from the discussion, your responses cannot be withdrawn. The focus group discussion will be recorded and auto-transcribed. Any ideas or quotes used in reports on this project will be anonymised. But because we will not be able to always clearly identify who is speaking, if you withdraw after taking part in the discussion we will not be able to remove your contributions.
If you decide not to participate in the interview, you need to let us know this by the end of the interview. The interview will be recorded and auto-transcribed and anonymised. Any ideas or quotes used in reports on this project will be anonymised. Due to the speed of the analysis, we will need to know immediately if you wish to withdraw your interview discussion.
If you find the focus group or interview upsetting
We recognise that recalling discriminatory events can be distressing. If you feel you need support for your mental wellbeing after completing the focus group or interview, we highly recommend the services provided by the mental health charity MIND https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/.
If you have any queries
If you have any questions please contact Dr Katherine Deane, Project Lead and Access Ambassador at the University of East Anglia by email at k.deane@uea.ac.uk or by post to School of Health Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ. The project is funded by Saffron Housing Trust.
Ethics Approval
To protect your safety, rights, wellbeing and dignity, all research in the University of East Anglia is reviewed by a Research Ethics Body. This research was approved by the FMH S- REC (Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences Research Ethics Subcommittee), reference ETH2223-2140.
Complaints or concerns
If you have a complaint or any concerns about the project, please let me know. You can contact me, Dr Katherine Deane, by email at k.deane@uea.ac.uk or by post to School of Health Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ.
If you are concerned about the way this project is being conducted or you wish to make a complaint to someone independent from the study, please contact:
Professor Kenda Crozier, Head of School of Health Sciences, University of East Anglia Norwich, NR4 7TJ or email k.crozier@uea.ac.uk or phone 01603 59 7094
Data management information
All hard copy surveys and consent forms will be destroyed as soon as the data is transcribed to the Qualtrics platform. The data will be downloaded from the Qualtrics platform to the secure UEA server, and the original data will be deleted from the Qualtrics platform by August 31st 2023. Only the project team will have access to participant’s contact details. The contact details will be linked with participant’s diversity characteristics only until the completion of the focus groups (i.e. August 31st 2023 at the latest). After this we will destroy the contact details and keep the anonymised dataset of diversity characteristics.
The full transcripts of the focus group discussions and one-to-one interviews will be edited in order to ensure the anonymity of all participants and anyone discussed. The full transcripts will then be deleted at the completion of project i.e. August 31st 2023 and only the edited anonymised transcripts kept long term.
All project data will be deleted from the UEA shared drive 10 years after the end of the project (i.e. 31st August 2033). Only anonymised data will be shared externally (e.g. in reports and publications).
Data management will follow the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018) and UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), and the University of East Anglia's Research Data Management Policy. According to data protection legislation, we are required to inform you that the legal basis for processing your data as listed in Article 6(1) of the UK GDPR is because this allows us to process personal data when it is necessary to perform our public tasks as a University.
In addition to the specific information provided above about why your personal data is required and how it will be used, there is also some general information which needs to be provided for you:
- The data controller is the University of East Anglia.
- For further information, you can contact the University’s Data Protection Officer at dataprotection@uea.ac.uk
- You can also find out more about your data protection rights at the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
- If you are unhappy with how your personal data has been used, please contact the University’s Data Protection Officer at dataprotection@uea.ac.uk in the first instance.
This information was last updated on 11/05/2022.
What are you consenting to?
Being in this study is completely voluntary and you do not have to take part. Your decision whether to participate will not affect your current or future relationship with the researchers or anyone else at the University of East Anglia or Saffron Housing Trust now or in the future.
You will be asked these questions again at the start of the focus group or interview in the online survey, before the discussion starts. By giving consent to take part in this project you are telling us that:
I understand what I have read.
I agree to take part in the survey and focus group.
I agree to the use of my personal information as described.
You have downloaded a copy of this Participant Information Sheet to keep. Please click here to download.
This information sheet can be downloaded from here or we can e-mail a Word or pdf version, or post you a hard copy in either standard sized text (12 point text) or large text (16 point text). Please email your request to Katherine Deane k.deane@uea.ac.uk or post a request to Dr Katherine Deane, School of Health Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ.