Research in social care

Are you thinking of doing research in social care?

We are keen to promote East Sussex Adult Social Care and Children's Services as a learning organisation which builds on evidence-based practice. One way in which we can do this is by encouraging research as a valuable learning tool. It is in everyone’s interests to make sure that research is carried out to a high standard. However, we also have a duty of care to our service users, their families and carers, and to our staff who might be the subjects of any research.

We count ‘research’ as any study, survey or consultation intended to collect new information, using research methods and techniques, which involve access to customers and staff, either directly or indirectly.

‘Research governance’ is a way that we can guarantee the quality of research and protect the rights of everyone involved. Department of Health guidelines for research governance set out standards and procedures for anyone involved in research into social care and health. All ‘councils with social service responsibility’ need to have procedures in place to approve any research where people have access to service users, their relatives and friends or employees.

What does this mean?

Before starting your research, you should contact the research co-ordinator to discuss what you might want to do. If your research idea seems suitable, you will need to get approval. You will be sent an information pack and will have to:

• prepare a research proposal, which should cover the areas outlined in the research proposal guide; and
• fill in an application form.

If you are carrying out research through a university, your supervisor will give you advice and support in preparing your research proposal.

It is very important that any researcher working directly with service users or with personalised data is cleared by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB).

If I decide to make a research application, what happens next?

Your research application will need to go through a research approval process. We will decide whether to approve your research based on the information given in the application form and your research proposal.

Once we have your proposal and application form, you will receive an acknowledgement within five working days. Your application will be sent to members of the Research Approval Panel. If your application is straightforward, you have covered all the areas outlined in the research proposal guide and it does not involve issues of high risk to people taking part, your application should be processed fairly quickly. If your application is more complicated the decision might take a bit longer.

We will aim to let you know whether your application has been approved or not within one calendar month. If for any reason a decision cannot be made within the timescale, the research co-ordinator will tell you about the delay as soon as possible.

Your research and contact details will be registered on the county council and social services’ research databases. These details will be sent to the National Register of Social Care Research and will be published on our website in the future.

When your application is approved, you will be able to go ahead and we will arrange for you to speak to people as necessary. At that stage, you will be given the name of an officer from social services who will act as the link between us and yourself.

In certain circumstances, approval may depend on certain conditions. We will give you details of what you will have to do to meet the panel’s needs.

If your application does not have the Research Approval Panel’s support, we will give you advice on how you might change your proposal to make sure it meets our needs. If you then do not receive approval, we will tell you why.

What does this include?

We must approve all research carried out by council and non-council employees. We do not have to approve the routine collection of management information.

Your research proposal may also have to go through a health research approval process, for example, when you are researching users where a service is provided jointly with health partners.

Who should I contact to find out more?

Your first step is to contact the research co-ordinator to discuss your ideas and to ask for a research application pack or download our information leaflet and information pack.

The contact details are as follows.

Melanie Clayton (Research Co-ordinator)
Support Services Manager
Adult Social Care
Phone: 01273 481248
Email: melanie.clayton@eastsussex.gov.uk

Judi Dettmar (Chair of Research Approval Panel)
Quality Officer
Adult Social Care
Phone: 01273 482544
Email: judi.detmar@eastsussex.gov.uk