Social Security Experience Panels - Seldom Heard research programme: wave 2 report

Annex B: Recruitment and engagement insights

This section focuses on presenting key insights on recruitment and engagement with seldom heard groups. These insights were provided by the companies which carried out the research fieldwork for the two waves of fieldwork.

Barriers Challenges to doing research with Seldom Heard groups

Support organisations contacted for recruitment were receptive of the research and were usually happy to act as gatekeepers. However, barriers were presented when engaging with some of them which impacted on the recruitment and produced delays in carrying out the fieldwork. These were:

• Organisations sometimes were too optimistic about the number of participants they thought would participate in the research.
• Organisations often experience difficulties identifying willing participants.
• Some advocacy and national organisations who provide strategic or specialised support to certain seldom heard groups do not have direct access or cannot contact directly research participants.
• On the initial contact requesting support for recruitment, some organisations do not know where to direct the research inquiry for action.
• Lack of resourcing and busy services among support organisations impact on their ability to assist the research due to competing demands.
• Engaging with local authority services for recruiting potential participants could take significantly more effort and time as they do not only need to identify relevant contacts but also:
  • Research teams also need to complete forms to request permission for access and waiting for those to be approved.
  • Following those processes do not guarantee a high number of participants either.
• Lack of dedicated advocacy and support organisations for some seldom heard groups have an adverse impact on the research engagement of these hard-to-reach groups.

There were challenges found by the companies who carried out fieldwork concerning some participants or with specific seldom heard groups:

• Some seldom heard groups – such as young parents, care experienced people and Gypsy/Travellers – may have particular concerns about engaging with research.
• Some participants felt discouraged to engage as a result of requests to read information sheets and complete consent and demographic forms before the interviews. This was particular the case for participants with literacy issues.
• Some participants have more privacy concerns and lack of trust than others.
• Some participants have potential barriers for their engagement including: lack of English proficiency, lack of phones, technology illiteracy, prison regime.
• Plans with interviews were frequently cancelled by some participants.

Barriers specific to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic

The measures imposed to manage the COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted on the recruitment and engagement across the seldom heard groups. The impact of the pandemic resulted not only on the reduction of the number of research participants for the Seldom Heard Programme; but also on the termination of one contract with the organisation leading the research with women who experienced domestic abuse.

Challenges during the COVID- 19 pandemic that impacted on recruitment and engagement with support organisations were:

• Support organisations experienced staff shortages and absences.
• Organisations were prioritising essential support to their service users.
• Staff from organisations were working remotely and ceased most of their face-to-face contact with service users. This hindered effective communication with key contacts that could support the research.

Enablers for engagement with seldom heard groups

Contractors provided suggestions to engage with seldom heard groups. Key suggestions for the recruitment phase are the following:

• Consider that the recruitment and engagement processes with hard-to-reach groups are very time consuming.
  • Some organisations which helped with recruitment needed to discuss their endorsement of the research at the management/senior team level.
  • The process of identifying potential participants is lengthy.
  • Planning a longer lead time for recruitment is necessary.
• Use previous contacts from support organisations for initial engagement with gatekeepers.
• Use snowball strategies to recruit participants.
• Allow participants to share information of the research with their peers.
• Keep an active and continuous engagement with support organisations to establish contact and build continuous trust with gatekeepers.
  • In many cases, this could be better established with in person communication.
  • Communicate the purpose of the research clearly.
• Be creative when contacting potential organisations to recruit participants of specific seldom heard groups which do not have dedicated or advocacy support organisations. Some potential organisations can be:
  • Housing and financial organisations.
  • Organisations which provide non-financial support to seldom heard groups.
• Use media engagement tools and produce digital equivalents of information sheets, posters or flyers.
• Use plain English and reduce the length of information sheets, posters and flyers for initial recruitment purposes.
• Provide more detailed documentation once participants show interest to take part.
• Consider interviewing staff from support organisations.
  • Many of them have significant amount of direct experience of interacting with social security agencies themselves on behalf of their service users.
  • The views of support workers are likely to highlight issues they encounter among large number of people they work with, which may be an indication of the prevalence of different barriers and enablers to accessing benefits on the wider scale.
• Pay travel expenses and provide financial incentives such as shopping or gift vouchers. These are key factors to engage with seldom heard groups.

Contractors also highlighted the need to be flexible about setting up the interviews and focus groups.^[9] They provided the following suggestions:

• Be respectful of the specific conditions and requirements of some Seldom Heard groups.
  • Some would not want the interview to be recorded.
  • Some would feel more comfortable to discuss their experiences with peers they already know.
  • Others may prefer to take part in the research in individual interviews instead of a focus group.
• Consider the specific needs of certain participants.
  • Female researchers may be required to interview female participants for certain groups.
  • Offer translation support when needed by participant.
  • Rearrange interviews at short notice due to participant’s illnesses.
  • Consider prison’s regime and their timetables.
• Minimise the requirements to complete documentation for participants, including the process to gather consent and demographic information. Provide the option to gather this information verbally.
• Consider setting up interviews and focus groups alongside pre-existing events with participants that are comfortable discussing the topics in front of their peers.
• The quality of facilitation is very important in group settings.
• Book suitable venues that fit the particular circumstances of participants (e.g. participants that will attend with their babies).
• Be flexible about when the focus groups and interviews can take place.
  • For some participants it is more suitable to speak in the evenings or weekends.
  • Some participants may want to be interviewed at home.
• Offer various channels of communications to carry out the interviews or focus groups: online, by telephone, in person. Each participant would have their preference and individual needs.
• Be prepared for cancellations and missed appointments.