Ethics & Data Confidentiality
ETHICS
This study has received full ethical clearance from the University of Westminster ethical review board and is conducted according to the University of Westminster’s Code of Practice Governing the Ethical Conduct of Research. Our research practice is informed by the Survivors’ Charter for the involvement of people with lived experience of abuse, and the ten principles of ethical interviewing of survivors. It has been fully risk assessed to ensure the wellbeing and safety of everyone that participates in the study as far as possible.
Consent and safeguarding
We understand consent as an ongoing process so you will be asked for your consent at different stages of the research project; you can change your mind about giving your consent at any point and you do not have to give a reason.
If you decide to take part, you will be asked to read and sign a separate consent form. The consent form will describe how everything you share with us will remain confidential and your identity will be kept anonymous. If you choose to take part in a focus group, your identity will be known by the other people in the focus group, but you do not have to share your real name or workplace (where applicable).
There are a limited set of circumstances in which we may have to break confidentiality. These are connected to issues of extreme risk and safeguarding. We will discuss these with you before the interview/focus group.
What will happen to my data?
What you tell us during the interview/focus group will be transcribed (written down) in an anonymised format, so that the researchers can carry out analysis. If you provide any personally identifiable information, it will be treated confidentially and in accordance with the University of Westminster’s ethical guidelines.
After the study has finished, you can withdraw your data up until the analysis starts (we will give you a specific date) and you do not need to explain why. All data will be securely stored and managed in accordance with the Data Protection Regulation 2018 and the General Data Protection Act 2018.
Your anonymised data may be used for future research and may be analysed a second time. This future research may be unrelated to this study and could be conducted by other researchers not connected to this project.
