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Section 3 Issues and concerns in research and consultation

Researching excluded and hard to reach communities – Dundee City Council, Angus Council and Perth and Kinross Council

To help develop Local Housing Strategies, Dundee City Council and Angus Council commissioned research on the housing needs and aspirations of both black and minority ethnic (BME) communities and Gypsies/Travellers in Tayside during 2004. Perth & Kinross Council was also a partner in the Gypsies/Travellers research.

Whilst both pieces of research were of interest to community planning partners and important to the development of local authority Local Housing Strategies, the experience of conducting this research does illustrate a number of challenges and pitfalls that are present when engaging communities and service users in research and consultation. Both studies were conducted by contractors from universities.

Excluded or hard to reach communities may not share the concerns or the priorities of the organisations seeking to undertake the research and such research will need to proceed with care and attention to ensure that the research is of high quality, that it provides valid and useful data and that it engages with the communities with which it is concerned.

Researching black and minority ethnic communities in Dundee and Angus

The 2001 Census showed that the BME population in Dundee is some 3.7% of the total population and in Angus it is only 0.8%. However, the BME population in both areas is growing and little is known about the housing needs and aspirations of the different BME communities.

Research was undertaken to investigate housing needs amongst black and minority ethnic communities. It involved interviews with community groups, a household survey, a community workshop and analysis of the Census data from 1991 and 2001.

The experience illustrated some key issues for achieving meaningful research and consultation with community groups:

• Approaches taken in relation to different community groups should be flexible.

• Verbal communications work more effectively than other forms of communication.

• Written communications should be translated into the appropriate community language rather than be written in English with the offer of translation.

• Using existing groups and networks is very valuable but don’t assume that approaching the group or network means that the whole community has been ‘reached’. Not everyone in the population will be a member of a community group and don’t assume that community leaders will be able to pass on information to all members of the community.

• Visiting groups may not be appropriate or effective in some circumstances and not all groups meet regularly.

• Informal ‘chats’ work effectively and can often be used instead of other more formal methods of gathering information.

Consultation and feedback is more effective when it is ‘decentralised’ and informal. Don’t assume that community members expect or will feel comfortable in the same events or settings as the researchers. For example, very few community members turned up for the formal feedback session at the end of the research.

Researching the housing needs and aspirations of Gypsies/ Travellers in Tayside.

This research also examined housing needs amongst Gypsies/Travellers communities. Information was gathered by conducting interviews with professionals working with Gypsies/Travellers, face-to-face interviews with Gypsies/Travellers living on sites and in housing in Tayside and using existing data and contacts held by local authorities.

A leaflet providing information on the research was distributed to the three local authority Gypsy/Traveller sites in Tayside and to a private site in Angus. Contact was also established with voluntary agencies working with settled Gypsies/Travellers. Regular liaison meetings were also used and the councils tried to contact people directly. A £10 incentive voucher was used to encourage Gypsy/Travellers to take part in the research.

Some key lessons emerged from the research and consultation process.

• Establishing good relationships and links and making contact via word-of-mouth is essential when working with Gypsies/Travellers.

• Developing a study should be done in consultation with Gypsies/Travellers. Gypsies/Travellers should be represented on local liaison groups, research advisory groups and project working parties.

• If consultation is to be undertaken with Gypsies/Travellers staying on unofficial sites then the time of year that the research takes place should be considered. Research should be undertaken during summer and winter months to ensure that people are included in the research even if they are travelling and to include people staying on sites and in houses.

Sufficient time needs to be given to conduct the research in order to develop good local information, contacts and relationships with Gypsies/Travellers groups.

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