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BJSW Advance Access originally published online on July 18, 2005
British Journal of Social Work 2005 35(7):1023-1038; doi:10.1093/bjsw/bch220
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© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The British Association of Social Workers. All rights reserved.

Researching Vulnerable Groups: Ethical Issues and the Effective Conduct of Research in Local Authorities

Emily R. Munro, Lisa Holmes and Harriet Ward

Emily Munro is a Research Associate at the Centre for Child and Family Research, Loughborough University. She is currently involved in work on life pathways and decision making for very young children in care or accommodation.

Lisa Holmes is a Research Associate at the Centre for Child and Family Research, Loughborough University. She is currently involved in a project exploring the relationship between costs, outcomes and types of placement for children looked after away from home.

Harriet Ward is Director of the Centre for Child and Family Research, Loughborough University. Since 1992 she has directed the research and development for the Department of Health programme for assessing outcomes for children looked after away from home. Her current research programme includes cohort studies of children looked after away from home, studies of the costs of services, and issues concerning inter-agency working and data analysis in local authorities.

Correspondence to Emily Munro, Centre for Child and Family Research, Department of Social Sciences, Loughborough University, Leicestershire LE11 3TU, UK. Email: e.munro{at}lboro.ac.uk

The Data Protection Act 1998 and Research Governance Framework for Health and Social Care (Department of Health, 2003a) have brought consideration of ethical issues in the conduct of research into sharper focus. This paper, based primarily on the authors’ experiences of conducting research on children in need and outcomes for vulnerable children, examines the impact these changes have had on the research process. The difficulties experienced by researchers in gaining access to research participants in order to develop evidence-based policy and practice are explored. Finally, the paper outlines some practical steps that can be taken to facilitate the effective conduct of research.

Keywords: Data Protection Act 1998, ethics, access, effective research


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