How the UK government sought to shape national standards for unregulated accommodation
Olusheyi Ogunshakin, Research Manager and Alice Coulter, Senior Director, Kantar Public UK
In the UK, there are approximately 102,000 children in care, including 80,000 in England where last year, the government consulted on a series of proposed reforms to the unregulated provision of services for children in care and care leavers.1
Under the current legislation, when looked-after children reach the age of 16, local councils can place them into unregulated accommodation- also called independent and semi-independent housing which needs to be of good quality. Local councils must also ensure children are ready for this type of provision.
While this type of accommodation can be the right choice for 16 and 17- year-olds as they prepare to make the transition from care to independent life, the UK government wanted to address concerns that these settings are not always of the quality that is expected.2
With this objective in mind, the UK Department for Education commissioned Kantar Public to conduct research with ‘care experienced’ young people to better understand their experiences and get their feedback on proposed national standards for independent and semi-independent accommodation in England.3
In this case study, Olusheyi Ogunshakin and Alice Coulter demonstrate the benefit of engaging with young people to inform the development of youth policies. They set out Kantar Public’s approach to data collection and outputs when conducting research with a hard-to-reach audience such as care-experienced young people.
Government’s commitment to include the voices of care experienced young people
The UK government wants to make sure that independent and semi-independent accommodation – which is provided for looked-after children and care leavers aged 16 and 17- is safe and offers appropriate support for the young people living there.
The government had gathered feedback from a range of stakeholders including children, young people, and families with experience in care, as well as private and charitable organisations, police members, and local authorities, on how to improve this type of accommodation.
It decided to consult on the introduction of national standards to ensure that all places where children and young people live are high quality.4
The Government would consult on the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) checking that this type of accommodation is following the standards, and whether new powers should be introduced to enable enforcement action against illegal unregistered providers.5
As part of this consultation, the government wanted to hear the views of care experienced young people on what the new standards should consist of, how the government should ensure the new standards are adhered to, and what this type of accommodation (to be regulated in the future) should be called.
The commissioning of this research demonstrated a commitment to ensure young people’s views shape policy this area and that the standards reflect and address their needs.
A flexible research approach, informed by expert partners and adapted to the needs of a hard-to-reach group
Kantar Public invited care experienced young people to take part in focus group discussions, being mindful that protecting participants’ anonymity is paramount for the design of projects engaging with vulnerable people.
In this occasion, partner organisations, such as Local Authorities and charities that work with looked after children and care experienced young people, were engaged to support the recruitment for the focus groups, so that Kantar Public did not need to collect any personal information.
As part of the recruitment process, these partner organisations were responsible for minimising dropouts as this cohort tend to be highly mobile, independent and, in some cases, research fatigued.
A critical success factor was to provide more flexibility to this cohort of young people so that they could participate and contribute to the research when and in ways that were convenient for them.
In agreement with the client, we set up an online community to supplement the findings from the focus groups and enable young people to respond to the emerging findings in a meaningful way.
The online community was open to participants who had taken part in focus groups as well as those who had not. The key benefit of this approach was flexibility, allowing young people to take part in their own time and at their convenience.
The combination of these two methodologies – focus groups and online community – allowed us to hear from a wider sample from this hard-to-reach audience.
Incorporating inclusivity and accessibility in the reporting
Carrying the commitment to inclusivity and accessibility right through to the reporting stage was a crucial aspect of this project.
Both our participants and partner organisations indicated that when this cohort of young people take part in research, they often feel that the findings are inaccessible; for example, written reports use complicated language, or are not shared directly with them.
In response to this, a one-page executive summary was developed that was ‘young person friendly’. Partner organisations were asked to share it directly with the young people they work with. Here’s how the key findings were shared with young people in a simple summary:
‘Young-people friendly’ one-page executive summary
Lessons learnt for best practice in data collection and reporting for hard-to-reach young people
Adapting data collection and project outputs to meet participants’ varied and changing needs is essential when conducting research with hard-to-reach, vulnerable young people.
This project also demonstrated the importance of working closely with, and listening to experts and stakeholders – in this case, the partner organisations – who work with vulnerable groups as they are often best placed to provide guidance on how to engage specific audiences most effectively.
Collaborating with partner organisations in this way is a worthwhile time investment. Engaging and building relationships with those who are experts at reaching your audience can save time in recruitment, reduce attrition, and empower researchers to have more honest, informed discussions with clients about barriers to engagement
In turn, this builds mutual trust, and enables a more flexible and responsive research approach.
The success of this approach was reflected in feedback from our client as well as from partner organisations, and helped to underpin the effective distribution of and engagement with the findings and recommendations emerging from the study. The full report can be found here.
This research is a perfect demonstration of best practice when conducting research with vulnerable young people.
Flexibility, close collaboration between researchers and experts, transparent communication between all stakeholders, and incorporation of participant feedback throughout the process: all these factors play a critical role in the collection and delivery of robust, high-quality evidence that is required to inform effective youth policies.
References and notes:
1. Statistics on children looked after in England (2021), Department for Education
2. Introducing national standards for independent and semi-independent provision for looked-after children and care leavers aged 16 and 17 Government consultation response
3. Children and young people who are looked after away from home
4. Reforms to unregulated provision for children in care and care leavers: Government consultation response
5. Ofsted is the organisation responsible for inspecting and regulating services that care for children and young people in the UK
