ARU Final Report

18 Care leavers’ experiences of support during the Covid-19 pandemic ask specifically about whether they were living with their children, this came up in the discussions for two care leavers in particular, which is reflected in the findings. 3.7 Ethical considerations The research received ethical approval from the Anglia Ruskin University Education and Social Care School Research Ethics Panel, number ESC- SREP-20-033. Given the sensitive nature of this research, the conduct of it online, and the fact that the research team in particular were drawing on their own experiences, ethical considerations were paramount throughout to ensure the young people involved were effectively supported. Working online created new research dynamics and challenges. In order to build relationships between the research team and ensure everyone felt comfortable to contribute, each research session began with support workers introducing the care leavers in their LA who each said hello to the whole group. Support workers also looked out for any questions or concerns from their care leavers throughout the sessions and were asked to interrupt ARU researchers if necessary, which may have been a daunting experience for care leavers themselves. It was agreed during the first research session that care leavers could have their cameras on or off at their own discretion and collectively the research team established an informal atmosphere where care leavers were free to cook or eat their dinner for example or look after their children whilst participating in the research session. Careleaversandsupportworkershadtheopportunity to meet in LA breakout rooms before and after each research session to discuss any issues they wanted to, both relating to the research or to anything else that they needed support with. The majority of the research team took up this opportunity and it was acknowledged as useful by both the care leavers and support workers. Care leavers were also welcome to raise any issues between research sessions either with ARU researchers directly or via support workers. For example, some care leavers emailed the researchers between sessions for clarity and extra information. In terms of questionnaire respondents, it was important that their participation was kept anonymous so that they felt able to share their experiences freely. Their participation was only possible after reading the participant information which explained the study and providing their consent before they could access the online questionnaire. Uponcompletionof thequestionnaire they were signposted to support in their LA if necessary. The LAs had different approaches to incentives for research, but some care leavers were able to receive vouchers or other incentives by sending a screen shot of the completion page for the questionnaire to the support worker in their LA.