Evidence Library

Abstract: This article reports on the impacts of service user involvement in a project which aimed to map, cost and evaluate services provided to the families of children adopted from care. The project included two advisory groups, one with the adoptive parents and one with the birth relatives, which met separately. This report focuses on the birth relative group, because this group was particularly disempowered, had many diverse needs and required considerable attention and sensitivity to support their involvement. The group's input made a difference to many stages of the research. They helped to: develop the recruitment strategy which aided recruitment by improving communication with potential participants; design the interview schedules, information sheets, consent forms and measures used to assess birth parents’ satisfaction with contact with their children; analyse the data, developing alternative interpretations of qualitative interview data that more accurately reflected their experience of having their child adopted; identify ways to improve practice that were specific, concrete and rooted in service user needs rather than current service provision; disseminate the findings by attending the launch conference. Several of the consultants took part in a Q&A panel on the day, answering questions from the floor. The service user consultants described the benefits of their involvement as: meeting people with similar experiences; feeling valued and important; being able to channel their anger into something constructive.

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Categories: social care
Designing research
Analysing and interpreting
Writing up and disseminating
impact on research
impact on service users involved
impact on researchers
impact on implementation and change
impact of public involvement
journal article
Recruitment
Implementation and change

Date Entered: 2015/04/28

Date Edited: 2015/04/28