This study is now closed
Applications to take part in research for the Minimum Income Standard study, conducted by the Centre for Research in Social Policy (CRSP) on behalf of the Committee for Employment & Social Security, are no longer being accepted.
Focus groups took place in 2021 as part of the research into the minimum income people on Guernsey need in order to have a socially acceptable standard of living.
Researchers at CRSP regularly conduct research on living standards across the UK and in other countries, and have previously studied what different types of households in Guernsey need in order to have a socially acceptable standard of living. This project is an update to that research, which was last reported on in 2011.
The Committee for Employment & Social Security commissioned the research to inform their thinking about the needs and costs experienced by people who live on the island.
What is the purpose of the study?
- Minimum Income Research (MIS) is based on detailed research with groups of members of the public discussing and agreeing what households need in order to meet material requirements such as food, clothes and shelter, as well as to have the opportunities and choices required to participate in society.
- CRSP has previously studied the living costs of households in Guernsey, compared with households in urban UK, and is looking to update the results to take into account changes in the last 10 years. That is why we're asking for help from islanders. The Committee forEmployment & Social Security has commissioned this research to inform their thinking about the needs and costs experienced by people who live on the island.
Who can take part?
- MIS research looks at living standards for working age adults without children, households with children, and pensioners. If you are interested in taking part please complete the online form here. Researchers are not able to include people:
- from the same household,
- whose household circumstances and age do not fit with selection criteria,
- who do not live in Guernsey,
- who are connected to the Committee for Employment & Social Security, such as staff and Committee members.
- If you are invited to participate you will be asked to complete an Informed Consent Form. However, if at any time you wish to withdraw from the study please contact either Abby Davis or Matt Padley (contact details above). You can withdraw at any time, for any reason and you will not be asked to explain your reasons for withdrawing.
If I participate, what will I be asked to do?
- In the past, focus groups have been conducted on-island and in person, however, due to Coronavirus restrictions, you will be asked to attend an online Zoom discussion group. Groups will be made up of between six and eight people. Each group will be led by two researchers from CRSP.
- Groups will all take place in a closed Zoom 'meeting room' with people joining in from home using a mobile phone, tablet, or computer. All information about how to access this meeting room will be provided in advance. To take part you will need:
- a phone, tablet, or computer that has a camera and a microphone,
- access to broadband or 4G. (Please note if using 4G that Zoom uses a large amount of data)
- Support can be arranged if you would like to practice using Zoom in advance.
- Groups will take a maximum of three hours and you will not need to do anything beforehand to prepare for them. Focus groups are recorded to ensure that researchers have an accurate record of the discussion, but all information is confidential and participants will not be identified in any reporting. Any contributions you make will be anonymised so that no one will be able to tell that you took part.
- Importantly, all focus groups are informal and require no expert or pre-existing knowledge. We are interested in your views. People usually find the focus groups enjoyable.
Are there any benefits, risks, or disadvantages in participating?
- There are no anticipated risks or disadvantages involved in participating.
- Participants will receive a payment to thank you for giving up your time. This will not affect your entitlement to any benefits that you may receive.
What will happen to any personal information I provide?
- Loughborough University will be using information/data from you in order to undertake this study and will act as the data controller for this study. This means that the University is responsible for looking after your information and using it properly.
- For the purposes of recruitment, to ensure that the research includes a range of people, the online form will collect details about your household composition (i.e. who you live with), your income bracket, your current or most recent employment, your main source of income (e.g. employment, benefits, pension), your housing tenure (private rent, social rent, owner/occupier), which age bracket you are in, your highest educational qualification and your ethnicity. This is only collected to make sure that people with a range of characteristics are recruited to the study and will not be reported except in broad terms (e.g. total number of participants in the study). The recruiters will be collecting names and postal and email addresses so that your vouchers can be sent to you when the group is over. You will also receive a copy of the research findings when they are published in 2021. Your contact details will be deleted as soon as this has been done.
- Personal data will be processed on the public task basis. For further details on data protection legislation see: https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/
- Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), some of the personal data which will be collected from you is categorised as 'sensitive data'. The processing of this data is necessary for scientific research in accordance with safeguards. This means that our study has gone through an ethical committee to ensure that the appropriate safeguards are put in place with respect to the use of your personal data.
- Only members of the research team will have access to any information you supply. Your details will not be given to anyone else or used for any marketing purposes. Loughborough University operates under strict ethical and legal codes. The legal basis for processing your personal data is that the processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest - that is, for research purposes, as laid out in the Loughborough University Charter. There will always be appropriate safeguards to protect your personal data. Your personal data will be held securely on University servers, or where on paper, held in locked cabinets.
- The transcriber types up the audio recording made in the Zoom meeting but does not identify individual speakers in the transcript. You will not be identified in any reporting and any contributions that you or other participants make that we use in the report will be anonymised so no one will be able to tell that you took part.
- The transcripts will be retained and kept securely on University servers as part of the Minimum Income Standard dataset. This project is part of a programme of research that has been ongoing since 2006 and data may be used to write academic journal articles and research reports in the future.
- Any identifiable personal information will only be retained until participants are sent a copy of the research findings in 2021.
- If you require any further information regarding the General Data Protection Regulations, please see: https://www.lboro.ac.uk/privacy/research-privacy/.
If you would like to receive an email and/or text notification each time the States of Guernsey issues any future community surveys or consultations (or you wish to stop receiving those notifications), please log in and update your preferences or register here.
