Social care research involving Sheffield City Council's social care services
Sheffield City Council (SCC) has recently established a simple procedure to govern research that "involves human participants who have been identified through the social care services of SCC with the aid of SCC resources". The procedure applies to research in SCC's Adults' Services and the Children, Young People and Families Portfolio. It does not apply to research projects that involve schools.
A link to SCC's procedure is provided on the right-hand side. SCC's procedure involves the following steps:
STEP 1
The researcher emails an enquiry to rgf@sheffield.ac.uk in order to provide SCC with brief information about the proposed research. SCC then notifies the researcher whether SCC would welcome the research (SCC has a positive attitude and is keeping an open mind on the research that it will support, but SCC also needs to consider issues like whether a particular group of service users is already being researched about). SCC will contact the researcher should it have any queries about the proposed research.
STEP 2
If SCC supports the proposed research the researcher has to complete:
A. SCC’s 'Research Governance Framework Project Plan Form' (available from SCC's website - see the right-hand link); and
B. The University’s research ethics application form (a link to this is provided on the right-hand side).
IMPORTANT NOTE
These 2 forms should then be reviewed by the University via the University's internal research ethics review procedure. Therefore, you should submit your 2 completed forms to your academic department's Ethics Administrator. Please don't submit the forms to SCC (the instruction on SCC's website to do so is aimed at SCC's staff only).
Note on completing the 2 forms:
Sections 5 and 6 of SCC's form ask questions about issues that the University's research ethics application form also asks questions about - please simply cut and paste information between the two forms (this is unavoidable because SCC's Form is also designed for SCC staff).
STEP 3
Once you know the outcome of the review, from the University's ethics review procedure, please notify SCC via rgf@sheffield.gov.uk, enclosing with your email the two completed forms plus the record of the decision reached by the University's ethics reviewers.
SCC will then send the paperwork to the relevant SCC service area(s) in Adults’ Services and the Children, Young People and Families Portfolio for approval from SCC's service manager(s) and relevant leadership team(s) if appropriate. If the SCC service approves the research the project will be registered locally and SCC will inform the researcher (if the SCC service rejects the research for any reason, SCC will contact the researcher as soon as possible to explain why).
Last updated: February 2011