Guidance

A guide to inclusive social research practices – Annexes

Published 1 December 2022

1. Annex A: Additional support

This guide should serve as a starting point for researchers, analysts or policymakers who are scoping out a research project or new piece of analysis and should be largely relevant for a breadth of topic areas and contexts. However, this is not designed to be an exhaustive guide, as each project is different, and will use different research techniques to explore a specific question. If you want to ensure your work is inclusive, and have specific needs or queries on how to perform appropriate data analysis, collection, or reporting, please seek further advice and guidance from relevant groups, such as:

• The Inclusive Data Task Force (ONS): equalities@ons.gov.uk
• The Harmonisation team (ONS): Harmonisation@statistics.gov.uk
• The Government Equality Hub (CO)

2. Annex B: Table of the evidence sources linked to in the Guidance

(links valid at time of publication)

Resource Link	Description
GSR Strategy	Government Social Research 2021-2025 Strategy
Healthwatch resources	How to co-produce with seldom heard groups
Public Sector Equalities Duty	Equality and Human Rights Commission guidance on the Public Sector Equalities Duty
Public Sector Equality Duty Quick Start Guide	Government Equalities Office guide for applying Public Sector Equality Duty principles
IDTF Report	Report on the Inclusive Data Task Force’s recommendations
Stakeholder Mapping	Paper on using stakeholder maps to inform public service design
National LGBT Survey	National LGBT Survey research and summary reports
Power Analysis	Academic paper outlining three simple rules to ensure reasonably credible subgroup analyses
Sub-group analysis guide	Methods, challenges, and best practices for conducting subgroup analysis
GSS Quota Sampling	Government Statistical Service guide to quota sampling
GSR Quota Sampling	Government Social Research guide to quota sampling
Sampling for qualitative research	Academic paper discussing approaches to sampling for qualitative research
Sampling for qualitative research	Academic paper discussing approaches to sampling for qualitative research
Quality in Qualitative Evaluation	Framework for assessing research evidence. In particular, quality in qualitative evaluation
Sample Design and Estimation	Office for National Statistics guidance on sampling and making inferences about populations
Co-production	Independant Scientific Pandemic Insights Group on Behaviours (SPI-B) guidance on co-production of guidance
Peer Research	Paper by the Institute for Community Studies on Peer Research in the UK
Research Fatigue	Academic paper on the causes and consequences of research fatigue
Equalities Data Navigator Tool	Office for National Statistics tool for looking at equalities datasets
Accessibility requirements for public sector bodies	GOV.UK guidance for accessibility requirements in the public sector
Government Accessibility Guidance	GOV.UK guidance for making services accessible
Creating accessible materials	University of Edinburgh guidance for creating accessible materials
Covid-19 Vaccine Resources in alternative languages and accessible formats	NHS North Cumbria case study material of making information accessible in other languages
SPI-B: Consensus on BAME communication	Independant Scientific Pandemic Insights Group on Behaviours (SPI-B) document recommending pre-testing research materials to assess accessibility
Easy Read right case study	UK Health Security Agency case study on creating Easy Read materials
Making written information easier to understand	Guidance from the Department of Health and Social Care on making written information easier to understand for people with learning disabilities
Do’s and don’ts on designing for accessibility	GOV.UK blog on designing for different types of accessibility needs
GSR Ethical Assurance Guide	Guidance on the expected standards and responsibilities when designing/conducting social and behavioural research for/on-behalf of government
BPS Code of Human Research Ethics	British Psychological Society ethical guidelines for research with human participants
ICO Guide to UK GDPR	Information Commissioner’s Office Guide to the UK General Data Protection Regulation
Protected Characteristics	Equality and Human Rights Commission summary of protected characteristics
Writing About Ethnicity	GOV.UK guidance on writing about ethnicity
Ethnic group, national identity and religion	An Office for National Statistics guide for the collection and classification of ethnic group, national identity and religion data in the UK
Difference Between Sex and Gender	Office for National Statistics summary of the difference between sex and gender
Ethnicity data: how similar or different are aggregated ethnic groups?	Report from the Race Disparity Unit summarising some of the quality issues with the use and presentation of data for aggregated and detailed ethnicity classifications
Harmonisation	Government Statistical Service guidance on statistical harmonisation
Coherence	UK Statistics Authority background to statistical coherence
Increasing participation amongst seldom heard groups	Academic paper on ‘reaching the hard to reach: a systematic review of strategies for improving health and medical research with socially disadvantaged groups’
Code of Practice for the Safety of Social Researchers	Social Research Association guidance on protecting social researchers when conducting fieldwork
Doing Sensitive Research Sensitively	Discussion of the potential difficulties and tensions which may arise for researchers when conducting sensitive research
Making research safer for everyone involved	GOV.UK blog post on ensuring safety in research
Managing user research data and participant privacy	GOV.UK guide to the handling of research data
Online Methods	Case studies on the challenges and opportunities for remote data collection
Risks Associated with Aggregated Data	Academic paper on the role of racial/ethnic data disaggregation for health equity
Addressing Compounding Disadvantage in Research	Discussion on the inclusion of different social categories in research and guidance on the use of life-story narratives
Adopting a ‘Two-Pronged Approach’	Academic paper on the approaches for addressing the intersection of different inequalities in research
Type 1 and Type 2 Errors	Academic paper on the differences between means: type I and type II errors and power
Introduction to Adjustment for Multiple Comparisons	A general introduction to adjustment for multiple comparisons.
Bayesian Analysis	Examples demonstrating the practical advantages of Bayesian inference
Multilevel Modelling	Learning and resources for modelling data with complex hierarchical structures
Health and care harmonised standards	Office for National Statistics harmonised standards and guidance by topic
ONS policy on protecting confidentiality in tables of birth and death statistics	Office for National Statistics policy on disclosure control for births and deaths statistics.
American Psychological Association guide	Advice from the American Psychological Association on including quotations from research participants in
Analysing and reporting qualitative data.	A how to guide from Kirkless Council on Analysing and reporting qualitative data
GSR Publication Protocol	Protocol defines principles for the publication of all government social research that is not defined as official or national statistics.
How to publish on GOV.UK	Guidance for government editors and publishers about how to create and edit documents and organisation pages for GOV.UK.

3. Annex C: Inclusive Data Taskforce’s principles

1. Create an environment of trust and trustworthiness which allows and encourages everyone to count and be counted in UK data and evidence.

2. Take a whole system approach, working in partnership with others to improve the inclusiveness of UK data and evidence.

3. Ensure that all groups are robustly captured across key areas of life in UK data and review practices regularly.

4. Improve the UK data infrastructure to enable robust and reliable disaggregation and intersectional analysis across the full range of relevant groups and populations, and at differing levels of geography.

5. Ensure appropriateness and clarity over the concepts being measured across all data collected.

6. Broaden the range of methods that are routinely used and create new approaches to understanding experiences across the population of the UK.

7. Harmonised standards for relevant groups and populations should be reviewed at least every five years and updated and expanded where necessary, in line with changing social norms and respondent and user needs.

8. Ensure UK data and evidence are equally accessible to all, while protecting the identity and confidentiality of those sharing their data.