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FOCUS GROUPS WITH MINORITY ETHNIC COMMUNITIES

CHAPTER FIVE THE PROPOSED NEW MINORITY ETHNIC SURVEY AND RELATED PROGRAMME OF RESEARCH

5.1 This chapter provides an analysis of views on and expectations of the proposed new minority ethnic survey and related programme of research as expressed by the study participants. It also considers the different possible ways of researching people from minority ethnic groups and makes recommendations on the future research programme and proposed new survey. The specific areas which were discussed in the focus groups were as follows:

• Views on the requirements for a new survey;
• Expectations of proposed survey;
• The form the survey should take;
• Survey topics.

Views on the need for a survey

5.2 Analysis of the findings from the focus groups indicates qualified support for a new survey of Scotland's minority ethnic communities, the main qualifications being that action should result from any survey and that the questions should be relevant and appropriate.

5.3 Overall, participants agreed that a new survey would be helpful if it could uncover issues relevant to minority ethnic groups. This study highlights those priority issues raised by minority ethnic communities themselves . The need to ensure that any further research work was relevant and appropriate to the needs of minority ethnic communities was underlined by a young people's group who argued that it was the relevance of topics rather than the method used for any survey that would determine whether or not they contributed.

Participants expectations of the proposed new survey

5.4 Participants' views on the requirement for a new survey need to be placed in the context of the expectations and experiences of the minority ethnic community.

5.5 Individuals stated that they want survey findings to result in positive policy changes and action. It was argued that without this link between survey findings and positive changes that impact on people's day to day lives, commitment to completing the survey would be weakened.

5.6 Underlying this pressure for research linked to action is a strong sense from individuals in the focus groups that the Scottish Executive already knows enough about the needs of minority ethnic communities to enable action to be taken. In some quarters this perception was expressed in terms of a degree of cynicism about the development of a new survey.

5.7 An additional factor which emerged to support this view is that, as Chapter 2 has already highlighted, one of the main barriers to researching minority ethnic communities is the feeling that the community is experiencing 'research overload' and fatigue.

5.8 Whilst it is true that there has been a considerable amount of research undertaken on minority ethnic communities as Netto et al. (2001) highlight, there is still a dearth of research in many areas and especially of robust, statistical data on minority ethnic groups. Much of this work has been localised and small-scale; our experience in conducting this research is that although many focus group participants had heard about other research few had actually participated or been consulted themselves.

5.9 Most of the participants were unclear as to which organisation had initiated previous research studies or the current status of these studies. Participants did not tend to distinguish between research commissioned by the Scottish Executive, consultation carried out by the Scottish Executive and research carried out, for example, by the academic community or voluntary organisations.

5.10 For this reason it might be helpful to consider some way of communicating to communities which organisation is conducting the research and the specific purpose for which the information is being gathered.

The Form the Survey Should Take

5.11 This section on the survey form examines the following issues:

• Topics that should be covered;
• Limiting factors in undertaking a survey;
• Research Methods;
• Who should participate in the survey.

Topics to be covered

5.12 The following issues were identified as priorities by the focus groups, as discussed in detail in Chapter 4.

Table 5.1 Priority Issues Identified by Focus Groups

5.13 It is clear from Table 5.1 that four issues -health, employment, education and public services- emerged as most significant overall followed by being part of the community and justice and the law. In terms of a general survey of minority ethnic groups then these areas would need to be included. In addition to these topics, the most important cross-cutting themes for inclusion are racism and discrimination, cultural identity and appropriateness of services, including issues of language and communication.

5.14 These topics are consistent with those identified by the Scoping Study (System 3, 2000) and the Audit of Research (Netto et al., 2001). The topics for future research recommended by these studies were as follows:

System 3:

• Culture and Identity
• Ethnicity and employment
• Harassment and victimisation
• Health
• Public service provision
• Rural issues
• Other social inclusion issues

Netto et al.:

• Housing
• Education
• Social care
• Health
• Access to Justice
• Employment and enterprise
• Poverty
• Rural areas

5.15 Based on the findings of this research and of the previous studies we would recommend future research on the following broad topics:

• Health
• Employment
• Education
• Public services- access and appropriateness
• Justice and the law
• Culture and identity
• Discrimination and racism
• Other social inclusion issues (including poverty and support networks)

5.16 However, as the analysis in Chapter 4 also makes clear, priority issues vary according to interest groups. Health, for example, was one of the most significant issues for older people, regardless of their ethnic background. Employment and related issues such as childcare was significant for mothers with young children, while education and employment were important for younger people.

5.17 Each of the priority issues can also be broken down further to reveal specific areas of concern for minority ethnic groups. In relation to health, for example, the key concerns were language barriers, the need for an adequate interpreting service and culturally appropriate food, culturally different concepts of modesty, racist attitudes of health staff and racism in recruitment and promotion.

5.18 This raises a number of issues and questions for a survey which relate back to the type of information the Scottish Executive wishes to collect. Due to the differences between groups and the range of experiences, many of the details would be lost in a baseline survey across all minority ethnic communities. Alternatives would be to focus a survey or series of surveys on a particular group, e.g. young people (as suggested by System 3,2001) or older people, or on a particular topic, e.g. health or employment. Some of these topic specific issues could also be approached by 'mainstreaming' minority ethnic issues into policy research work or through boosting the samples of existing surveys as has already been done with the Scottish Crime Survey ²⁴.

Limiting factors: Language use

5.19 The data collated from the Participant Monitoring Forms and reported in Chapter 3 reveals that in many instances the language in which a survey would be presented would be a crucial limiting factor. A significant number of participants rated their ability to speak and write in English as 'basic' and a smaller number could neither read nor write in English. Whilst translating survey forms may partially address this issue, in the case of a postal survey identifying which respondents speak which languages would be an impossible task and would also assume that people can read the language they speak.

5.20 The System 3 (2001) report recommends a face to face survey of minority ethnic people which matches languages of the researcher to the respondent. This would still face considerable language challenges as the language of the respondent would have to be ascertained prior to the door to door interview and an adequate number of interpreters recruited and trained in each area.

Limiting factors: reaching Gypsies/Travellers

5.21 The culture and lifestyle of Gypsies/Travellers makes them a particularly challenging group to survey. The lack of a fixed or permanent address produces problems for this community when, for example, accessing existing public services. The majority of such services, such as health services, depend upon recipients having a fixed and permanent postal address in order to maintain contact and up to date medical records. The travelling lifestyle does not, therefore, lend itself to postal surveys.

5.22 Data collected from the Participant Monitoring Forms indicates that many Gypsies/Travellers rate their ability to write and read English as 'basic'. For this reason, whatever method was chosen for a survey, spoken English would have to be the medium used ²⁵.

Survey Methods

5.23 The choice of survey topics and in particular the depth of information required by the Executive will impact on the types of methods used in the proposed new survey. There are a number of methods which could be used for a survey, both quantitative and qualitative. Potential survey methods were the focus of the System 3 (2001) study although their study was limited to examining face-face interviewing, telephone interviewing and postal questionnaires as the focus was a quantitative survey. Their conclusion was that face-to-face interviewing was the most appropriate method for a minority ethnic survey. It is recognised by the Scottish Executive however that in addition to such a quantitative exercise is the need for a series of associated in-depth qualitative studies (Reid-Howie, 2000).

5.24 There are a number of other survey methods therefore which should be considered. These include:

• Focus Groups;
• One to one individual interviews;
• Small group interviews with survey for completion.

5.25 The limitations as discussed above as well as the choice of topics all place constraints on the potential survey methods. It is our view that there is not one straightforward method which will meet all the needs of all those interested in advancing the interests of individuals from minority ethnic communities or the needs of the new research programme. It is our recommendations therefore that not only one large scale survey is conducted but that a mix of quantitative and qualitative research methods are applied and that a research programme is flexible enough to combine a number of approaches such as questionnaires, focus groups and interviews. This appears to be in line with the thinking by the Executive as reported in Reid-Howie (2000).

5.26 The depth and quality of information required will determine whether a more quantitative survey is suitable or whether more qualitative methods might also be used. To appreciate, for example, why personal modesty is so important for some ethnic groups, more qualitative questions would be a more appropriate method. If however, a survey was used to gather information of the availability of culturally and religiously appropriate food, then a simpler quantitative format as proposed by System 3 would suffice.

5.27 There are a number of possible ways in which the proposed new survey could address the complexity of issues which might be associated with one topic. To take the example of health - health could be included as one issue amongst a more general large scale questionnaire survey. Secondly, a more specific health survey could be developed which would, arguably, be able to deal in more detail with the range of issues which affect minority ethnic communities. This could combine both quantitative and qualitative methods. Thirdly, existing health questionnaire surveys, where commissioned by central government or by local Health Boards, could be 'boosted' to include questions that would be able to illuminate the experiences of minority ethnic groups.

5.28 System 3 (2001) have already explored the value of a written, postal survey which would allow for better representation of minority ethnic groups, but also recognise that the language barrier, particularly for older people, may well be an insurmountable barrier. One way of overcoming the language barrier is to provide written information in a translated form. This was one method used by Blake Stevenson during the research study when we had all the topic areas translated into different languages. However, it soon became clear that many people whose main language is one other than English cannot read or write in their main language. As the analysis in Chapter 4 makes clear this is principally an issue for older people. This was an issue raised at the consultation workshop (Reid-Howie, 2000) which highlighted the need to include people who do not speak English.

5.29 A postal survey method would also have the advantage of allowing for the collection of a considerable amount of baseline data, which in turn is vital if what is required is a general baseline picture of the experiences and circumstances of minority ethnic communities. However, it is possible to argue that such baseline data should already have been collected via the 2001 Census. If this is not the case, then it is the Census topics and questions that need to be reviewed. If the data is already available, then any new survey should not be covering the same ground. The consultation workshop also highlighted the usefulness of the Census and recommended that any new survey wait until the results of the 2001 Census are known (Reid-Howie, 2000).

5.30 The language barrier places serious constraints on the use of a written postal or a telephone survey. The approach recommended by System 3 (2001) therefore is a household interview survey. While there are limitations with such an approach (for example, this method is extremely resource intensive) it presents a viable alternative to the postal survey method.

5.31 In this survey, the participants highlighted another method as the use of focus groups to collect data on minority ethnic communities. This method does not provide quantitative data and is likely not to be representative. However, the advantages of such a method were seen in terms of allowing participants to express their views and experiences verbally, often through an interpreter. Focus groups were also favoured because this format facilitated discussion and debate amongst members of minority ethnic groups.

5.32 Alternative methods, such as individual in-depth interviews and focus groups offer the possibility of overcoming language barriers but would not allow for the same breadth of opinion to be canvassed because of their resource intensive nature. However, both methods would afford the opportunity to gather more qualitative data on the experiences of minority ethnic groups.

5.33 As the above discussion indicates there are a variety of methods that might be considered for a proposed 'new survey' and which could be combined in a series of different types of surveys. The advantages and disadvantages of each need to be carefully considered and will be influenced by the type of data the Executive hopes to gather.

Who should be surveyed?

5.34 Consideration needs to be given as to whether the scope of such a survey should be general or whether specific interest groups should be targeted.

5.35 There are two main factors to be considered in this context. Firstly, as Chapter 4 highlights, although there is broad agreement amongst minority ethnic communities about significant issues, there is a divergence of opinions across the different interest groups. For this reason consideration should be given to whether a survey is general in the sense of being relevant to all members of minority ethnic communities or whether specific surveys should be conducted with specific interest groups.

5.36 A key principle for any survey as highlighted by the research workshop (Reid-Howie, 2000) should be to be as inclusive as possible. Written surveys for example will exclude those who cannot read or write so efforts should be made to accommodate these people through other methods such as face to face household interviews as proposed by System 3 (2001).

5.37 The participants in this study suggested that if the survey were to be conducted via face to face interviews or focus groups, then a useful contact point would be community groups. Such an approach would have the advantage of being inclusive of such groups and would provide an invaluable contact point with members of the minority ethnic community. However, such an approach is not without its difficulties. As discussed in Annex 1, community groups have the capacity to act as gatekeepers to the minority ethnic community and limit access to them. Furthermore, such an approach does not overcome the barrier of accessing people who do not use services or organisations. Issues such as these would need to be taken into consideration for any survey type.

Summary

5.38 This chapter has provided an overview of the main findings relating to potential survey topics and methods. It has also sought to highlight minority ethnic communities' attitudes towards and expectations of a potential 'new survey'.

5.39 It is clear from the research undertaken that the majority of participants are broadly in favour of a new survey. It is equally apparent, however, that there is a desire for any new survey to be clearly linked to achievable, positive policy changes. This has already been stressed by Netto et al. (2001), Reid-Howie (2000) and REAF (2001) and is the consistent view from minority ethnic groups.

5.40 There was no clear consensus on whether a 'new survey' should be a separate exercise or whether additional questions and sections should be added to existing surveys to 'boost' the representativeness of people from minority ethnic groups.

5.41 Whether a new survey is initiated or whether existing surveys are altered in some way should be considered in the light of the key issues that minority ethnic groups want to be included. Therefore, careful consideration should be given to existing survey topics, and methods, to see if these could be developed to adequately illuminate the experiences of minority ethnic groups, for example the boosted sample of minority ethnic people in the Scottish Crime Survey (Clark and Leven, 2002).

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