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200629775 THEO 3900 – External Placement May 2016

Table of ContentsIntroduction...................................................................................................................................1

Literature Review..........................................................................................................................2

Main issues....................................................................................................................................4

Discussion......................................................................................................................................5

Future Plans...................................................................................................................................9

Conclusion...................................................................................................................................10

Bibliography.................................................................................................................................12

1. Appendices..........................................................................................................................14

1.1 Ethical Declaration...........................................................................................................14

1.2 Write-up from Interview..................................................................................................26

Word Count: 3,935

Introduction My report will focus on the placement I undertook in Leeds City Council over the

course of the 2015/2016 academic year. The purpose of the placement was to help

with organising and facilitating the Religion or belief Challenge Event. This was to

follow on from two successful Challenge Events with Older people and the LGB and

T* community.

The event was planned as part of engaging with the new legislation of the equality

act in 2010 with regard to new protected characteristics, and was part of a wider

body of work within the council in relation to equality. This event would also be

following on from the signing of the covenant, a commitment between faith groups

and local authorities that set out ‘principles that guide engagement’

(faithandsociety.org/covenant). The event would be used as a means of engaging

the Religion or belief community more with council services, and what could be done

to improve the relationships between the two sectors. The document “Leeds City

Council: Taking Religion or belief Seriously”, produced by the council in 2014, has

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subsequently been used as a background document, with recommendations for the

council to follow up on. The Religion or belief Challenge Event would have been a

key part of building relationships with faith groups, and would hopefully illicit a sense

of hope that they have an input in the delivery of services by the council. As part of

the covenant document, the council agreed to commit to the following:

“Leeds City Council commits to welcome the involvement of faith groups… In

addition, they commit to… Ensuring faith organisations understand the need for

the Council to deliver services within equality law and its equality and diversity

policy… Encouraging faith groups and their members to be involved… in line

with the aspirations and vision we all have for Leeds...” (Turnbull, 2015, p. 7)

The event would have been a proactive process to engage faith communities in the

shaping of council services. I had originally expected to gain an understanding of the

relationship between the council and varying faith groups, and how this informs how

council services are shaped. The council were running the event as a way to interact

with the public to help identify the gaps in support of the religion or belief community.

It was vitally important to have as many council services that may have any

involvement with the faith community as possible. Unfortunately, the event did not go

ahead, due to a lack of interest from the religion or belief community. Due to this

unforeseen turn, this report will consider the issues that I faced in engagement with

the Religion or belief demographic of Leeds. I will discuss whether this is a trend that

is seen nationally, despite the commitment by the government and other

organisations in the UK, and why this may be. As Christian and Muslim religious

groups are the two largest in the UK, this report, along with the literature cited, will

predominantly focus on these two groups. However, this is not to discount other

religious groups who may have similar issues with engagement, trust, and difficulties

forming relations with the council, if not more so, than Christianity and Islam. This

may include Baha’i, denomination of Hinduism and Sikh communities.

Literature Review

O’Toole et al (2016) suggest that there have been complications in State and

Muslim engagement (p. 160). The Prevent policy that has been implemented by the

Government in the wake of 9/11 and 7/7 may impact on engagement with certain

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religious groups and public authorities. The nature of Prevent brings to the forefront

the issue of trust that Muslim communities may have with governing and local

authority bodies. The article suggests that Prevent was implemented in the hope of

stemming radicalisation, but became a very difficult concept in the state it was

originally implemented, due to a lack of communication and engagement with the

wider Muslim community (p. 168). The article names West Yorkshire as one of the

main local authorities that met Prevent with ‘strong resistance’. This was not only

from personnel working within the local authorities but with a senior councillor

deeming Prevent as ‘racist’ (p. 170). As Leeds is such a multicultural city, it was

more apparent that the fight against Prevent would be felt within the Council. In the

Council’s attempt at engagement with Religion or belief communities, this may be

seen as a way of making connections away from Prevent. It is impossible to know

what turnout at the event may have been, but from the small sample of people who

initially signed up, it may signal that, in fact, when the event finally goes ahead, there

will be a proportionate spread of all religions involved.

Chapman and Lowndes (2016) in their article Accountable, Authorized or

Authentic? What do ‘Faith Representatives’ Offer Urban Governance? Suggest that

many religious groups have a long standing tradition in supporting their communities

in areas that secular Britain would associate with Council services. Chapman and

Lowndes (p. 376) draw upon issues raised by faith leaders and members of the faith

community that a lone representative cannot engage with every denomination of

their religion, nor can they speak for the entirety of the community:

“Black-led churches are channels for citizen voice in local and national debates

about street violence, drug culture and family breakdown. Jewish communities

speak out against anti-Semitism and crimes of religious hatred more

generally… Quakers and Baha’is… are key players in promoting the peace

movement and… citizenship education. Anglicans and Catholics have

mobilized political coalitions in relation to debt relief and world development,

while… maintaining long traditions of social action in both urban and rural

areas.” (p. 374)

Fifteen council services, including housing, culture, social services and planning,

amongst others, were to be represented at the challenge event that were identified

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as important areas to involve faith communities in. However, these do not seem to

be perceived as important by faith groups, potentially due to the services already

being undertaken by religious institutions. This needs to be fully outlined to the

Council, so that partnerships can be established and incorporated in to the Council’s

strategic plan of engaging with Faith communities. The covenant does not go far

enough in establishing partnership links with the faith sector to bring services that

are more focused on the needs of the Religion or belief community. It is also stated

that many leaders of faith of communities feeling a sense of unease in representing

a vast arrays of views on an official level (p. 376). The problems with engagement of

religion or belief communities is echoed by Adam Dinham (2009, p. 137), who

suggests that many faith groups believe that any commitment to change will be

purely empty promises. This will be discussed later on.

Main issues

During the placement, there was initially a great deal of organisation involved,

including dedicating quite a lot of time for deciding on a date for the event to be held.

There was many issues surrounding this, such as making sure the date fell within

this financial year (before 1st April 2016), cross referencing religious calendars, and

ruling out Fridays. To make sure there was inclusivity, this meant looking at the

religious holidays of all religious groups and traditions. The dates were then put to a

group of leaders involved in religious organisations in Leeds. This posed an

immediate problem, as many of the contacts to request input for dates were

incredibly busy. This part of the organisation took place in November, so there were

no immediate implications, and this may have been set to one side, as it did not

need instant attention for the majority of the contacts. Once a date had been set,

there were very few issues until it came round to marketing the event. As most of the

preparation for the event itself could be worked on in house, the marketing was

where we had anticipated issues.

As part of the marketing strategy, leaders from the covenant steering group were

contacted, and members were asked to circulate emails promoting the event. Letters

were also sent to every place of worship we had a postal address for, including a

hard copy of the poster for the event. The faith societies were also contacted via

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email from the universities, with an attached electronic copy of the event poster. An

edited version of the poster was also created to be viewed from the Millennium

Square Big Screen.

It became clear during the marketing of the event that there was very little uptake

and appetite for the event. Furthermore, we began to realise that the relationship

between religion or belief communities and the council was weak, on both a personal

and a professional level. Without the support of leaders themselves, there was a

barrier to marketing the event to the people that were expected to attend and it

proved difficult to drum up support and get adequate numbers for the event. While

the event did not go ahead, it has brought clarity as to the necessity for meaningful

and engaging relationships between the two groups. This is not to say the event

should not still be planned for a later date. On the contrary, the event still holds

considerable value in the council’s legal requirement, to engage far more with people

who are classed as having protected characteristics.

Discussion The problem seemed to be with persuading high-level faith leaders to promote our

event. This is likely because the council were an outside organisation trying to gain

access to religious communities. The insider/outsider perspective that Gardiner and

Engler (2012, p. 251) suggest is that insiders get more access purely through longer

acquaintances and don’t necessarily get more privileged access to these

communities. This highlights the need for trust and sustained communication

between the council and religious community. One of the ways to encourage a

dialogue with the Religion or belief community would be to hold smaller meetings

with high-level faith leaders and leaders in the council. As well as this, it would be

important to provide information as to why there is value in the event. The main

problem we faced during the marketing of the event was there was not enough

investment for faith leaders to help establish a strong enough attendance list. The

leaders of faith communities seemed reluctant to push the event. This may be due to

the leaders already having foreknowledge that the event would not be something

their communities would be very willing to attend. However, an interviewee in

Chapman and Lowndes described a situation in which he invited his congregation,

via email, to raise any opinions about statements he had publically made. This was

met with no responses (Chapman and Lowndes, 2016, p. 376). This could either be

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due to the delivery of the request, or it could be that there is little perceived value in

these practises. However, as faith leaders are the best means of engaging with the

voices of faith communities, then they become the primary source of relaying

information. This is quite telling for the situation with the council, as it seems to be

that even faith leaders have trouble with engagement on a wider scale.

The council already has a few links to certain faith leaders. The next step would be

to expand the breadth of contacts in positions of authority in religious communities.

While some will be hesitant to speak for the entirety of their congregation, this may

open a dialogue as to why, and how this can be improved to encompass more views

of the congregation as a whole. From the small group of people who had signed up

for the event prior to postponement, the demographic was a younger audience than

anticipated. There is a great deal of literature to suggest that young people are being

disaffiliated with organised religion (Day in Collins-Mayo and Dandelion, 2010, p.

97). However, this group would have been made aware of the event somehow, and

provides evidence that religion is still an important aspect of a large group of young

people within Leeds, and potentially within Britain as a whole.

In the engagement of young people, new ways of marketing and specific targeting is

required. As most religious organisations have youth centres or community centres

attached, then there is a route in. Collins-Mayo and Beaudoin (2010, pp. 19-20)

suggest that religious engagement is becoming increasingly more virtual, and

younger generations (generations X and Y as they are known) and are using music

and the internet to discover their religious identity. With religious buildings often

having a community hall attached, using music concerts, plays and other events that

circulate on social media, the council could display flyers, asking people to make the

groups aware of opportunities. If there are small amounts of uptake from this

practise, getting people involved in how to engage and promote events might

encourage others to get involved, as they look to their peers for support.

With engagement of religious organisations, the starting point would be convincing

the elder generations who are involved in the organisation that there is considerable

value in engagement with the council and the wider community. From this, there is a

contact who could put the council in touch with key workers within the religious

community who are involved in the running of social media, event organisation and

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promotion. As Leeds itself is a very student orientated city, every effort can be made

to engage with the students unions within Leeds. This does create an insular

population, and does not help in reaching out to ‘hard to reach’ communities. Dinham

(2009, p. 171) found that there has been considerable difficulty in discursive policy

making in the past, where the public are involved in decision making, even with the

general population. There is not much evidence to suggest faith communities will be

any easier; if anything, it will be harder. It is stated in a report by the Home Office

that:

“Levels of trust in Parliament remained low, although there was a rise in the

proportion of people who trusted their local council. Younger people were more

likely than older people to trust Parliament and the local council, although they

were less likely to think they could influence decisions affecting their local area

or Britain” (2006, p. 41)

This bodes well for future involvement of young people in Religion or belief

engagement. However, if the leaders of the faith communities are the older

generation, there is less inclination to get involved with local government events and

partnerships.

There is a key issue in the trust, or mistrust, religious groups have in engaging with

government bodies or other key stakeholders. One particular issue is involving faith

groups in the running of services. Adam Dinham (2009, p. 137) suggests that many

faith organisations feel that pledges to work with faith communities will not amount to

anything of use and that there is a lot of talk but not enough action. If this is the case,

then there is an underlying issue that faith communities do not have enough trust

that the council will take any grievances they have seriously enough to act upon

them. While working on the Religion or belief Challenge Event, it was clear this was

not the case, as there was a real desire to engage with this community from staff in

the council on an institutional and personal level. However there was inherent

misgivings in Religion or belief communities that not much will be done with their

engagement with the council. It was suggested by council members that since the

partnership body, Leeds Initiative, a third party body that was affiliated, but not run

by the council, was devolved and brought back in to council services, an element of

partnership with the faith sector had been lost. The result has been that relations

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with the faith sector made with Leeds Initiative’s connections, have been damaged

and are worse than they were ten years ago. This is due to a wide range of issues,

including personnel change and financial constraints on resources and capacity.

With relations being better ten years ago with an external body as the negotiator

between the council and faith communities, it further suggests an inherent lack of

trust, the key issue underlying a lack of engagement. Adam Dinham (2009, p. 137)

suggests that other groups, such as Christian groups, also lack trust in governmental

and third party bodies. In the case of a hospice, Dinham outlines that in the case of

funding bodies, there is a fear of being ‘secularised’ to appeal to a wider audience,

and helps to cement widespread mistrust of third party involvement (Dinham, 2009,

p. 137). While, logistically, the secularisation of services is beneficial for government

bodies, this resistance becomes counteractive. It may lead to the withdrawal of help

and services, damages relations and disengages a group of the faith community.

Dinham (2009, p. 137) also suggests that there ‘is a long way to go before faith

groups really are part of the ‘joined up’ provision within communities’. The building of

trust within these communities, will potentially take a lot longer than perhaps some of

the other protected groups that the council has worked with, due to differences that

appear in culture, organisation of the different faith groups and the size of each

group. This engagement has not be helped in some instances due to the introduction

of CONTEST, and in particular, ‘Prevent’, part of Westminster’s strategy to stop

home-grown extremism. The Home Office report in to the Prevent strategy has a

majority focus on Muslim extremism, disregarding extremism in cases such as

Anders Breivik, an attack that happened on European soil by a Norwegian national.

The impact of Prevent has fuelled a distrust of religion in militant forms, but this has

seeped in to phobias of most organised religion. David Cheetham et al (2013, p.

396) suggests there are ‘concerns about cults and the practises of new religious

movements, the head-scarf affair in schools and growing evidence of religious

extremism in world events’. With this knowledge, the engagement of religious

communities with the council becomes all the more imperative. As young people are

targeted as ‘at risk’ in the Prevent strategy, the disillusionment of the individual and

the state is something that needs to be focused on.

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Future Plans

As suggested by Chapman and Lowndes (2009, p. 376), many faith leaders are

male, causing considerable problems with how to represent young people and

women adequately in faith communities and in engagement with public bodies if they

do not have strong networks to these groups. In making connections with the faith

sector, it will be beneficial to Leeds City Council to encourage young people and

women to have more of an influential role. This would mean allowing resources to be

directed at youth branches of places of worship, and asking for female volunteers.

As is a common trend with young people these days, this could be done through the

use of social media. A starting point may be calling upon links with the University and

making connections with the University Unions of the University of Leeds and Leeds

Beckett University. Faith societies will also have links to places of worship and will be

able to give up to date examples of ways that events are communicated. Collins-

Mayo and Dandelion (2010, p. 1) suggest that young people are often far less likely

to ascribe themselves to just one religion; they are often not associated with one of

the world religions and are less likely to attend a place of worship than their elders.

This assumes engaging and reaching out to these groups is harder than the elder

generation. This would also place young people at the centre of the initiative.

However, of the tiny sample of people who signed up for the event, most of these

were young people, meaning that there is already potential to approach these

individuals to set up a young people’s faith steering group, to consider how to

approach others. This may open a gateway to ‘hard to reach’ communities, and with

a focus on young people, may make a far longer lasting connection within these

groups. As young people in religious institutions are a seeming minority, any number

may play an important role in further engagement with their age group. If Collins-

Mayo and Dandelion are correct in the deviation of young people from world

religions, then there is an issue of how far the council would have to expand their

reach, and whether there are any viable resources for this. Grace Davie (2015, p.

205) suggests that people of faith should be encouraged to join political parties. As

such, a viable way to engage with religious communities may be to encourage

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councillors while they are at their party meetings, to ask the religious members of

their political parties if they would consider getting involved with how the council

handles issues related to faith.

The relationship between young religious people and public bodies has become

increasingly prominent in the UK, and in Europe. However, Collins-Mayo and

Dandelion (2010, p. 237) suggest that religion in youth studies is rarely researched

or taught. This poses a problem in that it is becoming increasingly clear that young

people, while not necessarily engaging in organised world religions (Collins-Mayo

and Dandelion, 2010, p. 223), are still a force in religious communities and need

recognition. It is often noted by media outlets that the majority of those travelling to

Syria are young people. As such, Prevent was an attempt to prevent radicalisation

and extremism in this age group. While Prevent has failed in its attempt to counteract

extremist views, it has exacerbated an already difficult issue of trust, and mistrust, on

both sides. Not only has there been a rise in Islamophobia, this must inevitably go

hand in hand with the Muslim community’s mistrust of the state. Dandelion also

explains that in religious research in to youth groups, there is an overemphasis of

Christianity, possibly due to being an easy community to engage with, and very little

research in to other religions (2012, p. 238). This research being situated in Leeds, it

is not surprising that the two biggest religious groups in the area and the UK

constituted the main body of our attendees. This doesn’t, however, negate from the

fact that more needs to be done to reach other religious groups often

underrepresented, especially their youth groups.

Conclusion

My placement with Leeds city council has given me a chance to experience the

internal workings of the council and how events are planned. The issues outlined in

the report highlight the importance to establish and maintain adequate relations with

the Religion or belief community. The covenant and the planning of this event has

given the Council a good base for building up relations that were lost with Leeds

Initiative and will hopefully push for younger religious people to get more involved in

collaborations with the council. From the literature, it is clear that this may, in some

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cases, be an uphill struggle for the council, especially as they are an outside

organisation attempting to make links with faith leaders to gain access to the

communities. However, there is a significant amount of value in the council’s

continued commitment to religious groups. The main aspect that would be most

beneficial is exploring alternative means of promoting communication, especially with

younger people. There may also be promise for departments in the council to work

with one another, and, provided it does not infringe on data protection, share

contacts who they have found are most eager to communicate.

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Bibliography

Chapman, Rachael and Lowndes, Vivien. Accountable, Authorised or Authentic?

What Do ‘Faith Representatives’ Offer Urban Governance? In. Public Money &

Management, 2016, vol. 29 (6), pp. 371 – 378 [Accessed on 8th April 2016] Available

from: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09540960903378233

Cheetham, David, Pratt, Douglas and Thomas, David, “The Future of Engamanet:

Emerging Contexts and Trends” in: Cheetham, David, Pratt, Douglas, and Thomas,

David, Understanding Irreligious Relations, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013)

pp. 390-401

Collins –Mayo, Sylvia and Dandelion, Pink. Religion and Youth (Surrey: Ashgate

Publishing Ltd. 2010)

Davie, Grace, Religion in Britain: A Persistent Paradox, (West Sussex: Wiley

Blackwell, 2015)

Dinham, Adam, Faiths, Public Policy and Civil Society: Problems, Policies,

Controversies, (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009)

O’Toole, Therese. Meer, Nasar. DeHanas, Daniel Nilsson. Jones, Stephen, H.

Modood, Tariq. Governing Through Prevent? Regulation and Contested Practise in

State-Muslim Engagement. In. Sociology, 2016, vol. 50 (1), pp. 160 -177 [Accessed

on 8th April 2016] Available from:

http://soc.sagepub.com/content/50/1/160.full.pdf+html

Gardiner, Mark, Q. and Engler, Steven, Semantic holism and the insider–outsider

problem, in: Religious Studies, 2012, vol. 48 (2), pp. 239 – 255 [Accessed on 14 th

May 2016] Available from:

http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0034412511000205

Secretary of State for the Home Department, Prevent Strategy, (HM government,

2011), [Accessed 8th April 2016] Available from:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/

97976/prevent-strategy-review.pdf

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https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/97976/prevent-strategy-review.pdf

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/97976/prevent-strategy-review.pdf

http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0034412511000205

http://soc.sagepub.com/content/50/1/160.full.pdf+html

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09540960903378233


Turnbull, Geoffrey, Covenant between Religion or belief Organisations and Leeds

City Council, 2015, [Accessed 4th April 2016] Available from:

http://democracy.leeds.gov.uk/documents/s127195/Covenant%20Cover%20Report

%20Appendices%20300115.pdf

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http://democracy.leeds.gov.uk/documents/s127195/Covenant%20Cover%20Report%20Appendices%20300115.pdf

http://democracy.leeds.gov.uk/documents/s127195/Covenant%20Cover%20Report%20Appendices%20300115.pdf


1. Appendices

1.1 Ethical Declaration

UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS RESEARCH ETHICS COMMITTEE APPLICATION FORM

TAUGHT STUDENT PROJECTS

The purpose of ethics review is to:

protect the research subject from physical and mental harm including distress or offence

protect the student, in terms of their personal safety and complaint if things go wrong

protect the reputation of the University of Leeds

This form may be used for student research projects:

that are ‘low risk’; and/or

that are essentially similar for all students within the group; and/or

that are repeated from student cohorts for more than one year; and/or

where the module is too short to allow time to seek individual consent.

As a condition of block approval for such projects, a member of University staff MUST approve each individual project conducted as part of this approval (i.e. a postgraduate student cannot do this role). The staff member will be responsible for ensuring that any legal and ethical standards are met and that the specific research is consistent with the type of research and procedures described in this application.

Consideration of ethics of research is also a vital element of research training. Thus, even if there is insufficient time for students to seek individual ethics approval for their research project, students should receive an training on ethics procedures, standards and legal requirements at some point within their course work or within module handbooks, as appropriate.

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A1. Which Faculty Research Ethics Committee do you wish to consider this application? (Tick one box)

Biological Sciences

Mathematics; Physical Sciences; Engineering

Medicine and Health (please specify a subcommittee)

Healthcare Studies

Psychological Sciences

Health Sciences; LIGHT

Dentistry

LIMM

Medical and Dental Educational Research

Social Sciences; Business; Arts; Performance, Visual Arts & Communications; Environment

A.2. For how long are you requesting block approval?

Approval may be given for up to five years before renewal is required, although audit reports may be required in the interim

Duration: Years: 5Months:

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PART B: Description of module

B.1. Title of the module 4

THEO3900 External Placement: Theology and Religious Studies Beyond the University

B.2. Module or Course manager

Title: Forename/Initials: Surname:

Rachel Muers

Department:

Institution:

Work address:

Postcode: Telephone: 0113 3436748

E-mail: [email protected]

B.3. Proposed start date for research within module and duration of project

Start date: October 2012

Duration: Years: 5Months:

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Dr

Theology and Religious Studies

University of Leeds

Hopew ell House

Leeds

LS2 9JT


To enable students to apply their subject-specific knowledge in a context outside the academy in which that knowledge is relevant, while gaining experience of working in a non-academic environment. To enable students to acquire a broad and deep understanding of the contemporary relevance of theology and religious studies, and of issues related to theology and religious studies as they affect the work of various organisations.

By the end of the module, students will be expected to be able to:

- (1) demonstrate critical knowledge and understanding of the relevance of Theology and Religious Studies to the work of one or more contemporary organisations (public, private or third-sector);

- (2) use their knowledge and understanding of one or more specific topics in Theology and Religious Studies to produce a report on a contemporary issue to which this knowledge and understanding is relevant

- (3) demonstrate the ability to reflect critically on the application of university-based study of Theology and Religious Studies, and the skills acquired in a Theology and Religious Studies degree, to situations and problems beyond the university context

- (4) demonstrate the ability to communicate relevant subject-specific knowledge to a non-specialist audience

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PART C: Description of student research projects

C.1. Select from the list below to describe what the research within the module may involve:

(You may select more than one)

Experiments or testing new equipment, products or procedures

New data collected by administering questionnaires/interviews for quantitative analysis

New data collected by qualitative methods

New data collected from observing individuals or populations

Working with aggregated or population data

Using already published data or data in the public domain

Working with human tissue samples

Genetic modification

Other research methodology

C.2. Will the module involve any of the following: (You may select more than one)

Patients and users of the NHS (including NHS patients treated under contracts with private sector)

Individuals identified as potential participants because of their status as relatives or carers of patients and users of the NHS

Access to data, organs or other bodily material of past and present NHS patients

Use of human tissue (including non-NHS sources) where the collection is not covered by a Human Tissue Authority licence

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Fetal material and IVF involving NHS patients

The recently dead in NHS premises

The use of, or potential access to, NHS premises or facilities

NHS staff - recruited as potential research participants by virtue of their professional role

Clinical trial of a medicinal product or medical device

Research involving adults with incapacity in Scotland, Wales or England who lack the capacity to consent for themselves 10

A prison or a young offender institution in England and Wales (and is health related)

If student research involves any of the above, then an application must be made for individual projects to the National Research Ethics Service (NRES) via IRAS www.myresearchproject.org.uk

None of the above

C.3. Will the participants be from any of the following groups? (Tick as appropriate)

Children under 16

Adults with learning disabilities

Adults with other forms of mental incapacity or mental illness

Adults in emergency situations

Prisoners or young Offenders

Those who could be considered to have a particularly dependent relationship with the investigator, e.g. members of staff, students

Other vulnerable groups

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http://www.myresearchproject.org.uk/


Justify their inclusion.

No participants from any of the above groups

C.4. Who will be the member of University staff who will be responsible for ensuring that individual student projects comply with this block ethics approval?

Dr Rachel Muers

C.5. Who will be responsible for supervising individual student projects?

It is not necessary to name specific individuals please indicate whether they will be University members of staff, whether they are other students eg PhD students supervising undergraduate projects, or whether supervisors may be from outside the University.

Members of university staff with appropriate expertise will be assigned as academic supervisors. External partners will also contribute to the day-to-day supervision of parts of the research.

C.6. Give a short summary of the type of research to be conducted by students as part of the module (maximum 1000 words)

This section must be completed in language comprehensible to the lay person.

Describe the methodologies that students may be using, any experiments/interventions involved, or the types of questions (especially on sensitive topics) to be asked of the participants

Most placements will not involve any research with ethical implications.

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Some placements will require students to use qualitative research methods - especially participant observation, and semi-structured interviews. The questions asked in interviews are likely to relate to some aspect of religion in Leeds, but are unlikely to deal at length with participants’ own religious beliefs.

Quantitative research (e.g. questionnaires) may occasionally be used.

C.7. Where will students be conducting the research?

For example. at the University, in public areas, research participant homes

Research will generally take place on the premises of the external partners, or in public places.

Interviews may be conducted and may take place in a variety of areas depending on individual circumstance.

C.8. Will the module be conducted overseas or involve overseas participants?

(Tick as appropriate)

Yes No

If Yes, please describe any issues of cultural sensitivity that we need to be aware of, and explain how you students will tackle these issues?

C.9. What health and safety issues might arise within the research and how have these been addressed?

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For example, laboratory protocols or safety of students conducting interviews off campus

Each placement will be subject to a separate risk assessment. Students, staff and external partners will sign the Tripartite Agreement.

C.10. How sort of techniques will students used to identify and recruit potential research subjects?

For example, e-mail or other form of advertisement asking for volunteers, stopping people in the street, or via membership of a particular organisation or group

Generally from existing contacts supplied by the external partner and/or the department.

C.11. Approximately how many participants will be recruited for each project?

An order of magnitude estimate will suffice e.g. will it be tens, hundreds of participants?

Unlikely to be greater than the low tens.

C.12. Will informed consent be obtained from the research participants?

Yes No

If yes, give an indication as to how consent will be sought, what sort of information will be given to participants (e.g. verbally or in writing, how long will potential participants have to consider the request, whether consent will be implied, in verbal or in writing. If consent is not to be obtained, please explain why not.

If participants are to be recruited from any of potentially vulnerable groups, give details of extra steps taken to assure their protection. Describe any arrangements to be made for obtaining consent from a legal

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representative.

Verbal consent is to be sought in observation situations. In interviews formal consent will be required. See the departmental guidelines for students (attached), which guide all fieldwork, and the template consent form and information sheet.

Copies of any standardised frameworks for written consent forms and information sheets that students will be expected to use should accompany this application.

C.13. What arrangements have been made for participants who might not adequately understand verbal explanations or written information given in English, or who have special communication needs? (e.g. translation, use of interpreters etc.)

Where this issue arises, external partners will supply translation or interpreters. We do not expect it to arise.

C.14. Will individual or group interviews/questionnaires discuss any topics or issues that might be sensitive, embarrassing or upsetting, or is it possible that criminal or other disclosures requiring action could take place during the study (e.g. during interviews/group discussions, or use of screening tests for drugs)?

If Yes, give details of procedures in place to deal with these issues

No. However, if any unexpected and challenging situations arise students are instructed to seek immediate advice from their academic supervisor and/or the project partner.

The Information Sheet should make it clear under what circumstances action may be taken

C.15. Will individual participants receive any payments, fees, reimbursement of expenses or any other incentives or benefits for taking part in this research?

Yes No

If Yes, indicate how much and on what basis this has been decided

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C.16. What are the potential benefits, risks of harms for participants?

This will vary with the placement, but we will not accept any placement that involves significant risks either for the students or for the research participant. Research undertaken on this module will be expected to be of real benefit to the external partner organisation, and placements will be selected with this criterion in mind. Many individual participants will be closely associated with the partner organisations (e.g. as volunteers with a third-sector organisation) and will share the benefits of the research.

C.17. Will the module contain any issues of data protection, and how will these be addressed by the students?

Students are to maintain all personal data as anonymous unless they have explicit permission to use individual names.

C.18. Is there scope for any other conflict of interest?

Yes No

For example will the research funder have control of publication of research findings?

C.19. Will the module have any potential environmental impact?

Yes No

If Yes, please describe?

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C.20. What are the main ethical issues within research conducted as part of the module?

Summarise the main ethics issues, and say how you propose to address them.

Indicate any issues on which you would welcome advice from the ethics committee.

Issues concerning data storage, informed consent and confidentiality are covered by the departmental guidelines for fieldwork, which are attached to this application. Where any deviation from these guidelines is expected students will negotiate this with the module leader, and agree appropriate and robust strategies.

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1.2 Write-up from Interview Background

The event itself was the last of three events that were designed to focus of the

‘newer’ areas of equality and protected characteristics that are defined by law in

2010. These are: Older people, LGB and T* and Religion or belief.

These three protected characteristics joined the already established characteristics

of disability, race and gender, which have been worked through with the council and

legislation relatively thoroughly.

The first event was the older people’s Challenge event, as this was perceived as the

easiest to organise. With the majority of the demographic being retired, it meant

more flexibility with times. The second being the LGB and T* event posed more of a

problem with what times the event could feasibly be held. However, there is quite

significant links with the LGB and T* community within the council, so this event did

not pose as much of a logistical problem as the Religion or Belief event.

The religion or belief Challenge Event posed the most difficult in terms of scheduling

a date, as working with different religions, there were some dates that would work for

one group, would potentially fall on a holiday of another group. It also meant we did

not consider certain days of the week (such as Fridays) and at certain times, prayer

times were taken in to account and accommodating these needs was key. This event

would have become part of a wider attempt by the council to engage with groups

who fell in to the category of protected characteristics. It would also be a suitable

way to engage with faith groups as part of the covenant, a “set of joint commitments

between local authorities and faith communities to guide engagement aiming to

remove some of the mistrust that arises due to lack of mutual understanding and to

promote open, practical working on all levels.” (Leeds city council

http://www.leeds.gov.uk/council/Pages/Faith-Covenant.aspx) As part of this, a

Strategic Leaders Project was to be set up to bridge the gap in the relationship

between Council services and the faith sector.

Cancelling of the event

While the event was almost ready to go, we had to come to the decision to postpone

the event for the time being. The underlying issue became clear during the marketing

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http://www.leeds.gov.uk/council/Pages/Faith-Covenant.aspx


of the event when no names were coming forward. The issue was that, despite our

best efforts, there was a lack of engagement from leaders with pushing the event

within their communities and congregation. There was also issues with timing in

getting signatories of the covenant to attend. It with only weeks before the event, we

had twenty five attendees, when we had planned the event to have at least one

hundred people, and for the event to be a success, it was almost a requirement for it

to sell out. This is not to say the event, or the work in the run up to the event was not

successful or holds no value. Without the work put in, it may not have come to light

how much work needed to be done in strengthening the relationships between the

council and the religious groups.

The issues with current relationships seemed to suggest that we hadn’t done enough

to convince our key stakeholders in the event and the working relationship that the

event was beneficial to all parties involved. Without convincing this group, it was

increasingly difficult to encourage the wider public to attend. We were unfortunately

relying on a small (but key) group to spread the word to a large population of the

Leeds community.

There would have been potential scope to get the required amount of people to

attend the event, however, this would have required the same time commitment as a

full time job, which was completely unfeasible under the circumstances of planning

the event. This would have required generating word of mouth and spending time in

the communities, giving presentations, handing out flyers and visiting occasionally to

produce more interest. This would have been a wonderful thing to do, however, there

was a lack of resources to do this and a lack of time. As mentioned above, this would

have required someone taking this venture on as a full time job for a considerable

amount of weeks.

The Future

While the covenant is the first step in ascertaining a link between the public services

of the Council and religion or belief groups, it does not go far enough, in so far as

there needs to be proactive attempts to make connections between the two bodies.

This means building on relations with strategic faith leaders initially. Creating these

strong links will not only take time and effort, but investment in to making these

connections works. This is not just investment of resources, but of budgets as well,

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to ensure adequate attempts are made to establish meaningful relations for the

benefit of the public. This will involve persuading people of the value of this

endeavour as a means of justifying the potential investments that will be involved.

In terms of relationship, it is believed that the relationships and connections with the

religion or belief sector are about twelve months behind those of the relationship with

the LGB and T* community when the LGB and T* challenge event was held. The

links with the LGB and T* community is a model which can be used to establish links

with the religion or belief community. The connections made here have taken time

and hard work to achieve, however the rewards have been that the council now have

confidence and trust in the Council.

Engaging with Religion or Belief groups

It has been noticed that the majority of the leaders in the Religion or Belief sector are

an older demographic. However, of the few people who signed up to the event, the

majority were from a younger generation. The issue that arises is that a lot of young

people use social media and technology far more than the leader of their

communities. It would be highly beneficial to look in to engaging with faith groups

through social media and ascertaining whether different communities have Facebook

or Twitter etc. Geoff suggested that due to the different modes of communication and

the disparity this has with the elder demographic, it may be difficult to get young

people involved. The suggested way to get young people involved was to approach

the people who had originally signed up to the event and to request their involvement

in making links with the faith community and other young people involved in the

religion or belief community. From the tiny sample of people who had signed up,

there seemed to be mainly Christians and Muslims who had signed up, which is not

a huge surprise, considering these are the two biggest religious groups in Leeds.

However, without drawing any conclusions, there seemed to be someone from each

religion or belief group. If the event had been able to go ahead, it would have made

an interesting investigation in to the engagement of each religious group. As it

currently stands, the question that has been worked through is the lack of

engagement throughout the religion or belief group across the board.

There is not a massive concern about finding the youth groups within religious

groups, as most will have a youth wing. This can involve education, with age this

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begins dependent upon religion and culture. It also involves social aspects, such as

mothers and toddlers groups, or anti natal groups. There is also often sports involves

in terms of interfaith events, and the role the University union plays in interfaith

dialogue and the engagement of young adults. There is also cultural activities

involved, such as performing arts, films and plays being shown at places of worship.

As most places of worship are attached to community centres, there is a wide and

rich range of ways to get people involved.

In terms of planning, the conclusion that we came to was that not much could have

been done differently. With hindsight, the amount of planning put in would have

made no different with the knowledge that was gained throughout the experience of

planning the event. It would have been beneficial to have been better informed of the

lack of understanding from the religion or belief sector within both the council and the

steering groups. This has only come about after the development work had begun.

This does not mean that the work put in to planning the event is wasted work. In fact

it has highlighted more so the need for meetings with strategic leader in the faith

community, and added extra charge to the need for this. In failing to achieve an

outcome at this moment in time, it has paved the way for far better relationships and

communications within the faith community.

The venture has also highlight how important the Leeds initiative – a partnership

body whose duty it was to engage with faith groups – was to the relations with the

faith sector. This was brought back in to the care of Leeds city Council. However,

with this, an element of the partnership between the two bodies was lost when Leeds

initiative was no longer an independent partnership body. As such, the links with the

Religion or Belief community was far stronger 10 years ago than it is now, due to the

facts outlined above. It is also due to a change in personnel who maintained the

links, as well as the financial climate changing. This leads to a lack of resources that

can be set aside for maintaining links, and the capacity to do this with less staff and

funding. With the focus moving elsewhere, it is easy to see how the connections

have slipped and fallen by the weigh side.

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