Building a better tomorrow for everyone, everywhere
Case Study: Asylum & Screening
People Street were commissioned by the Digital Asylum & Borders team at the Home Office to support the User Research team exploring the screening experiences of asylum applicants.
October 2024
Brief
To recruit 8 participants who are asylum applicants. They must have completed their screening interview within the last 3-6 months. We especially want to reach people who face multiple and intersecting barriers such as language and digital barriers and people living with a disability.
Participants are invited to take part in a 90-minute interview online or over the phone and will be reimbursed for their time with a voucher. The screening and consent process to be undertaken by People Street and delivered in mother-tongue if needed. People Street to provide in-interview support and/or translation services if participants request support.
Methodology
For week one, 12 participants were shortlisted, only 4 were interviewed. A further 2 participants from the 12 had to postpone their interviews to week 2. And 1 participant opted out completely due to fear of speaking to someone connected to the Home Office.
Each of the 4 participants received 4-6 check-in calls and had either remote or in person help getting onto the video call.
For week two, a further 11 participants were shortlisted, only 4 were interviewed and we had 1 drop-out due to fear that taking part would jeopardise the asylum claim.
Each of the 4 participants received 4-6 check-in calls and had either remote or in person help getting onto the video call.
We were able to support digitally excluded participants as well as participants lacking confidence to speak in English to take part by actively supporting the engagement process. For example, acting as interpreters, arranging telephone calls or taking participants through the video call process.
This wrap-around support is a key feature of our inclusive research approach. It centres trauma-informed practice as standard so the most vulnerable moments are safely navigated with compassion and care.
Case Study: Digital Inclusion
People Street were commissioned by the Home Office to support the UCD team to explore digital exclusion within the context of the GDS Barriers Framework. We were committed to learning about the coping strategies and mitigations people use to cope with the sharp channel shift towards digital since the pandemic. As well as listen out for additional barriers we hadn’t considered.
We used a participatory and iterative approach which included running all the research in community settings, using translation or running sessions in mother-tongue.
June-December 2023
Brief
Research with communities experiencing digital exclusion in an effort to better understand how barriers interact and surface in the real world. The purpose of this discovery was to;
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better understand each barrier,
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appreciate the nuance at grassroots level,
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explore how barriers are interlinked
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Surface how barriers are expressed by communities experiencing exclusion.
Methodology
In total, thirty-five participants attended a focus groups. Five of these participants took part in check-in and sense making sessions which lasted 35-45 minutes each. A further 9 people took part in community-based Usability Testing.
The participant brief was intentionally intersectional to ensure we were reaching people most at risk of exclusion. For example, participants were culturally and linguistically diverse and represented communities from Nigeria, Namibia, Eritrea, Somalia, India, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Jamaica, Haiti, Trinidad, Ghana, Wales and England.
Half were asylum applicants, and half were non-applicants from racialised communities. Eighty percent had a smartphone, of the 20% who did not have a phone, half had a phone but it was broken or damaged and the other half did not have their own phone but had access to a device through a family member. Only 6 people had a laptop or computer at home. Twelve people had a tablet at home but only one said they use it.
Case Study: Inclusive Research
The team were brought into NHSX to act as advisors and collaborators, positively disrupting the landscape that would propagate best practice. We delivered four strands of work, with several research challenges within each strand. Research challenges covered Primary Care, Maternity, NHS App, NHS.co.uk.
May 2020-April 2021
Brief
Methodology
To set up a Community Research programme reaching communities in Birmingham and east London who were disproportionately negatively impacted by covid.
Community Researchers to run fortnightly sprints with grassroots communities to surface living experiences. Community Researchers also recruited participants to take part in User Research conversations.
We reached over 900 people with protected characteristics.