Dr Ruth GarbuttUniversity of Leeds

3 years

Collaborative- Leeds University and CHANGE

Funded by the Big Lottery

Aim: to find out the views and experiences of young people with learning disabilities around sex and relationships.

4 people:

ResearcherCoordinators (2)Illustrator

Interviews with parentsFocus groups with teachersQuestionnaires of special schools

Drama with young people

1. 20 weeks with young people- Getting to know you, games, developing skills- Then talking about sex and relationships

2. Analysis of data

3. 20 weeks with young people, using the data from the 1st 20 weeks to workshop and develop a play. (With the Rainbow group)

4. Performance of play

Watching the videos (more than once)- the whole team

Reading the transcripts

‘It was important to transcribe the DVD because we need to know that what we say and do in our job is correct because we have to be sure we are doing the right thing in our job.’ (Final Report, 2010)

Categories:

Changes over time Important points Play ideas Worked well and not so well Leaflet ideas

Category Use of information

Changes over time • Showed confidence and empowerment of young people

Important points • Results of project- to go into final report

Play ideas • To go into the play

Worked well and not so well

• Feedback to staff for drama workshops

Leaflet ideas • To go into leaflets

The three main points of young people’s play, ‘TheRelationships Show’, were:

Professionals not listening to people with learning disabilities or not taking them seriously.

Young people with learning disabilities having nowhere to go to meet their friends.

Not enough accessible information about relationships and sex.

Important points:

- Researcher made a long list of important points collected from all the video watching

- Gave it to team- Team reduced it down to a shorter list of points- Compared it to the important points that came from

the focus groups/ interviews/ questionnaire

When it was the same, this was seen as a really important point because it had come out in all parts of the research project.

Writing the report Producing leaflets

- in collaboration with the whole team and the young people

Saying goodbye to the young people

‘Analysing all the information took a long time. It was important to do it properly rather than guessing what people said or relying on what we could remember. What we have found out comes directly from the information we have collected from the young people, the parents, and the teachers. When we make recommendations, they are based on the things we have found out. They are not just our views.’ (Final Report, 2010)

Any questions?