Information Sheet for HCAs

Participant Information Sheet  

1.                   Research Project Title:

Retention of Mental Health Staff (RoMHS) – case studies

2.                   Invitation to take part in a research study

You are being invited to take part in a research project. Before you decide whether or not to participate, it is important that you to understand why the research is being done and what it will involve. Please take time to read the following information carefully and discuss it with others if you wish. Ask us if there is anything that is not clear or if you would like more information. Take time to decide whether or not you wish to take part. Thank you for reading this.

3.                   What is the project’s purpose?

Retaining mental health staff in the NHS is a problem across the UK, but there is also large variation in retention rates between Trusts. This suggests that whilst there are some national factors that contribute to the problem, there are local issues such as Trust policy and other organisational and population issues affecting retention rates.  Understanding these issues could help identify where it is possible to implement changes to improve retention, and form the basis of recommendations to managers, professions and policy makers. This research project aims to identify key issues for frontline clinical staff and senior managers in relation to staff retention, and to identify good practice and areas for improvement. The research will take place across as least three English mental health Trusts that have been chosen on the basis of variations in their retention rates, staff satisfaction rates and other local factors (e.g. type of geographical area).  

4.                   Why have I been chosen?

You have been asked to participate, as you are a frontline clinical staff member working in a non-registered role such as health care assistant, support worker, nursing assistant or similar, within your NHS Trust.

5.                   Do I have to take part?

You are free to choose whether or not to participate in the research. If you do decide to take part, you will be asked to sign a consent form. If you change your mind, you can withdraw within three weeks of your interview. You do not have to give a reason for your decision. If you wish to withdraw from the research, please contact Dr Emily Wood e.f.wood@sheffield.ac.uk . After three weeks, your data will have been anonymised and added to the larger dataset.

6.                   What will happen to me if I take part? What do I have to do?

Participants will be asked to take part in a research interview with one of the research team. The interview will last for approximately one hour and will be recorded.  Interviews may take place online (e.g. Google Meet or MS Teams), over the phone or in person, and will be arranged at a time and date that works around your work pattern and preferences. (NB: the ‘in person’ option may be removed if any restrictions (locally or nationally) are in place due to COVID-19.)

The interviewer will ask you about your thoughts on the issues around retention in your Trust. You may wish to answer from a personal perspective, or the experiences of your colleagues. We would like to explore your views on ways in which Trust policy and practice impacts retention rates, what could be done differently to improve retention and/or what you think currently works well.   The interview questions will be open-ended so we can explore your perspective in your own words. 

7.                   What are the possible disadvantages and risks of taking part?

We do not anticipate any major risks to taking part. The interview may raise some emotional issues around work-related stress. If you wish to stop the interview, take a break or withdraw from the research you will be able to do so.  .  If you feel that taking part in the research and thinking about the issues it is exploring has caused you any distress, please contact your Trust’s welfare officer or other support services. 

8.                   What are the possible benefits of taking part?

Whilst there are no immediate personal benefits for those people participating in the project, it is hoped that this work will enable Trusts to implement a range of positive steps to improve job satisfaction and retention.

9.                   Will my taking part in this project be kept confidential?

All the information we collect about you during the research will be kept strictly confidential and will only be accessible to members of the research team. You will not be identifiable in any reports or publications. If you agree to us sharing the information you provide with other researchers (e.g. by making it available in a data archive) then your personal details will not be included.

All participants and the Trusts involved in the study will be given pseudonyms. We will not tell your Trust that you have participated in the research, although if you wish to take time out of your working day to participate, you may have to tell your line manager.   

In the unlikely event that issues regarding patient safety or safeguarding arise in the interviews, we have a legal responsibility to pass this information on to the appropriate authorities.

10.               How will we use information about you

We will need to use information from you for this research project. 

This information will include your name and contact details.  People will use this information to do the research or to check our records to make sure that the research is being done properly.

People who do not need to know who you are will not be able to see your name or contact details. Your data will have a code number instead. We will keep all information about you safe and secure. 

Once we have finished the study, we will keep some of the data so we can check the results. We will write our reports in a way that no-one can work out that you took part in the study.

What are your choices about how your information is used?

·  You can stop being part of the study at any time, without giving a reason, but we will keep information about you that we already have. 

·  We need to manage your records in specific ways for the research to be reliable. This means that we won’t be able to let you see or change the data we hold about you. 

·  If you agree to take part in this study, your data may be used in future research. This will use your data saved from this study. Your anonymous data will be held in the ORDA research repository. You will not be contacted to give additional information.

Where can you find out more about how your information is used?

You can find out more about how we use your information 

• our leaflet available from https://sites.google.com/sheffield.ac.uk/romhs/participant-information/information-sheet-for-interviews

·  by asking one of the research team RoMHS@sheffield.ac.uk

·  by sending an email to the University’s data protection officer Luke Thompson – dataprotection@sheffield.ac.uk

11.               What is the legal basis for processing my personal data?

According to data protection legislation, we are required to inform you that the legal basis we are applying in order to process your personal data is that ‘processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest’ (Article 6(1)(e)). Further information can be found in the University’s Privacy Notice https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/govern/data-protection/privacy/general. 

As we will be collecting some data that is defined in the legislation as more sensitive (your name and contact details), we also need to let you know that we are applying the following condition in law: that the use of your data is ‘necessary for scientific or historical research purposes.

12.               What will happen to the data collected, and the results of the research project?

What will happen to the interview recording?

The interview will be recorded.  If we use the online software, the recording will include everything within the software (audio, visual and chat box); over the telephone the recording will be audio only. Once the interview is complete, we will download the recording and convert it to an mp3 file. This will remove everything accept the audio recording. If you do not wish to be video recorded, you can turn off the camera on your computer.

The recording of the interview will be transcribed.  Transcriptions will not be encrypted but will be anonymised (your name and other identifiers will be removed), and will be securely stored as an encrypted, password protected file on the central University server. The recording and transcript will be accessed and used only for the purposes of analysis by the research team. Anonymised quotes from the transcript may be used for illustration in publications, conference presentations and lectures. No other use will be made of them without your written permission, and no-one outside the project will be allowed access to the original recordings.

We aim to send a full report to the Trust but will also send a summary to each participant, we also aim to publish several academic articles, links to which will also be sent to the Trust for them to circulate.

Your personal data (name, email) will be stored until the end of the project (so we can send you the results). Your anonymised data will be stored for 5 years after the end of the project. All data will be stored securely according to University policies.

Due to the nature of this research, it is very likely that other researchers may find the data collected to be useful in answering future research questions. We will ask for your explicit consent for your data to be shared in this way.

13.               Who is organising and funding the research?

This research is organised by the University of Sheffield and funded by The Health Foundation.

14.               Who is the Data Controller?

The University of Sheffield will act as the Data Controller for this study. This means that the University is responsible for looking after your information and using it properly.

15.               Who has ethically reviewed the project?

This project has been ethically approved via the University of Sheffield’s Ethics Review Procedure, as administered by the School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR), and received NHS governance approvals from the Health Research Authority

16.               What if something goes wrong and I wish to complain about the research?

If you have a complaint, you can contact the principal investigator, Dr Emily Wood via e.f.wood@sheffield.ac.uk. If you do not feel the complaint has been handled to your satisfaction, you can contact the head of department Dean Prof Mark Strong on m.strong@sheffield.ac.uk

If the complaint relates to how your personal data has been handled, you can contact The University of Sheffield Data Protection Officer, Luke Thompson – dataprotection@sheffield.ac.uk Further information about how to raise a complaint can be found in the University’s Privacy Notice: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/govern/data-protection/privacy/general. If you feel the complaint has not been handled to your satisfaction, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office.

17.               Contact for further information

If you have further questions or want more information on the project, please contact the principal investigator, Dr Emily Wood via e.f.wood@sheffield.ac.uk 

If Dr Wood is unavailable, please contact the research project administrator Sue Ridgway on s.ridgway@sheffield.ac.uk

Finally …

This information sheet will remain accessible if you wish to return to it and you will be emailed a copy of your consent form.

Thank you for participating in the project