Scottish Prisons Assessment and Review of Outcomes for Women (SPAROW): exploratory baseline study

Annex Two: How the Baseline Study was Undertaken

This Annex provides further detail on how the pre- and post-move surveys for the baseline study were undertaken.

Pre-move Survey:

Before commencement of the baseline study, the JAS researcher shared the overall SPAROW evaluation and baseline study aims, objectives and methods with the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to establish key SPS contacts to support access to women in custody who would be moving to a CCU.

The SPS key contacts then informed the JAS researcher of women who would be moving to a CCU, to invite them to participate in the baseline study. The researcher sent the key contacts the following information to share with all potential participants:

• An invitation letter to participate, which included information explaining the aims, objectives and method of the baseline study, and the overall SPAROW evaluation. The invitation letter explained that participation was voluntary, participation could be withdrawn, and all data would be shared in confidence and anonymised in reporting.
• A privacy notice explaining how participant’s data would be processed and protected, and participants rights in law (see below).
• A consent form for women to date and sign if they wished to participate (see below).

If women wished to participate the key SPS contacts let the JAS researcher know, and a date was arranged to undertake the survey in prison, at a time suitable for the prison and participants.

The JAS researcher met with each woman who wished to participate, separately in a private space^[32], to talk through the information sheet, privacy notice and consent form, and to answer any questions. The researcher and participant were in sight of SPS officers, but the officers were out of hearing range. Participants could choose to:

• Do the survey completely on their own.
• Do the survey on their own, but ask the researcher for help if they came across something they would like explained.
• Ask the researcher to read through all the questions and record all the answers.
• Ask the researcher to read or write some parts but not others, for example if participants wanted to cross the response boxes themselves, but have the researcher write out participants qualitative comments.
• Tinted transparency sheets were available to support women with dyslexia.

At the end of the survey and discussion, women were given a folder to keep all the information on the baseline study and SPAROW evaluation, which included a thank you letter for participating, and how to contact the JAS researcher if they had any questions following their participation. The letter also included a data protection contact, and support services available in custody (Samaritans/Prison Listeners) for women to contact, should they wish to following participation.

Participants were also asked if they would like to continue to participate, and repeat the survey and discussion after they had lived in a CCU for around 6 months (or before their release if earlier).

Post-move Survey:

The women who had participated in the pre-move survey, who said they would like to participate in a post-move survey, were contacted through the key SPS contact in each CCU.

An invitation letter, information sheet, privacy notice and consent form were again sent to ensure participants had this information.

For women who agreed to continue to participate, the JAS researcher arranged a date and time with the SPS key contact that was suitable for the CCU and the participant.

The JAS researcher met with each women in the CCU who wished to participate to talk through all the information shared, and to answer any questions. The researcher met with participants in a private meeting room when available or in a quiet space in the CCU hub. As with the pre-move survey, the researcher and participant were in sight of SPS officers, but the officers were out of hearing range.

Also, as with the pre-move survey, participants could choose to complete the survey on their own or complete with the JAS researcher (i.e. the researcher asking the questions, completing the questionnaire and documenting qualitative narrative), or a combination of these.

Undertaking the survey in person and face-to-face in participants older establishment and in a CCU enabled the JAS researcher to offer any support women requested to participate. The main support provided, as noted earlier, was tinted sheets to support women with dyslexia, and reading out and talking through the questions, and writing down what women shared during qualitative discussions.

Further, where the “sense” of questions were reversed (i.e. where questions flipped from being positive sentiments to negative sentiments), and participants responses were on a 5-point Likert scale from “Strongly Disagree” to “Strongly Agree”, the JAS researcher being present allowed the researcher to highlight this to participants (whether they were completing on their own or with support from the researcher), to minimise participants responding for example, disagree when they were meaning agree (and vice versa).

Privacy Notice

Under data protection law, the following rights were explained and talked through with participants: you have rights including:

• The right to be informed - of the collection, use, sharing and holding of your personal information.
• Your right of access - you have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information, and re-use your personal information for your own purposes.
• Your right to rectification - you have the right to ask us to correct information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.
• Your right to restriction of processing - you have the right to ask us to restrict the processing and analysis of your information in certain circumstances.
• Your right to object to processing - you have the the right to object to the processing and analysis of your personal information in certain circumstances.

Consent Form

The consent form for the exploratory baseline study had the following statements for participants to respond with Yes or No:

• I understand the information letter and privacy notice, and have had the chance to ask questions.
• I know that I can change my mind about taking part in the project at any time, and I don’t have to give a reason. I understand it might not be possible to remove my views and comments from the report if the information has already been analysed.
• I understand that later in the project, the research team might ask the Scottish Prison Service for other information that they hold about me, to help them get a more detailed understanding of the women who filled in this survey.
• I agree to take part in this survey and for my information to be used in the project.