Research Methods: Considering Ethics in your research

Safeguarding procedures in the case of a disclosure

General safeguarding guidelines for researchers working with children or young people published by Sheffield Hallam University include the following advice:

• Take seriously what the child is telling them.
• Ask the child if they have told you everything they want to.
• Listen, encourage, but avoid asking questions that assume anything.
• Tell the child that you will need to talk to someone else to help you to decide what to do now.
• Check that the child understands what you are going to do.
• Record their observations and what the child has said at the earliest appropriate opportunity, including dates and times.
• If another adult is present, record details of this.
• When the disclosure takes place within a children's setting, inform the setting's Designated Child Protection Person.
• If you are working with a university contact the university ethics committee or research support team
• Provide reassurance to the young person, who may feel scared, unsure and disloyal. The child may think they have done something wrong by telling you, may feel a sense of panic or be scared of losing control of what will happen next.

Further information:

Sheffield Hallam University (undated) Safeguarding Children in Research Contexts

http://www.shu.ac.uk/_assets/pdf/Safeguarding-Children-in-Research-Contexts.pdf