What do we mean by ethics?
The term 'ethical' refers to a consideration as to whether the dignity, rights, safety and well-being of those involved in the research are properly protected.
Our ethics
We take ethical considerations very seriously. We are aware of the potential for ethical concern when carrying out research. Many of our participants are vulnerable adults, children and adolescents, abused or forensic patients.
To ensure our research is ethical, all research that is undertaken by our staff or involves our users, relatives, carers or staff (or their data), must have ethical approval. All research proposals must be given approval by the Research Ethics Committee - an independent committee that scrutinises proposed research projects and decides whether each project meets ethical requirements. It looks at a number of different areas, including:
- recruitment of participants – e.g. to ensure patients do not feel pushed into taking part
- care and protection of research participants - e.g. making sure there is access to medical supervision and support for participants
- patient confidentiality
- informed consent process (full description of process for obtaining informed consent; adequacy, clarity and completeness of written and oral information to be given to participants)
- community considerations - e.g. impact of the research on the local community, steps taken to consult with the communities concerned.
What is research governance?
Research governance covers the regulations, principles and standards of good practice for research. This is to ensure high quality research, and to improve the standard of research across healthcare. We must comply with the Research Governance Framework (RGF) which sets out these standards.
