Preparation

Although Mason (2002: 44) does not advise against pilot studies when using qualitative methods she does recommend that one’s research design should not be guided entirely by them. Instead she believes the researcher should plan carefully what can be achieved and take into consideration resources, time, transport and so on. As mentioned previously, I had already conducted narrative interviews with eight child protection social workers in the same authority in a preceding study (Leigh, 2010; Leigh, 2013b).

In this study, I became aware that narrative interviewing relied entirely on the participant’s story, or rather in that context, their perception of events that led them to understand their professional identity in a certain way. As a practitioner in the same setting, I was in a position where I was able to witness the participant’s behaviour following an interview and what I soon became fascinated with was a

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realisation that a lot of what they had said to me, in the confidential environment of the interview, was different to what they actually did in practice. By highlighting this point I do not mean to suggest that I went on to chose ethnography in order to elicit the ‘true’ account of what really happens in the work setting but rather, I became intrigued by ‘the voices of the other’ and how these multiple voices when interaction with the researcher can come alive together and create a different picture of events (Denzin, 1997: 33). As a qualitative researcher, it therefore felt only natural to progress from interviews to ethnography if I were to learn and understand more about the direct link between an experience and then the performance.

Once I had established that I was going to conduct a comparative ethnography I was able to organise how my time would be divided between England and Flanders. As I worked on the Out of Hours team my hours were part of a three week rolling rota. This meant that for two weeks I worked extended hours in order to have the third week off. It was during this time that I planned to visit Flanders. I was aware that the financial implication, of flying to and from Flanders every third week for a period of six months and having to stay in a hotel whilst over there, would prove to be costly. Fortunately, as I continued to work throughout the study I was able to use my bursary to pay for the cost of the travel and the living expenses whilst abroad. I was also able to purchase items needed for the data collection such as recording

equipment, a camera, note books and so on.

Mason (2002) also advised that preparation should lead to the researcher developing the appropriate skills and partaking in the relevant training. Applying this advice to my situation meant that I needed to extend my knowledge of ethnography. Although my Masters degree did involve a module on ethnography, during the first year of my PhD studies I also attended ethnography sessions that were made

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available to post graduate students at the University of Salford. This cultural

perspective proved to be most beneficial, if not only to learn more about the method itself but to talk through the plans of my own project with other students and

lecturers. This was complemented by my own analytic review which consisted of reading the relevant substantive literature, featured in the previous chapters. The whole process of preparation enabled me to approach data collection as a more aware researcher, comfortable with the challenge that lay ahead and sensitive to some of the theoretical aspects of the study.

3.3.1 Access

As I mentioned earlier I was fortunate in my quest to gain access to the local authority setting in England as I was at the time a social worker who worked for the agency as a child protection practitioner. Therefore unlike Scourfield (1999) and Pithouse,

(1997) gaining access was probably the simplest aspect of the whole study. Yet at the same time, I have to admit, I was not aware that staying in my ‘own nest’ might present complexities I may not have previously considered (Roberts, 2007: 15). I chose to carry out the ethnography in this particular setting as I wanted to explore the identities of statutory child protection social workers. As an intimate insider of the setting, I hoped that my unique positioning might discover new information that could prove to be a beneficial insight in the field of social work research.

I still ensured, however, that I approached the relevant gatekeepers in the correct order. Having been a member of the organisation for close to three years when the data collection began I was aware of how the hierarchy functioned and how

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not to offend certain parties. I therefore informed my direct line manager of my intentions first of all. He was extremely proud of my project and immediately gave it the “go ahead” and he advised me who I should approach next: the Assistant Director of Children’s Services. Yet I found that he was not as interested as my direct manager had been and forwarded on my email to the Service Unit Manager of my department so that he could deal with it instead. Although he responded warmly, he passed it around the other Service Unit Managers asking if they would like to “handle the matter”.

I soon realised that the lack of willingness towards my project did not stem from certain individuals because they could not be bothered with helping me gain access but came from a confusion as to what I meant by ‘an ethics committee’ and who it was, in fact, who actually held the authority to grant me approval for the study to commence. This issue eventually emerged during one email exchange between two senior managers, who fortunately copied me in as it was only then that I was able to address the matter and explain what was needed in order for the study to progress. We eventually agreed that a letter addressed to the University of Salford would be enough to suffice the University’s ethics committee and once this was established, the first service unit manager in charge of handling the matter was then more than happy to write this. This initial confusion leads me to believe that others who have

experienced difficulties in gaining access to local authorities (see D’Cruz, 2004; Pithouse, 1997; Scourfield, 1999) may have done so, in part, because there is simply no such thing as an ethics committee in a local authority setting. A benefit of being an intimate insider, in this instance, is that I was in a position where I was privy to the

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‘mumblings’ of the managers and able to assist appropriately when the confusion arose.

Despite being an outsider, gaining access to Flanders was again a very smooth process. Having read a book by Cooper et al. (1995) about the Flemish agency and its effectiveness with child protection and positive impact on professional identity, I used the internet search engine ‘Google’ to find the lead author, Andrew Cooper, and contacted him by email requesting his help. He kindly gave me the details of a contact he knew from one of the district agencies (which I will refer to in this context as District 2) and suggested I write to her.

Unfortunately, this social worker was away working in another country for a few months so was, at first, unable to help. I therefore used ‘Google Translate’ to contact one of the other district offices in Flanders. I then simply filled in a ‘contact us’ form and waited for a reply. It was not long before I heard from a social worker who asked that I visit him in Belgium to explain my research in person. This proved to be extremely beneficial as not only was he able to ‘check me out’ but I too was able to check that I was going to be observing the right kind of agency, one which could establish a good comparison with the England setting. My visit to his agency (which I will refer to here as District 1) proved to be successful and after discussing my proposal further with his manager it was agreed I could start in September 2011.

However, after a couple of visits, it emerged that there was only one social worker at the District 1 office. When pausing to consider validity and rigour, I realised that this was going to be too small a number as in England, the service I worked for had an army of practitioners in comparison. In total, at the time of writing, there are

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36 social workers in the whole building. In the District 1 office of Flanders, there was only one social worker but another six child protection professionals who all came from various backgrounds such as social pedagogy, psychology and psychiatry. When I talked to my contact, he suggested I contact the other district offices in Flanders to see if I could extend my project and visit them as well. The only contact to respond to my request was the social worker from the District 2 office who I had contacted originally but who had been working away at the time. She agreed I could visit her and suggested that she would introduce me to the other social workers who worked with her at the same agency.

The process of gaining access to the District 2 office involved emailing my proposal to my contact, who subsequently forwarded it onto her Director who granted me consent to start. I then flew over to meet the team. Upon reflection, I believe that access to both Flemish agencies was uncomplicated because, as I will discuss in more detail later, research plays a large part in the way that Flemish child protection professionals work. Therefore, they did not appear remotely concerned that I was an outsider but, instead, rather proud that I wanted to observe them above their other European counterparts.

Although there were no issues with access to any of the agencies, it soon became apparent that there were marked differences between how the two districts functioned in Flanders and also issues within the English culture, all of which

presented me with an ethical dilemma. I have subsequently been concerned with regards to how I should attend to these sensitive aspects within my analysis without breaching confidentiality and revealing identities of certain individuals. In order to conceal participants’ identities I have used generic terms so the title of ‘manager’ has

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been used for all senior members of staff in England rather than ‘team manager’ ‘service unit manager’ or ‘director’. In Belgium I use the term ‘CPP’ for child protection professional, a term which represents all professionals from different disciplines.