Care Leavers and Public Services Peer Research - Consumer Focus

Consumer Focus wished to undertake a research project to examine experiences of care leavers and to identify the barriers they face accessing a range of public services for the first time. This research was conducted by peer researchers drawn from a Young People's Panel (YPP), recruited by the National Care Advisory Service (NCAS), part of the young people's charity, Catch 22. The exercise was purely qualitative and involved in-depth interviews with 14 young care leavers from three local authority areas. Peer researchers were involved throughout the entire project from design, right through to the development of recommendations. The end result was a powerful policy briefing based firmly on the views and experiences of young care leavers. Community Research provided professional research input and guided the peer researchers through all stages of the work.

Low Income Consumers and the Financial Services Sector - Consumer Focus

Consumer Focus already knew that there can be a risk of disadvantage for low income consumers in the products and services they receive. Financial services providers, for example, can see low income consumers as ‘high risk' and/or not as profitable as those on higher incomes. Consumer Focus wished to explore these issues in a way that would challenge the financial services industry specifically and help to create a change in outlook and policy that might ultimately give low income consumers a fairer deal. Community Research worked with Brunswick Research and Naked Eye to develop a solution that went well beyond a typical, traditional research. The project consisted of a number of phases. One of the early phases was to undertake a series of ethnographic research case studies resulting in the production of a highly illuminating compilation film, based on the lives of four low income families. The film was later used (and will continue to be used by Consumer Focus) as a way of highlighting key concerns of consumers with the financial services sector and to other sectors too. The whole project then culminated in a full-day collaborative workshop; during which a cross section of low income consumers, recruited from a number of locations around the UK, worked collaboratively with financial services sector providers.

During the full day workshop, consumers and service providers worked together to develop new ideas that might address some of the key barriers and concerns. The result was the generation of a very wide range of embryonic ideas that might help to better address the financial services needs of low income consumers. It is significant that these solutions were the result of collaboration between providers and consumers - consumers' desires for ideal solutions were tempered by providers' understanding of the practical and business constraints under which they operate. This project has created a firm platform for Consumer Focus's future work in this field. Jonathan Stearn of Consumer Focus said "This project will form the basis of our ongoing efforts to deliver real improvements in the way that the financial services sector caters for people living on low incomes. We hope that the learning can also be used to begin a wider process of change amongst all sorts of suppliers, in terms of how they consider the needs of low income consumers."