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PARTICIPANT INFORMATION SHEET

Evaluating court guidance materials co-designed with autistic people and justice professionals

Prof Katie Maras and Dr Ralph Bagnall (University of Bath)
Prof Laura Crane (University of Birmingham)
Dr Michelle Mattison (University of Chester)

This information sheet forms part of the process of informed consent. It should tell you what the research is about and what taking part will involve. Please read this information sheet carefully and ask the research team named above if you have any questions.

1. What is the purpose of the project?
Autistic people have described stress and difficulty understanding court proceedings, and the importance of clear guidance before getting to court. Professionals across the justice system also often report a lack of training and/or knowledge of autism.
In an earlier part of this project, we co-designed court guidance resources for autistic court-users and justice professionals, with members of the autistic community and justice profession.

The guidance resources are now freely available online.

We are now seeking feedback from justice professionals who have accessed this online guidance, so we can evaluate how useful it is.

2. Who can take part in this project?
People who:

  • Are a criminal justice professional (e.g., witness service worker, intermediary, solicitor, barrister, magistrate, judge) who works in Magistrates or Crown Court
  • Have read the online guidance materials for court professionals
  • We welcome professionals who have an upcoming* case with an autistic-court user
  • We also welcome professionals who work in court and can provide their general feedback.
  • However, if you have had a case with an autistic court-user and that case has now concluded, please do not take part in this survey and instead see this expression of interest form for a separate survey 

* Upcoming court participation means that you expect to take part in a Magistrates’ Court or Crown Court hearing, trial, or other court-related participation with an autistic court-user in the future. The specific court participation you are answering about has not yet happened. The wider case may already have started, but you should answer only about the future court participation you are preparing for.

We particularly welcome people who have experience of working with autistic court-users, but this experience is not necessary to take part.

We also particularly welcome participants from an ethnic minority, as these groups are currently underrepresented in autism research.

3. Do I have to take part?
It is completely up to you to decide if you would like to take part or not. Before you decide, please read the information in this sheet carefully and ask any questions you may have. If you agree to take part, you will be asked to sign a consent form. However, if at any time you decide you no longer wish to take part in this project, you are free to withdraw without giving a reason.

4. What would taking part involve?
Contributors will take part in a short online survey about the online guidance materials.

  • First, contributors will complete a short set of demographic questions asking their age, gender, ethnicity, if they are neurodivergent, and their professional experience with the criminal courts. If contributors have an upcoming case with an autistic court-user, they will also be asked to state the offence that this relates to (e.g., speeding; theft). This information is collected so we can aim for a representative sample of people who take part.
  • Contributors will then be asked to provide ratings about the relevance and helpfulness of the guidance, and written responses for if/how it has helped them.
  • The survey should take around 10-15 minutes to complete. We are not providing financial reimbursement for completing the survey.

This research is completely separate from the court system and from any legal proceedings, and taking part will not affect your professional standing, or relationship with any professional body, organisation, or research partner.

5. What are the possible benefits of taking part?
The contributions that are provided in this project will help us to evaluate our court guidance materials for justice professionals. We hope that this information will help to improve court processes for autistic people and the professionals who work with them.

6. What are the possible disadvantages and risks of taking part?
Contributors will be asked to provide ratings and written responses on the relevance and helpfulness of the online guidance.

If you take part, please do not provide any identifying information about any cases you discuss – including case numbers, court names, dates, locations, names of defendants, victims, witnesses, or professionals, detailed offence information, legal advice, or anything else that could identify a person or case.

We do not expect that this study should cause any discomfort or distress. However, if you think that contributing to the project is likely to cause you distress, it may be better if you don’t take part.

7. Who will have access to the information that I provide?
This survey does not ask for your name, email address, contact details, or any other identifying information. Your anonymous survey responses will be seen by the research team. If you consent to your anonymised data being shared, your anonymous survey responses will be stored in a data archive for other researchers to access (see Section 9).
8. What will happen to the data collected and results of the project?
We will treat all information that you provide as confidential and store it securely at the University of Bath on a password-protected file on the University’s secure server, in accordance with current UK data protection legislation. Survey data will be stored securely and confidentially in the University archives for a minimum of 10 years. Your name or any other identifying information will not be disclosed in any presentation or publication of the research.
 
9. Data resharing
The study is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). According to ESRC policy, anonymised data from research that ESRC funds must be made available for re-use or archiving with the ESRC data service providers.

Once this project is completed, other researchers may conduct related research projects which would benefit from using the anonymised data that you provide. Anonymised data refers to a set of data in which no single participant can be identified – for example by not including participants’ names, dates of birth, addresses etc. No individual will be identifiable in this data set.
 
Further use of your data will only occur with your consent. Data will continue to be stored in accordance with current UK data protection legislation. Your name or any other identifying information will not be disclosed in any presentation or publication of the research.
 
10. Who has reviewed the project?
This project has been given a favourable ethics opinion by the University of Bath, Social Science Research Ethics Committee [reference: 16851-21362)
 
11. How can I withdraw from the project?
You can choose to withdraw from the project at any stage prior to completing the survey. You will not be able to withdraw your data once you have completed the survey, as submissions will be anonymous. Your individual contributions will not be identifiable in any presentation or publication.
 
12. University of Bath privacy notice
The University of Bath privacy notice can be found here: https://www.bath.ac.uk/corporate-information/university-of-bath-privacy-notice-for-research-participants/.
 
13. What happens if there is a problem?
If you have a concern about any aspect of the project, you should ask to speak to the researchers who will do their best to answer any questions. If they are unable to resolve your concern or you wish to make a complaint regarding the project, please contact the Social Science Research Ethics Committee at [email protected]
 
14. Who should I contact for more information?
Thank you for your interest in this project. Please do not hesitate to contact the research team at [email protected] if you would like more information.
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