Expression of Interest

PARTICIPANT INFORMATION SHEET

Evaluating court guidance materials co-designed with autistic people and justice professionals: EXPRESSION OF INTEREST

Dr Katie Maras and Dr Ralph Bagnall (University of Bath)

Professor Laura Crane (University of Birmingham)

Dr Michelle Mattison (University of Chester)

[email protected]

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.

In an earlier part of this project, we co-designed court guidance resources with members of the autistic and broader autism community and justice profession (including autistic justice professionals). The guidance resources are now freely available online.

Please note that this online guidance is not official court authorised material, and therefore we cannot guarantee that all courts will operate in the ways we describe.

We are now seeking feedback from autistic people and supporters who have participated in a court case at Magistrates or Crown Court that has now concluded, and have accessed this online guidance.

2. Who can take part in this project?

People who:

Are an autistic adult (diagnosed or self-identified)
Have participated in a case at Magistrates or Crown Court (as a victim, witness, or defendant), and that case is now concluded*.
Have read the online guidance materials for autistic court-users (before or after their case concluded*)

We are also looking for people who:

Are an adult (e.g., friend, family member, or carer) who supported an autistic person in a case at Magistrates or Crown Court that has concluded*
Have read the online guidance materials for autistic court-users (before or after the case concluded*)

* By concluded we mean that, as far as you are aware, the Magistrates’ Court or Crown Court case has ended and there are no further hearings, trial dates, sentencing hearings, or expected court participation relating to that case. If you are not sure whether the case has concluded, please do not complete the expression-of-interest form yet.

We particularly welcome autistic 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 can choose whether to take part in an online survey or an online interview about if/how the guidance materials helped, or would have helped, when they went to court.

First, potential contributors will complete a short expression of interest form, including:

The type of court case you participated in (specifically, whether this was at Magistrates or Crown Court, and you/the person you supported participated as a victim, witness, or defendant).
Whether you read the guidance materials before or after the case.
Confirmation that your case has now concluded.
Whether you would prefer to take part in an online survey or an online interview
Your email address.

The research team will review all expressions of interest and contact suitable contributors with either a survey link or invitation to online interview (via MS Teams).

During the survey or interview, contributors will be asked to:

Answer a set of demographic questions asking their age, gender, ethnicity, and if they are autistic or neurodivergent. This information is collected so we can aim for a representative sample of people who take part.
Contributors will also be asked to state the broad category of the offence that their concluded court participation is related to (e.g., speeding; theft). (This information is collected so we can describe the types of court case/court participation in which the guidance has been used.)
Provide ratings about the relevance and helpfulness of the guidance
Provide written (survey) or verbal (interview) responses for if/how it has (or would have) helped them with their wellbeing, understanding of processes, and ability to give evidence during their case.
The survey or interview should take between 30-60 minutes to complete.

Contributors who take part in an interview or survey will be reimbursed £12.50 in appreciation for their time. Please note that if you complete the expression of interest and are not invited to take part, you won’t be reimbursed.

This research is completely separate from the court system and from any legal proceedings, and taking part in the research will not affect your participation in any ongoing or future cases.

5. What are the possible benefits of taking part?

The contributions that you provide in this project will help us to develop court guidance materials for autistic people and justice system professionals. We hope that this information will help to improve court processes for autistic people.

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. We will also not ask you detailed questions about the nature of your case, aside from whether it was at Magistrates or Crown Court, and whether you participated as a victim, witness or defendant.

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

There is the possibility that answering questions about the guidance (in relation to your concluded case) may be difficult for some people.

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?

Only members of the research team who need access will see your personal information. If you consent, a trusted transcription company may also access your audio recording under a confidentiality and data-sharing agreement. Research collaborators will only receive anonymised data.

If you consent to your anonymised data being shared, your anonymous survey or interview responses will be stored in a data archive for other researchers to access (see Section 9).

If you take part in an interview on MS Teams, the interview will be video-audio recorded. This video recording will then be converted to audio only and the video recording will be deleted. After interview is transcribed, the audio recording will also be deleted. You will be given the choice of whether you consent to your interview audio recording being transcribed by a trusted external transcription company who will delete the audio recording after transcription (a confidentiality agreement will be in place). You are free to not consent to this, and in which case the research team will use the automatic transcription service in the online interview platform (e.g., MS Teams) and then review this transcription manually.

There is one further exception to this confidentiality. First, if you disclose any information that relates to an illegal or harmful activity with a serious risk of harm to or by the participant. In these exceptional and unlikely circumstances, then we reserve the right to disclose this information to relevant authorities without your consent.

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 in a locked room or on a password-protected file on the University’s secure server. Storage of data will be done in accordance with current UK data protection legislation. Recorded anonymised 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, anonymized 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 anonymized 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 for up to two weeks after participation by emailing the research team at [email protected] from the email address you used to take part and requesting that your data is withdrawn. After two weeks, the data will be anonymised, and we will not be able to identify your data in order to withdraw it.

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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