9 Interviewing children, young people and vulnerable people

Questions to ask before the research

• Is it genuinely necessary to carry out research with children, young people or other vulnerable people?
• Did the client explain those reasons in writing before the project began?
• How will we obtain the consent of the person with parental responsibility?
• By what appropriate means will we obtain the respondent’s own consent to take part?
• Are there aspects of the research that could be dangerous for a child, a young person or a vulnerable person, or cause them undue discomfort?
• Did we sufficiently document, before the research began, that the product or service being tested is safe?
• Have we ensured a safe environment for the interviewing?
• Is genuine and complete anonymisation or pseudonymisation of respondents’ answers ensured?
• How will data collection be checked in cases where collecting personal data is not advisable?
• Have we made sure that in research projects involving children, young people and vulnerable people we use only anonymised outputs?

The standard can be downloaded in full here.