How Fair is North-East Scotland?

Grampian Regional Equality Council (GREC) ran a series of workshops with minority ethnic community groups in Aberdeen.

This work forms part of the council’s ongoing ‘How Fair is North East Scotland?’ project, and aimed to capture quantitative and qualitative data across local communities. The team were particularly looking to build evidence bases around inequality in the region, including how lived experience could effectively sit alongside research data to inform the work of policy makers. The sessions explored how communities can be actively involved in further building an evidence base and to understand the barriers preventing marginalised people from getting involved in data research.

The project team held focus groups with community groups, facilitating discussions around attitudes to data research and the implications for policy making.

Participants were asked:

• What is research? How does it work, and how do people get involved with it?
• What are some important topics or areas you would like to see more research in? (including areas related to inequalities)
• How would you like to get involved in the research process, or how might your community get involved?

40 participants took part, with the vast majority having first hand experience of immigration. During the sessions, participants focused on social issues and particularly the confusion around how to access services when first arriving in the UK. The consensus was that more research was needed into the experiences on immigrants in the early weeks and months of arrival.

The feedback, concerns and suggestions from community members will feed into the How Fair is North East Scotland (HFINES) resource and will also inform and strengthen policy influencing work both at a local and national level. GREC’s challenge will continue to explore how to set up effective and engaging Lived Experience groups and how evidence coming from these groups can help shape public policy. By amplifying the voices of seldom heard communities, Lived Experience groups can contribute to research and help build a body of evidence that supports decision-making processes.