Role of Public Services in Supporting Vulnerable Groups in Society

The research proposal aims to analyze the role of public services in supporting vulnerable groups within society. It explores the different ways in which vulnerabilities may present in society and the challenges faced by public services in supporting vulnerable groups. The study is based on a quantitative method of data collection through a survey strategy. The research methodology includes research philosophy, research approach, research strategy, choice of method, data collection method, and sampling.

Research Proposal
(Vulnerability may present itself in many different
ways in our society; explore the role of public services
in supporting vulnerable groups within society )

Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Research Aim:.........................................................................................................................................3
Research Objectives:...............................................................................................................................3
Research Questions.................................................................................................................................4
Rational of project:..................................................................................................................................4
Literature Review:.......................................................................................................................................4
Different ways in which vulnerabilities may present in the society.........................................................4
Role of public services in supporting vulnerable groups within society..................................................5
Challenges faced by public services in supporting vulnerable groups within society..............................6
Research Methodology................................................................................................................................6
References...................................................................................................................................................9
Appendices................................................................................................................................................10
Research ethical form............................................................................................................................10

Topic: Vulnerability may present itself in many different ways in our society; explore the
role of public services in supporting vulnerable groups within society
Introduction
Vulnerability is about inability of people, organizations to stand due to adverse impacts
from multiple stressors. Basically, vulnerable people are those who do not get exposure and
opportunities like other groups. The respective terms is applied on different groups such as
children, women, elderly people, prisoners, migrants, refugees and more. Basically, the
identification of vulnerable groups in case of hazardous or when a crisis unfolds, crisis and
disaster risk management needs to address it significantly as the people have already gone
through with different levels of exposures to hazards & crisis. In the present time, public sector
organizations are highly active to promote the vulnerable groups so that they can grow within the
society. In this regard, they run different schemes, policies with an aim to uplift vulnerable
groups in significant manner. Government promotes necessary schemes to get rid from child
vulnerability. For this purpose, they offer food, education to them so that they can contribute
towards development of nation in future. Likewise, government is also likely to promote the
development and growth of women by launching different schemes. In this regard, the
government of UK is running a program to support affected people during COVID-19. They are
looking forward to support the family income during the time of crisis (Lopez‐Castroman and et.
al., 2020). The present study aims to analyze the role of public sector organizations in order to
protect the vulnerable groups. Further, different ways in which vulnerability is present within the
society has also been measured in the present study. This will also cover challenges face by the
public sector organization while promoting vulnerable groups for the betterment of entire
society.
Research Aim:
“To analyze different ways in which vulnerabilities may present in the society along with the
role of public services in supporting vulnerable groups within society”
Research Objectives:
To analyze different ways in which vulnerabilities may present in the society.

To acknowledge the role of public services in supporting vulnerable groups within society
To evaluate the challenges faced by public services in supporting vulnerable groups within
society.
Research Questions
 What are the different ways in which vulnerabilities may present in the society?
 What is the role of public services in supporting vulnerable groups within society?
 What are the challenges faced by public services in supporting vulnerable groups within
society?
Rational of project:
The present study aims to analyze vulnerable groups present within the society. Further, it is
also useful in terms of assessing the role of public services in supporting the vulnerable groups
within the society. Vulnerable groups have limited exposure of resources as well as
opportunities. They do not get exposure like other groups of the society which further affects
their overall development as well. Also, the research study is also useful in personal and
professional growth of researcher. This will improve the skills and competencies of investigator
such as communication skills, interpersonal skills, time management and more to grow in future
professional career as well.
Literature Review:
Different ways in which vulnerabilities may present in the society
According to Ungar, (2018), it is analyzed that vulnerability tends to minimize the
opportunities to all the individuals. These are physically, mentally and socially disable person
who cannot fulfill their basic requirements in an appropriate way. In society, there are numerous
groups who fall under vulnerable groups as they do not have access of opportunities like others.
Here, vulnerability is present in different ways in terms of minority, lack of income, physical in
capabilities and more. Indigenous people, people belong to minorities, migrants, refugees, people
live in extreme poverty, women and others are considered as vulnerable groups in the society.
When someone migrate from one country to other for a specific reason, they are considered as

vulnerable group within the society as they do not have enough facilities (Shi and Stevens,
2021). In addition, people who live in extreme poverty are also not likely to get support of
others. They are unable to fulfill their basic needs and spend their life in vulnerable condition.
Apart from this, disable people are assumed to be incapable of doing a particular job. Therefore,
they are likely to get social protection. It is analyzed that these people live in extreme poverty
and also faced physical barriers, attitudinal barriers, communication barriers and more. They are
made part of certain social welfare programs where they distinct based on the disabilities they
have. Also, disable women and older person is likely to need more care and attention
significantly (Ciobanu, Fokkema and Nedelcu, 2017). In the present era, disability is increasing
but social protection is still low. Besides this, children are vulnerable to various disease and
abuse by adults. Children have certain biological and physical needs. When they do not get
fulfillment of their needs, they are considered as vulnerable. However, social protection
programs might help in getting rid from the issues of children vulnerability in significant
manner. The other group who is considered as vulnerable is women & girls. Here, women &
girls often need social protection as they are vulnerable disproportionately due to high wages
difference, lack of capital, lack of freedom and more. Therefore, vulnerability is present within
the society in different ways like high wage difference in men & women, child abuse, lack of
facilities to disable person and more.
Role of public services in supporting vulnerable groups within society
According to Tisdall, (2017), it is analyzed that public services play an imperative role in
supporting vulnerable groups in significant manner. They offer assistance to needy families so
that they can fulfill their basic requirements significantly. Here, the government of UK is likely
to support vulnerable families with the help of local authorities and other partners since the
beginning in 2012. For this purpose, they have been bifurcated the families in there different
government administrations. Since 2015, the program has introduced significant improvements
by helping the families in terms of making extra ordinary improvements in their lives. The reach
of the respective program is enhancing with more than 870,000 families worked with whole
family as a way between 2015 to 2021. The program basically started to support the troubles
families initially and has grown in terms of scope over the period of time. Due to rise of COVID-
19, the main aim of government authorities is to create a strong back to deal with the situation
potentially (Supporting Families -2021-22 and beyond). To protect the vulnerable groups,

numerous policies have also been formulated by the government of the respective country. They
have mental capacity act 2005. As per the respective act, every person has capacity until it is
proved otherwise that they are not able to take their own decisions. In addition to this, women
and girls are considered as the miserably vulnerable group. For protecting women, there is an act
called such as sexual offence act that protect women against vulnerabilities (Safeguarding Adults
at Risk Key Legislation and Government Initiatives., 2022). Therefore, public services play a
crucial role to improve the conditions of vulnerable groups within the society.
Challenges faced by public services in supporting vulnerable groups within society
According to Dartington, (2018), it is monitored that vulnerable people are those who do
not get exposure and opportunities like other groups. The respective terms is applied on different
groups such as children, women, elderly people, prisoners, migrants, refugees and more. There
are numerous challenges faced by public services while they support vulnerable groups in
society. To support vulnerable groups, there is requirement of huge funds. However, government
authorities also face issues of lack of funds while it comes to support vulnerable groups. In
addition to this, it is also difficult to ensure the benefit of policies to all the individuals as
vulnerable people are likely to live in miserable conditions. Sometimes, they are even not
familiar regarding the initiatives of government. In this situation, it becomes difficult to offer
benefits to all the vulnerable groups significantly (Bolin and Kurtz, 2018). Besides this, policy
statements announced by the government are also ambiguous. Sometimes, it also includes
contradictory terms which further create issues in terms of implementing the policies. As a result
beneficiaries are unable to avail benefit of the policies. Further, lack of institutional capacity to
implement the policies might create issues for implementing laws. For this purpose, there is
requirement of presence of appropriate system to drive benefits out of the policies. Pressure
related to time also creates implementation gaps that affects the outcomes of overall policies in
significant manner.
Research Methodology
It is an important section of the overall project that outlines the method of data collection,
evaluation and analysis. It also includes necessary ways to draw valid outcomes for successful

completion of research project significantly. In present context, various elements related to
research methodology are mentioned below:
Research Philosophy: This refers to provide broad idea regarding the topic that further
leads towards creation of knowledge based on which data will be gathered and further evaluated
in an efficient manner (Phakiti and et. al., 2018). Out of two majorly use research philosophies
such as interpretivism and positivism, the present study is based on positivism as it is about
evaluating the data in numerical manner to get better outcomes in future.
Research Approach: The other crucial component of research study is research
approach wherein various steps are performed for completing a project study significantly. It
makes the researcher enable to draw general conclusions based on the certain observations.
There are two main approaches followed by investigator such as deductive & inductive (Hughes
and Barlo, 2021). In present context, there is selection of deductive approach as it is useful in
evaluating the existing theory in profound manner.
Research Strategy: It presents ample of steps taken to complete the project work in a
systematic way. This includes step by step process including data collection, analysis, evaluation
and more. Further, guidance is also provided by the research strategy to investigator so that
overall project can be completed in timely manner. Literature review, case study, survey are
certain profound research strategies (Rosskam, 2018). However, the current project is based on
survey strategy as it is useful in collecting huge amount of information within minimum period
of time.
Choice of method: There are two methods of data collection such as qualitative and
quantitative. Here, quantitative is about analyzing the data using numerical techniques whereas
qualitative is based on collecting in-depth & detailed information regarding the topic. The
current project is based on quantitative method where numerical techniques are used to analyze
the data effectively.
Data collection method: Data is considered as highly important part of the research
project. Primary and Secondary are the two major methods of data collection. In case of primary
method, data is gathered from respondents directly through questionnaire, observation and more.
On the other hand, secondary method is all about collecting wide range of information through

websites, articles, journals and more (Gaudet, 2018). For present study, primary method of data
collection is used where information will be gathered through questionnaire. Also, certain
amount of information has also been collected from authentic secondary sources like websites,
articles, journals and more.
Sampling: Probability and non-probability are the two major methods of sampling. In
present context, samples have been selected through probability method. For this purpose, 30
individuals have been chosen from probability technique.

References
Books and journals
Bolin, B. and Kurtz, L.C., 2018. Race, class, ethnicity, and disaster vulnerability. Handbook of
disaster research, pp.181-203.
Ciobanu, R.O., Fokkema, T. and Nedelcu, M., 2017. Ageing as a migrant: Vulnerabilities,
agency and policy implications. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 43(2), pp.164-
181.
Dartington, T., 2018. Managing vulnerability: The underlying dynamics of systems of care.
Routledge.
Gaudet, J.C., 2018. Keeoukaywin: the visiting way-fostering an indigenous research
methodology. aboriginal policy studies, 7(2).
Hughes, M. and Barlo, S., 2021. Yarning with country: An indigenist research
methodology. Qualitative Inquiry, 27(3-4), pp.353-363.
Lopez‐Castroman and et. al., 2020. Mining social networks to improve suicide prevention: A
scoping review. Journal of neuroscience research, 98(4), pp.616-625.
Phakiti and et. al., 2018. The Palgrave handbook of applied linguistics research
methodology (pp. 423-457). London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
Rosskam, E., 2018. Using participatory action research methodology to improve worker health.
In Unhealthy work (pp. 211-228). Routledge.
Shi, L. and Stevens, G.D., 2021. Vulnerable populations in the United States. John Wiley &
Sons.
Tisdall, E.K.M., 2017. Conceptualising children and young people’s participation: Examining
vulnerability, social accountability and co-production. The International Journal of
Human Rights, 21(1), pp.59-75.
Ungar, M., 2018. The differential impact of social services on young people’s resilience. Child
Abuse & Neglect, 78, pp.4-12.
Online
Supporting Families -2021-22 and beyond. [Online]. Available through :<
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/supporting-families-2021-to-2022-and-beyond/
supporting-families-2021-22-and-beyond/>
Safeguarding Adults at Risk Key Legislation and Government Initiatives. [Online]. Available
through :< https://www.anncrafttrust.org/resources/safeguarding-adults-legislation/>

Appendices
Research ethical form
All students conducting research activity that involves human participants or the use of data
collected form human participants are required to gain ethical approval before commencing their
research. Please answer all relevant questions and note that your form may be returned if
incomplete.
For further support and guidance please see your respective Unit Tutor:
Before completing this form, we advise that you discuss your proposed research fully with your
unit tutor. Please complete this form in good time before your research project is due to
commence.
Section 1: Basic details:
Project title: To analyze the impact of staff motivation schemes on employee retention”. A case study on
Sainsbury.
Student name:
Student ID number:
Programme:
College Name:
Intended research start date:
Intended research end date:
Section 2 Project summary
Please select all research methods that you plan to use as a part of your project:
 Interviews Yes No
 Questionnaires Yes No
 Observations Yes No
 Use of personal records Yes No
 Data Analysis Yes No

 Action Research Yes No
 Focus Groups Yes No
 Others (Please specify) :
Section 3: Participants
Please answer the following questions, giving full details where necessary.
Will your research involve human participants?
Who are the participants? Tick all that apply:
Ages 12-16: Young people aged: 17-18 Adults:
How will participants be recruited (identified and approached)?
Describe the processes you will use to inform participants about what you are doing:
With the help of random sampling method from employees of Swatch stores.
How will you obtain consent from participants? Will this be written? How will it be made clear
to participants that they may withdraw consent to participate at any time?
Through making use of e-mails.
Studies involving questionnaires: will participants be given the option of omitting questions that
do not wish to answer?
Yes No
If no please explain why below and ensure that you cover any ethical issues arising from this
Studies involving observation: Confirm whether participants will be asked for their informed
consent to be observed.
Yes No
Will you debrief participants at the end of their participation (i.e give them a brief explanation of
the study)?
Yes No

Will participants be given information about the findings of your study?(This could be a brief
summary of your findings in general)
Yes No
Section 4: Data Storage and Security
Confirm that all personal data will be stored and processed in compliance with the Data
Protection Act (1998)
Yes No
Who will have access to the data and personal information?
During the research:
Where will the data be stored?
In USB portal and laptops
Will mobile devices such as USB storage and laptops be used
Yes No
If Yes, please provide further details:
After the research:
Where will the data be stored? Laptop
How long will the data and records be kept for and in what format?
3-4 months
Will data be kept for use by other researchers? Yes No
Section 5 : Ethical Issues
Are there any particular features of your proposed work, which may raise ethical concerns? If so,
please outline how you will deal with these:
It is important that you demonstrate your awareness of potential risks that may arise because of
your research. Please consider/address all issues that may apply. Ethical concerns may include,
but are not limited to the following :
 Informed consent.
 Potentially vulnerable participants.

 Sensitive topics
 Risk to participants and /or researchers
 Confidentiality/anonymity
 Disclosures/ limits to confidentiality
 Data storage and security, both during and after the research (including transfer, sharing,
encryption, protection).
 Reporting
 Dissemination and use of your findings.
Section 6: Declaration
I have read, understood and will abide by the institution’s Research and Ethics Policy:
Yes No
I have discussed the ethical issues relating to my research with my Unit Tutor:
Yes No
I confirm that to the best of my knowledge:
The above information is correct, and this is a full description of the ethical issues that may
arise in the course of my research
Name: Date:
Please submit your completed form to your supervisor and also attach to the Research
Proposal when submitting to Turnitin.