Research Methodology for Religion and Spirituality in Sandwell Adult Social Care Placements

This research explores the role and value of religion/spirituality in older adult social care users in the Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council in the UK. The research methodology used includes document analysis, interviews, and self-interviews. The study took place within Sandwell Council and examined whether religion/spirituality is being considered when social workers are assessing older adults and arranging care placements and whether care homes appear to be catering for older adults’ religious/spiritual needs.

Chapter 3 Research Methodology
Section on Sandwell council needs to go later, so I’ve moved it
Introduction
This research explored the role of the role and value of religion/spirituality in older adult
social care users in the Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council in the UK. The research
questions to be answered were 1. ‘Are social workers and social care officers catering
religion and spirituality in their assessments and support plans for citizens they are
supporting to place in care homes? 2. Are social workers and social care workers taking into
account the religious views and spirituality? 3. Are social care workers at care homes
considering to promote religion and spirituality while assessing citizen before going to care
home? Initially, I also wanted to find out if care residents felt their religion and spirituality
was being catered for at care homes. I wanted to find out if there are any barriers to
considering religion/spirituality from the care home residents. I also wanted to do some
field work observations so I could see more clearly what actually happened in practice,
rather than just relying on worker’s accounts and documents. However, unfortunately, due
to covid 19 restrictions, I could not carry out this part of the project. It would be interesting
to complete more research on this section in future.
This was primarily a qualitative research project which undertook document analysis,
interviews and a self- interview which drew on auto-ethnographical methods of research.
Epistemologically, the research was interpretive and ontologically it was constructivist as I
aimed to understand how social care workers understand and value spirituality and religion
in their practice. A qualitative and interpretive methodology enabled me to gain in-depth
information about how participants view their world and how they use religion in practice
(Shipman, 1997; Cresswell, 1998, 2003; Silverman, 2004, 2010; Bryman, 2008). interpretive
research solicits a variety of meanings and this makes it informative. This is particularly
because of the reason that interpretivism works on developing theoretical knowledge
relating to the research topic. Hence, this present study aims to analyse that whether the
social workers are taking into consideration the religion and spirituality among the elder
people while taking care of them. This interpretive research is informative as it aims at

developing theoretical knowledge and this provides a wide range of information to the
readers.
Participants were allowed to narrate their story, being guided by open ended questions
which enabled them to provide more in-depth information (Rubin & Rubin, 2012;
Oppenheimer, 1992). Data from examining care plans, support plans, assessments from
Sandwell Council, care plans from care homes, interviews from Sandwell social workers and
social care officers and from care workers’ interviews will be triangulated.
Qualitative research allowed me to gain in-depth information of how social workers, social
care officers conduct their assessments and how (or if) they incorporate religion/spirituality.
It also allowed me to gain information on how religion /spirituality is catered for in care
homes. Knowledge came from the participants who were giving their experience of
assessing and working with religion/spirituality. My own view is that religion/spirituality is
important to those who believe and non -believers and hence social workers and social care
workers in care homes should consider this for older adults who reside in their care homes. I
also hold that religion/spirituality is part of a human being’s identity and therefore by not
acknowledging and assessing this we may be missing and neglecting an important part of a
citizen’s life. Within this the own role involved the SW manager that is social worker
manager which basically works in direction to protect the working of the elder people and
ensure that there is not any issue for the company.
Theory was developed as the investigation progressed (Znaniecki, 1934; Silverman, 2004). I
engaged some aspects of grounded theory as used data that I collected to construct
outcomes/theory to that will help answer my research questions. Grounded theory was
developed by Glaser and Strauss (1967) to help researchers gather and analyse qualitative
data to identify important categories in the material with the aim of generating theory and
ideas from the data. This development of the idea and the theory was helpful alter as it
provided a base to work in better manner and to attain the objectives of the study in better
manner. Along with this the theory and data will be assistive in supporting the research
findings in better and effective manner and will help them in increasing knowledge relating
to the research topic.

Inspiration for my Research Design ??
My research came to proper understanding after I attended a conference on social
dreaming on 15 June 2019 at the University of Central Lancashire. I attended this
conference because I was fascinated by the dreaming matrix and how this could be used as
a research method. It was at this conference that we did an exercise on dreams and we
were asked to imagine/dream a tree and how it survives. The attending of the conference
assisted me in developing a base for the research design and will be helpful in improving the
study. The ideas were that if the main stem does not feed a branch, the branch dies but the
main stem remains. The exercise involved examining sustainability. I tried to apply this idea
to my own research. I viewed my main topic as the main stem and I looked at the methods
as the branches that needed to be fed and kept alive by relating to the main stem. I
interpreted this to mean that I had to find methods that will answer my main question (the
stem). I also had to find a topic that will keep alive for the duration of the research. I also
had to find methods that would sustain the project and keep me interested. This exercise
also directed me to reflexivity as I needed to keep going back to the stem and reflect on my
methods and assess if the methods were answering the research questions. Further my own
position of SW manager helps me in identifying the importance of the care of elder people.
Also this position helped me in developing my knowledge relating to research. this created a
better impact over the study as this will be providing a better opportunity to do the study in
better terms. Also, because of the own work position I was already having proper
knowledge relating to the research topic and this created a better base for the study. I drew
on the dream matrix being learnt from the conference being attended to help me come up
with a tangible research design.
The research involved convenience purposive sampling to help answer my research
questions. I selected a research project with older adults in Sandwell because I work for
Sandwell Council as SW manager. The following section describes the council in more
detail….

Sandwell Council
Sandwell Council Adult Social Care: Im still to get accurate data on statistics. We have just
moved to use Power BI and I will need support to extract the latest data when I return to
work.
Sandwell Borough is in West Midlands. There is a population of 328000…. female and male
There are 6 towns Oldbury, Rowley, Tipton, West Bromwich, Smethwick and Wednesbury.
When I started my research there were 11 older adult community teams. As of June 2021
teams are back in the 6 towns format so there are now six teams and I am one of the
managers for the Rowley team. These teams assess and support to place older adult citizens
in care placements. There are ……in residential and care placements. There are …social
workers and …. social care officers in these teams.
There are …residential care homes and …. nursing homes in the Sandwell Borough. We are a
catchment area for our neighbouring boroughs Birmingham, Dudley, Walsall, Worcester,
Coventry, Wolverhampton Staffordshire and Warwick.
The role within the council is the SW manager that is social welfare manager. This role
includes the analysis of the situation of the elder people and this assisted in developing
knowledge relating to the research topic. This also assisted me in developing a good base
and knowledge for the fact that whether the religion and spirituality is being used in the
care home for treatment of elder people. This is very necessary for the reason that it will be
helping the people to take proper care of the elder people and to ensure that the religion
and spirituality is being implemented within the care home so that proper care can be
provide to the patient. This role influenced me to conduct the present study as it will help
me in analysing the views of the people relating to the use of religion and spiritual
techniques for taking care of the patient especially the elder ones. This was the base for the
research to be completed and to analyse whether the social workers implement and plays a
crucial role in the taking care of elder people by keeping in mind the religion and spirituality.

My research involved documentary analysis and interviews including: an analysis of
assessments and support plans from Sandwell Council adults social work teams, an analysis
of care plans from three care homes; interviews with Sandwell Council social workers and
social care workers; interviews with care workers at care homes, and a self-interview. The
study took place within Sandwell Council and he interview was taken with different types of
workers of care home like the agency nurse, health care assistant and many other different
people in care home. The following section describes each part of the research in turn…….
Document Analysis
I undertook document analysis because the documents were available and they
complemented my research strategy. Also these articles and document were complimenting
the research topic and provided a wider range of data for authenticating the primary
research. It was also a way of gathering information of participants in their own setting
(Marshall &Rossman 1995). Documents I selected to analyse were produced by social
workers, social care officers and care home managers and senior carers.
As these documents were produced by different people I did not take the written
documents at face value (Mason 1996). This implies that there are different authors and
they treat the same thing or concept in different manner. Hence, for this it is necessary for
the researcher that they use the appropriate data in order to attain the objectives of
business. this is very crucial because of the reason that every person has their own
perception and it is not necessary that other person thinks in the same manner. So the use
of documents need to be made wisely and in proper manner such that the objectives are
being attained of the study. these documents are being assessed by the researcher with
help of secondary sources and mainly with help of internet. My main interest was to
examine if there was anything relating to religion/spirituality in the documents. I examined
whether the assessments, care plans and support plans contained any consideration of
religion or spirituality through activities or time given to service users to practice their
religion or spirituality. Thus, I was hoping to find information that would answer some of my

research questions. I used these documents to explore whether religion/spirituality is being
considered when social workers are assessing older adults and arranging care placements
and whether care homes appear to be catering for older adults’ religious/spiritual needs.
The plan was to start with document analysis of care plans at care homes, but this did not
happen due to the Covid 19 pandemic restrictions. I could not visit the care homes to view
the documents. Therefore, this was completed at a later stage where there was an
opportunity to visit the three care homes who agreed for me to undertake my research
there.
With respect to the analysis of the data, the three different care home were examined with
respect to the research topic. The collection of the data was done with help of these three
types of the care home and the views of different types of the employees was taken in order
to analyse and evaluate the research question in better and effective manner. There was not
any particular characteristic being decided for the working of the research or the collection
of the data in proper and effective manner. Along with this different participant from the
three care home was taken and it included variety of employees like agency nurse, health
care assistant and other employees being hired by the SANDWELL council homes.
I started by analysing the Sandwell Council documents because I could access these virtually
as a Sandwell employee. Also, these document included only the details of the Sandwell
Council only and not any other base. Along with this it is different from the other data
sources as this will be including information relating to Sandwell council only. I decided to
analyse assessments and care plans because these are the core documents that are
competed when placing citizens in care homes. The assessment is the core document which
is used to assess a citizen’s needs and this also helps to determine eligibility criteria for
social care funding. The social care assessment is enshrined in the Care Act 2014 under
section 9. The Care Act (2014) stipulates that when citizens meet some domains for support
they should be awarded social care funding.
The support plan is also enshrined in the Care Act 2014 under section 8. This allows for
social workers to create a support plan for the citizen they have assessed and deemed them
to have eligibility criteria for support.

I analysed 220 assessments and 220 support plans from Sandwell Council social work teams.
There were 11 community social work teams in Sandwell. I selected the first 20 assessments
and support plans from people who were placed in care homes from each community social
work team during the same year. I did not include the Young Adults team, Safeguarding
team and the Mental Health teams. These type of people were not included within the
study because the current study specifically works on the older population. Hence because
of this young people and related people were not selected as the sample.
Not all of the information in the documents was meaningful to my research and hence I
selected sections that were relevant to me and I recorded anything relevant onto a
spreadsheet.
To understand support planning, I analysed care plans. These are the working documents
that a care home creates for all staff to use when supporting residents. They are usually
meant to be person-centred, and the resident and family/carer/friends are normally
involved if the resident consents and wishes for them to be involved.
Domains included : Nutrition, religion, spirituality etc
Please note the absence of religion/spirituality from the domains.
For the different types of the assessment the demographic section was being viewed. This
demographic section included different aspect like the age, gender, assessment date,
religion, ethnicity, views of the participant. Along with this another information were also
asked like the hobbies of respondent, interest, personal care, any request due to the
religion, spirituality or nutrition and many other aspects. Moreover, the family connection
and relationships were also checked by the person and whether go to particular religious’
place or not. Further it also included the use of local communities as well for checking the
fact that citizen is engaged in religious places. Furthermore, the need outcome was also
outlined in order to determine the eligibility criteria. Besides this the key summary of the
assessment and the outcome of the assessment will be done on the long term placement at
the care home.

Please note some of the information from the assessment is carried over to the support
plan. The implication of this is that the assessment information will be used in order to
support the plan in better and effective manner. All this information are very important for
the reason that as it will support the finding which is being ascertained from the data being
gathered.
By the review of the methodology section I was able to analyse the fact that support
planning is very necessary for checking the main focus on the spiritual and religious needs
are being followed. Along with this plan summary and the different documents were also to
be completed as a social worker.
I read the care plans through carefully highlighting any issues that might be relevant to
spirituality /religion. I analysed all 85 care plans at the three care homes: this simply means
that 85 people were analysed at the three different care homes. These care plans of all the
current resident present in the care home were selected. 30 (care home 1), 30 (care home 2)
and 25 (care home 3). I examined these sections of the care plans: age, gender, date of
admission, Religion, Daily life/Lifestyles, Hobbies and Interests, Death and Dying, DNAR
adding any personal observations and comments. I put any relevant information in a
spreadsheet (appendix no…). I used initials of residents and a number ensure to anonymity.
For example, MG 1.
The document analysis enabled me to get a good overview of the recorded care practices at
Sandwell Council and this was used to inform the interviews with social care staff. This was
selected for the reason that when the document relating to the research will be analysed
then this will be improving the efficiency of the research. The good overview of the
recorded care practices at the council was used in order to inform the output of the
interview to the social care staff in better and effective manner.
I’ve moved the ethics later. In needs to go after you’re described your research design

Interviews
Sandwell Council Social workers and social care officers
I selected social workers and social care officers in Sandwell because they complete
assessments and arrange long term placements for citizens. I also used convenience
purposive sampling at the care homes to recruit care workers whom I could interview.
I started this process when I completed my second year of doctorate studies. When my
research proposal was approved by the University, and ethics approval was granted (see
below) discuss my project at various relevant team meetings. These team meetings would
have representatives of three to four teams in attendance. I was given permission to discuss
my [project and ask for participants in two teams so I managed to do so with 8 of the 11
teams. In area or team?? where i did not have any response regarding the project I had to
approach workers individually and explain my project. I also sent information regarding my
project by email and asked those who were interested in the project to contact me to
discuss potential involvement. I found it hard to recruit social workers and social care
officers as they were extremely busy during the pandemic and also there seems to be
general apathy when it comes to research within the social work field. The pandemic also
led to social distancing and because of this the work of care takers and social workers was
also increased. Along with this I can understand the time constraints and the high workload.
Research is not at the forefront worker’s minds. Staff shortages hampered recruitment and
Covid restrictions restricted time I could spend at the care homes and the number of times I
could visit and this affected the time to spend with the participant and it might have
affected the gathering of the data to a great extent.
Despite this, I managed to recruit 20 workers in total, 16 social workers and 4 social care
officers. I was glad I managed to recruit from all areas including one social worker from the
hospital team.
Care home workers
It was a challenge recruiting participants from care homes. The main difficulty was
identifying care homes who were interested to participate in the research project. Before
the Covid pandemic I had approached a few care home managers and discussed my project
and was generally met with enthusiasm. However, after Covid 19 hit, most care homes were
prioritising Covid 19 restrictions and the need to safeguard their residents and minimise risk
of infection. I sent out information packs to care homes by email and followed this up with
phone calls. This was how I managed to recruit the 3 care homes who were involved.
Care home number 1 had retained their interest and they allowed me to complete my
research as soon as there was a window of opportunity to do so. All of the managers at

these care homes were very interested in research as a way to develop service
improvements. The managers helped to recruit as they shared the information that I had
sent to them with their carers. With this the researcher was able to manage the recruitment
of 8 workers form the care game 1 which included 4 managers and 4 carers. Further from
care home 2 total of 5 workers were selected which included 2 managers, 1 senior carers
and 2 other carers. Along with this the care home 3 involved the recruitment of total of 3
people that is 2 managers and 1 senior carer.
I also managed to recruit 2 agency workers who worked in the Sandwell borough care
homes before and during the pandemic, (1 agency nurse and 1 carer). Therefore, for care
homes, I had a total of 20 interviews which were all completed face to face online.
Semi-structured interviews /Unstructured interviews
I developed my interview guide after I analysed the assessments and support plans for
Sandwell Council workers and after I viewed and analysed the care plans at care homes. The
document analysis gave me an overview of the subject at hand and what I needed to ask in
interviews.
Initially, I used semi-structured interviews for Sandwell Council social workers and social
care officers. I also used semi-structured interviews for care home workers, carers , senior
manages and senior carers had very different levels of experience. The interviews then
became more unstructured and this allowed me to explore more (Silverman 2000).
Reflecting on the first interviews I did with ??? made me change from doing semi-structured
interviews to doing more unstructured interviews when I interviewed care workers. As a
novice researcher I initially felt that semi-structured interviews would help me keep on track
of my interview and support me to to answer the research questions. I was afraid I would
end up with so much data that was not related to my research. The semi-structured
interviews was selected because it allowed me to be flexible and the questions did allow
participants to narrate their experiences as social workers, social care officers and care
home workers.
. and I was able to gather some information to help me address my research questions
(Rubin& Rubin 2012).

I managed to interview 20 workers from Sandwell Council. I completed 18 first interviews on
Microsoft teams and 2 on the telephone. I also completed 7 follow-up interviews on the
phone. Second interviews were conducted to clarify some issues raised in the first interview
and ask follow up questions that I had identified after the first interview. I completed the 2
first telephone interviews because Micro-soft was not working on this day and the
participants suggested telephone interviewing. I found the telephone interviews limited as I
could not see the person’s facial expression although I did not struggle to build rapport with
the two participants because I had worked with them and they were aware of my project. I
used telephone interviews for second interviews I had because it was easier than to try and
make appointments for interviews because social workers and social care officers are
pressed for time and research is not considered important.
Below are the main questions that I asked social care workers and social care workers from
Sandwell Council:
1. Please can you tell me a bit about your personal experience of being a social
worker/social care officer
2. Is religion /spiritually important to in your own life and in your social work practice?
3. Please tell me about two recent assessments you completed where you placed
citizens in care placements.
4. As social care officers/social workers, are there issues about asking citizens about
their religion/spirituality?
5. Do you think religion/spirituality is important when assessing?
6. How do you think we can integrate religion/spirituality in training and practice.?
These were questions acted as a guide and in some cases I did not have to ask as
participants covered some of the questions without being prompted. Interviews for
Sandwell Council workers were completed on Microsoft teams because we were in
lockdown due to Covid 19 pandemic restrictions. For us as social workers the whole service
was moved from a face to face entity to a digital process. Although we had Skype for years
Microsoft teams was a new system for us all and we were learning to be confident with the
system, completing assessments, reviews, conducting meetings on the system and so on.

Participants were not so confident that the system will maintain their confidentiality
especially when it came to recording their interviews. There was this mistrust that the
interviews may be accessed by other workers in the teams through Microsoft teams. I had
to reassure some participants that the recording would only come to me and I will be the
one to listen and view it. There was also a fear that what we discussed may be shared with
senior managers and I had to reassure them and inform them that my project was an
independent project which was not funded by Sandwell Council. However, as a senior
employee of Sandwell Council it was very difficult when I started to undertake interviews
because I had to try and step out of my usual management role and adopt the research
which can have both the positive and negative impact. This was challenging and through
reflexivity and supervision this was discussed often and I tried to improve. To me this proved
that one cannot be an outsider if you are working in the field and one will always be an
insider to some degree.
As I was a manager in one of the teams, I was acutely aware of the power that comes with
the role. I explained that I was an independent researcher and what we discussed would not
impact on my assessment of their work but I was always conscious that workers may not
feel able to say some things that they may wish to state that whether they are correct or
not. Although as a manager, I to integrate with the workers who are the best employees and
there is always that latent divide that we do not talk about freely and I was very aware of
that. I was aware of the Hawthorne effect, as workers at care homes may behave differently
when I interviewed them, as to what they might be like in practice when I am not there
(Adair, 1984). I was concerned that workers may tell me what they thought I wished to hear,
or what would put them in a good light, especially as they knew I believed in the importance
of integrating religion and spirituality ....... This was addressed, to some degree, by viewing
and examining the care plans, although these are also constructed…. . the managers can
use this in order to make the changes in better and effective manner and can be used in
better manner for the effective working of the company. This is one disadvantage of being
an insider although the advantages seem to outweigh the negatives. The advantage of this
study for the Sandwell council is that they will be in better positon to meet the requirement
and taking proper care of the elder people. This will be assisting the Sandwell council in

taking better care for the elder patient and by keeping a proper check of the religious and
spiritual requirement within the council in proper and effective manner.
For care homes staff I asked slightly different questions and did not really stick to the guide.
There was more room for participants to lead and I would ask follow up questions based on
their answers and discussion. I would prompt if some areas were not covered. Questions
flowed form from the conversations. Below are some of the questions I asked workers from
care homes.
1 How did you come to be in the social care business?
2 How do you prepare care plans? (for managers and senior carers)
3. How do you incorporate religion/spirituality in care plans? (managers and senior carers)
4. How do you support citizens in your care to maintain their religion and spirituality?
Interviews at care homes were completed face to face online through Microsoft following a
window period which allowed us to visit care homes. The managers of the care homes asked
me to visit before another lockdown. This is because of the reason that preferred the face
to face interviews than the Microsoft Teams interviews because I felt it was more human
and natural. In case the lockdown occurs again then this will again affect the face to face
interview. Due to covid restrictions we maintained the regulated two-meter distance
between us and we both wore masks which were mandatory at the time…. However, I could
not see the facial reactions well due to the masks but this could be avoided as the interview
were taking place on Microsoft.
At care home 1, I was given a room where interviews took place and those who had agreed
and consented to be interviewed were called in by the manager or deputy at the care home.
Like in all busy care homes, there were a few disturbances such as residents walking into the
room or having to attend to an emergency. Care homes were very short staffed this time,
more so than usual, and therefore time for interviews was limited but I was grateful to have
a chance to complete interviews which had been delayed, due to covid. At care home

number 2 I was given a quietish corner in the main lounge to conduct the interviews and not
any other people. Similar to care home 1 we did have a few stoppages during some
interviews due to residents coming to where we were and attending to some emergencies. I
did my best to record the interviews and my views relating to the research topic have been
cleared. At care home 3 interviews were conducted in the manager’s office…. And this is
used in order to evaluate the working of the research and to clear the issues relating to the
use of religion and spiritual involvement in taking care of the elder patient.
From care home interviews I learnt how important place is to a successful interview and
how important it is to reflect after every interview and examine if there are ways of
improving, for example interview questions, techniques of interviewing and deciding on the
interview venue for future interviews (Hand 2003; Mann 2016, Rubin& Rubin 2012). The
place of the research makes a wider difference in the interview because of the reason that it
will be affecting the efficiency of the data to be gathered and will be improving the
efficiency of the research in better and effective manner.
For example,…re: place….
In another example, whilst most care workers in care homes seemed comfortable being
interviewed, I had one case where I struggled to get anything from the young carer where
the person was not ready to interview in better terms. This was my best interview because it
highlighted my weaknesses as an interviewer and this assisted me to work on improving the
working efficiency. It also made me aware of how I presented myself when interviewing.
Interview 24 presented challenges which showed I was still a novice at the craft of
interviewing. I thought I was more comfortable with interviewing when I completed the care
home interviews by interview 25 proved me wrong. This illustrates the fact that interviewing
is a craft and it takes years to get the things right. But there is not any requirement that the
work will be compelted in perfect manner. Participant 25 was a young White British woman
(18/19yrs) who did not have much experience in social care. The importance of that

interview is in what was not said rather than what was said. As I was interviewing her, she
seemed very uncomfortable being interviewed even though I tried to make her feel
comfortable. I wondered if it was because of my age and race. This was a young lady of 19,
new to care being interviewed by a 56 year old black woman. First, I wondered if she was
not used to black people but I soon discarded that idea because her mentor at the care
home was a young black woman and I had seen them interacting comfortably. I learnt a lot
from that interview. The major learning from the interview was about the weakness which I
have as an interviewer and this will help me to develop the skills in better manner and this
will be improving the efficiency to conduct the research in better and effective manner. Also
I learnt that how the working can be improved and data can be gathered in proper and
effective manner.
When interviewing managers, deputy managers and senior carers I felt there were times
they were telling me what they thought I needed to hear. The senior carer are selected
because they have more experience as compared to junior carer. As a manager in social
work , and having been in the safeguarding team for a year during Covid 19 that did not
work out well for me when it came to care home interviews. For instance, within the
interview it was evaluated that working in care home is essential as it works in direction to
improve the status of the elder people with respect to the religion and spiritual
requirement. I think I would have gathered more information if I was not in social work. This
is a time I wished I was not an insider. This is because of the reason that insiders know more
for the care home and this improves the efficiency of the business and research is
completed in much better manner.
3.8.1.Transcription:
Interviews were recorded and transcribed. At first, I used Otter.ai which is an online meeting
platform to transcribe but I felt the transcriptions went vey accurate d And I had to go
through each interview twice and transcribe them myself (Braun & Clark 2006). Even after
transcribing the interviews myself, I felt the interviews lost some parts because I couldn’t
really capture the silences and other more personal non-verbal interactions. Audio
recording loses the non-verbal aspects of the conversation which Gillham refers to ‘de-
natured’ (Gillham 2009:88). This is because the conversation loses its tone, pace and
emphasis (Gillham 2009). I did go through a few interviews with the participants to ensure I

had captured what they had said. Doing the first few transcripts from Sandwell Council
workers gave me an indication of what was to come in future interviews. I also realised that
as I transcribed it was the beginning of data analysis.
Self Interview
The idea of doing a self interview came about through supervision when we decided that it
would help enhance my data as I have insider knowledge in the field as a social worker,
manager and as a carer. Doing this interview, and drawing on auto-ethnographical methods,
made me consider the benefits and limitations of insider and outsider perspectives and
knowledge between practice and constraint as posited by Adam et al. (2015) in their book
on Autho-ethnography. This difference between the practice and constraint means the
deviation between the practices which are going on and the different constraint which
affects the successful implementation of the practices.
After agreeing to complete a self-interview I felt better about my research as I was
acknowledging that I was part of the field I was researching and I was not trying to be a
neutral researcher. Up to that time, I was not aware that telling my story could be a
research method that could be relevant to my research project. Discussions in supervision
and reading about autoethnography (e.g. Admans et al. 2015) helped me to realise that it
was important to locate myself more explicitly in the field I was researching and use my own
experience as additional ‘data’. Whilst my story is not unique, it helped me to identify
myself in the project by letting me express myself thereby enhancing my social identity
( Adams et.al 2015). This simply means that the analysis of the story helped in evaluating the
identity being present and is useful in improving the efficiency of the data and theoretical
knowledge as well. ‘Adams et al 2015 stated that ‘If our desire is to research social life , then
we must embrace a research method that to the best of its/our ability acknowledges and
accommodates mess and chaos, uncertainty and emotion’ (Adams et al 2015:9). As a novice
researcher, this is a research method that has been both challenging and liberating. Doing
the interview was a challenge as it did raise some mixed emotions, but on the whole it

helped me locate myself within the research and it made me realise feel I could be a
researcher with insider information.
My sister interviewed me and we did enjoy the interview as it brought back some childhood
memories, both good and bad. The sister was selected for taking the interview as she knew
my capabilities and the lacking area and this will be assistive in evaluating my actual
performance. My sister was not convinced we were really doing the interview as part of my
thesis as she did not think it was a plausible or acceptable methodology for research. I
found telling my story personal and difficult. I am comfortable talking about politics and
general current affairs and so on but I am not comfortable talking about myself or my
family. Usually, I do not share very personal information with people who do not know me
well, so it was a challenge to talk about my life. In some ways this was made easier for me
because my sister interviewed me. I think I would have found it really hard having this
interview with an independent researcher. I worried that it might be seen as self indulgent
or showing off about myself of my achievement. Even stating I am Christian is not something
I sing on top of roofs because I feel it is my business and I respect other religions so it is not
a big deal to be Christian but I would like my social worker to know that part of me so that I
am supported well if I go to care home. The experience of other social workers were also
included within the study. this was undertaken because the more the experience will be
involved there will be more wider base for the research to attain its objectives and aim
3.5. Ethical Considerations:
Permission to complete project was given by Sandwell Council and I was allowed to
maintain my role as a Sandwell council employee when completing my research. there was
not any requirement of getting UCLan ethics approval as there was not involvement of any
vulnerable people. Thus the Sandwell Council’s Code of Conduct also guided me as I

undertook my research. If I wasn’t a Sandwell Council employee I would not have been able
to carry out this research at the care homes because as social workers we were allowed to
visit care homes.
I gave care home managers information regarding my project
before the interviews and when I visited the care homes I
explained my research project individually to participants to
ensured they agreed and gave informed consent to being
interviewed. Each interview would start by me explaining my
project and discussing consent and if they agreed I would go
ahead with the interview. This will not be affecting the work
because the interview outlined proper steps for the research to
be successful and to be resulting in attainment of the objectvies.
My main concern was that I did not give them enough time to
make their decision to participate or not to after I had explained
to them what my project was about. However, I gave them time
to withdraw if they decided they no longer wanted to be included
in the research and I made it clear that this would not effect their
employment in any way…. .
In a few of the interviews participants got quite upset and emotional and I offered to stop
the interviews. The participants declined to stop and said they were happy to talk about the
issues and wanted to continue the interview. One was talking about the loss of a child, and
another about her father ‘s serious illness. In care homes I had several interviews where
workers were sad about the loss of life at the care home due to Covid 19 . I felt powerless as
I could not adequately support the participants. At the care homes I was able to discuss the
loss of life with managers and I highlighted the sadness that was expressed in interviews.
The permission was taken from the participant by the written consent. I did follow up
interviews with the social workers and the care workers as well to ensure the workers were
fine. It seemed that the research gave participants the chance to talk about their
experiences .I hope the participants talking about their sadness was helped to them. Kitson
et.al (1996: 184) stated that ‘it may be that in giving individuals an opportunity to talk about
their experiences (researchers) perform a welcome service rather than subject them to an
ordeal’ .
For the document analysis, although I had permission to view and examine the documents
from Sandwell Council and from the care homes I felt they did not have the moral authority
to grant that. As a social worker and manager in Sandwell Council social work team I was

given permission to use my role when I went out to complete my research. Although this
gave me easy access to documents and to care homes I felt uncomfortable with the
situation because I felt I was using my privilege as a social worker /manager to gain access
to care homes. Sandwell Council also agreed to take my interviews as Continual
Professional Development (CPD) for those who attended. Although this was no material gain
I felt there was some sort of enticement. The working need to be ethical because it will
result in more accurate and precise outcome and this will be assisting the researcher to
improve the religions and spiritual working among elder people in care home.
Data Analysis
The interpretive research is guided by the view that humans construct their own view of
their world (Shipman 1997). With this in mind, ,interviews and documents were analysed
based on the themes I identified from the data. As such, I mainly used a form of Thematic
analysis. Content analysis was used to identify patterns I identified in the data (Braun &
Clarke 2006; Bryman & Burgess 1994; Paton 2002; Corbin & Strauss 1988; 2002; Rubin &
Rubin 2012) and these patterns were categorised into themes (Paton 2002, Rubin & Rubin
2012; Kumar 2014, Cresswell 2007; Coffey & Atkinson 1967). I also drew upon narrative
analysis when as I was examining the lived experience of social workers, social care workers
and care home workers in relation to their lived experience of their professions. I engaged
the two different concepts to analyse data as the two concepts that is thematic and content
go hand in hand as posited by Cresswell (2007).
I also drew on the idea of triangulation. Triangulation serves two purposes of confirmation
and completeness ( Arskey & Knight 1999; Denzin 1979; Jick 1983). This simply means that
the concept of triangulation includes the two purpose that is make the research confirmed
and complete. This simply implies that the study and the research finding need to be
credible and valid. I tried to blend and integrate the data from the document analysis,
interviews with Sandwell social workers and social care officer and data from interviews
with care home workers, as well as my own self interview to help address the research
questions.
his enhanced and strengthened the research….

It helped to add depth and breadth to understanding the challenges of assessing and
religion/spirituality and the challenges in supporting citizens with religion/spiritual needs in
care homes. It enhanced the credibility of the research as document analysis helped to
understand interviews more and helped me to focus more on the research questions, and
the interviews helped me to make sense of the ducumanrary analylsis. I was protected from
tempting to make inconsistent data artificially compatible to produce a more coherent
account because the documents I analysed had a format which the workers in Sandwell
Council social work teams used and it was the same at care homes.
Whilst I would not claim this research was completed validated by using this method, I did
attempt to increase its validity by using reflexivity and reflection. Reflexivity and reflection
are often used synonymously (Alvesson& Skoldberg 2000), Cousin 2016, Finlay & Gough
2003; Finlay 2000). While declaring that reflexivity and reflection can be used
interchangeably, Finlay (2000), Finlay & Gough (2003) have argued that reflexivity is more
than reflection. It is my opinion that the differences between reflexivity and reflection are
thin as both deal with improvement and development. But the study also highlighted that
there are some differences like the finding of the study might be different from the existing
studies.
Limitations of my research methods
Alvesson & Skoldberg (2000) queried the non-bias of the researcher’s interpretations of the
data. My position in relation to the research was important as I shaped the research and
brought my own values to the research and this position should be examined throughout
the research (Macbeth 2001; Berger 2015). I declared my values as this has an impact on the
data analysis of data collected. In qualitative research validation is difficult to achieve
without considering researcher’s values (Becker 1996, Finlay & Gough 2003). At the centre
of interpretive research is the human subject and there is no agreement on the meanings
that human beings ascribe to things. I tried to be neutral when analysing data although I had
my own preconceptions when I started the research. This is one of the limitations of social
research in general (Shipman 1997).
I think you shouod say alot more here.

I’d spell out your own values in relation to sprituality and religion and how you have tried to
use this as a positive, but it isn’t ‘neutral’ or value free.
Again I’d refer to power issues.
Also not being able to observe practice (partly cos of Covid), or interview clients, and
only relying on what workers say and write in reports. what they say, especially to
someone they might see as senior, or at least a member of the council they work for,
might not accurately mirror what they actually do.