Did you know that the average household throws away £60 worth of food every month? Or that recycling one banana peel can generate enough energy to charge two mobile phones? Food waste is a big problem for the planet, for Essex, and for our residents. To help inform a county-wide campaign, we set out to explore behaviours around food waste using an online research community approach.
Over the last year or so our team has carried out research around Covid-19, mental health, financial struggles, women’s safety and domestic abuse among other things. This has involved participants discussing past traumas and difficult periods they have experienced, which can leave us as researchers often dwelling on those conversations long after they have taken place...
In September 2020 we started on our journey to explore families' views of the current Short Breaks service. Our brief was to see how current services were meeting the needs of children with disabilities, and what services might look like in the future.
Soon after lockdown began, we started thinking about how best to find out about the needs and experiences of our residents through the pandemic. With face-to-face research out of the question, we pondered how best to undertake qualitative research with residents...
Is it okay if I work from home today, I have a sofa being delivered? Can I work from home for 3 months because of a global pandemic?...
The research team within ECC have had to adapt like all other ECC functions and utilise the technology that would never have been thought about previously, and the ways of a researcher have had to adapt faster to this at an unnerving pace.