Co-production · Lambeth Community Research Network: High Trees, IRMO, Stockwell Partnership and other LRCN partners
Community-Based Ethics Review for Lambeth
““Community research doesn’t have to be amateur.” - community workshop participant”
The challenge
Community organisations needed ethical scrutiny that reflected community priorities, not just university rules
More community organisations are carrying out research, evaluation and evidence work, but many cannot access university ethics committees. Standard ethics frameworks also tend to concentrate on individual consent, confidentiality and immediate risk while giving less attention to community ownership, cultural context, extractive relationships, social change, research quality and what happens after researchers leave.
What we did
Five Lambeth organisations and community researchers co-designed values, review questions and an ethics pathway
Open Routes Research combined a short evidence review with a series of participatory workshops involving LCRN steering-group members, young peer researchers and Latin American community participants. Workshops explored what ethical community research should protect and enable, including community benefit, inclusion, quality, accountability and ownership. We then translated those discussions into a practical ethics checklist, a fuller application form, principles and a review process for projects seeking to work with LCRN communities.
What changed
LCRN gained a practical route for reviewing research through community expertise
The resulting pathway gives community partners a formal role in asking why research is being done, how people will benefit, whether methods fit community realities, how findings will return to participants and what risks exist at a collective level. It positions ethics review as the beginning of a relationship and dialogue with researchers, while also insisting that community-led research can and should meet high standards of quality.
More info on our process here: Developing a community research ethics framework for Lambeth | Lambeth Community Research Network
Outputs
Community-Based Ethics Review report; ethics checklist; full community ethics application; community research ethics principles; LCRN review pathway