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Ethics are a critical consideration of every social research project (Noyes & Baber, 1999). Ethical issues inevitably arise in all research involving people and should be taken into account in the planning and conducting of any research project (Robson, 2011). Ethical guidelines regulate the behaviour and activities of researchers in all projects in order to protect the rights and well-being of research participants (Layder, 2012). Researchers must be aware of the ethical guidelines relevant to their area of work and, as far as possible, adhere to these (Philips & Pugh, 2000). If for any reason guidelines are deviated from it must be justifiable as imperative to the research purpose and accepted by the appropriate ethical regulatory body (Layder, 2012; Robson, 2011). As a fundamental principle of ethical research, no individual should leave a study in a worse state, mental or physical, than when they started (Noyes & Baber, 1999).

A core principle of ethical guidelines in all manners of research is fully informed consent (Layder, 2012). The participant should always be made aware of what is being asked of them, the purpose of the research and its intended outcome or outputs. This ensures ethical issues of deception and potential harm are minimised or eliminated. As part of the informed consent, participants should be made aware of any potential risks and understand they have the right to withdraw at any stage without question or any repercussions. It would be unethical to impose

psychological barriers to withdrawal mid-study as their involvement may have proved unexpectedly stressful during the course (Robson, 2011). The participant must be provided the opportunity to ask any questions and clarify any aspect of the research with the researcher, prior to agreeing to participate or during the

progress of the research and the participant should not feel any pressure to take part. Consent is obtained by the participant signing a form, which outlines the key points they should be aware of to ensure they understand all aspects.

101 In longitudinal research with a flexible design it is questionable how far the consent obtained initially can be applied, whether it remains valid, as the research develops (Layder, 2012). With changes in methods across the research development, consent should be obtained against each, to ensure that the participants are aware of what is being asked of them in that particular study. Although case-based research, this work also involved a new population of participants per study. Some participants were involved in more than one phase of the research, however, the methods employed changed to best investigate at each phase. Therefore, it adhered to best practise ethical guidelines to provide new information sheets and obtain consent from everyone, at every phase.

As part of the informed consent obtained, participants should be reassured of the confidentiality and anonymity of their participation. Anonymity is the protection of participants’ personal identity. Personal details of the participants should not be made available to anyone outside of the research team and should be protected as far as possible. Pseudonyms, often in the form of a code, are used to replace the participants’ real name and identity to create anonymity; however, data

management becomes imperative to ensure the effectiveness of such a system, Bell (2010) purports. Successfully managing anonymity and data supports the

confidentiality of the research information obtained (Layder, 2012). The assurance of confidentiality and anonymity can be verified by data management techniques such as storing files and information on a password protected computer and keeping paper records in locked cabinets when unattended.

Aside from practical considerations around participant consent, a core principle of ethical research is protecting participants from any undue physical or mental harm. Participants must be treated with consideration and respect, minimising any

intrusion into their privacy, allowing their freedom of choice over how much or little they participate in the research and in fairness with regard to any

compensation or incentives received (Layder, 2012). Participants should be treated equally and not caused any embarrassment; they should not feel pressure to

participate and should be in no way misled over the intention of the research (Layder, 2012).

102 Ethical principles and regulations also serve to protect the safety and well-being of the researcher. Risks for the researcher are particularly problematic when carrying out work with previously unknown people, in difficult environments or investigating sensitive topics (Robson, 2011). The majority of the empirical research for this work was conducted in participants’ homes or unfamiliar locations. For some of the data collection the researcher was chaperoned which reduced any safety risk; however, a proportion of the data collection was conducted alone by the

researcher. Risk in these cases was minimised by ensuring supervisors were aware of the location and times of appointments and contacted after visits. This did not breach confidentiality of the participants’ details as they were kept within the immediate research group. Face-to-face investigations with social housing landlords were not chaperoned. However, this was not deemed a high risk to the researcher, as data collection was carried out in an office at the social housing organisation’s premises or an office at Loughborough University where, in either case, other staff members were in the vicinity. If the researcher felt uncomfortable in any situation, they would end the session prematurely, politely thanking the participant for their time, and leave immediately.

This doctoral research was carried out in compliance with the ethical guidelines of Loughborough University and sought the approval of the Ethics Committee at the university. The participants involved in the research were over 65 years of age, which meant they were within the category of involving vulnerable people in research. As such, a ‘Full Ethical Submission’ was required to satisfy ethical requirements concerning how the research would be managed. This covered the issues outlined above: informed consent, confidentiality and anonymity. In addition, it was required that the researcher had a check carried out by the Criminal

Records Bureau and obtained certification that they posed no risk to the participants. Furthermore, because the majority of the empirical research was carried out in the participant’s own home, a clear plan was outlined for how this would be conducted to protect both the privacy of the participant and the safety and well-being of the researcher. The ethical considerations and practices for each of the phases of research are outlined in each relevant chapter, in chapters 4 to 6.

103 Another aspect to consider regarding ethical practice in research is ethical

responsibility. Researchers need to be aware of their responsibility to report any suspected illegal behaviour or activity observed when carrying out empirical studies to an appropriate authority. In any instance of this occurring, the agreement of participants’ anonymity is negated as this issue takes precedence (Robson, 2011). Similarly, other situations where concern is caused over someone’s physical or mental well-being should be brought to the attention of the researcher’s supervisor or a relevant authoritative figure; for example, if professional misconduct causing grief to another is observed by the researcher (Robson, 2011).

The researcher should also be aware, however, and distinguish between what is actually unethical and what is disturbing or concerning in view of the researcher’s own values and expectations (Robson, 2011). Caution must be exerted in reporting questionably unethical behaviour by seeking the advice of supervisors. The

researcher is not in a position to enforce what constitutes ethical behaviour from their own personal standpoint. Therefore, any potential concerns observed should be discussed with supervisors and reviewed or investigated by a suitable authority. These issues may arise in research such as the studies for this thesis carried out in the home environment, where disparity may be observed in social interactions and behaviours.

It could be argued that there are ethical issues to consider in this work beyond practical research ethics. When carrying out work that potentially may redesign a service or change an organisation’s operations, this may impact various aspects of an organisation and this impact could be negative. For instance, in designing services for improved user experience, if this involves streamlining processes, it should be taken into consideration whether this will ‘design out’ someone’s role. Ethically, the impact of the research in the broader social context should be considered

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Phase 1: Exploration

To achieve the overall goal of this research, an assessment of the current services across social housing organisations of installing heat pumps into their properties was needed to form a foundation of understanding. The first research question of this thesis is:

 What lessons can be learnt from previous experiences when retrofitting heat pumps into social housing properties?

The answer to this research question could be partially informed through a review of literature, the first objective of this thesis, the results of which have been

presented in chapter 2. This doctoral research aimed to apply a user-centred design approach to the heat pump installation service, following the research design

described in chapter 3. The first stage of the user-centred design framework is to ‘understand and specify the context of use’, through the involvement of users. An initial research study was conducted to obtain the perspectives of both the service providers (landlords) and the service recipients (tenants) of heat pump installations, to explore and develop a deeper, contextual understanding of the service delivery and users’ experiences of heat pump installations. The insights gathered from the exploratory empirical research led to the fulfilment of the second stage of the user- centred design framework, to specify the user and organisational requirements. To inform this research, the requirements were focused around any potential

improvements that could be made to the service.

The following diagram, Figure 14, is a depiction of how this exploration phase of the research applies to deliver the first two stages of the user-centred design approach, as described above.

105 Figure 14: Exploration phase of the UCD approach

The existing literature in this area surveyed and presented in chapter 2 indicated that people’s understanding about the system when having a heat pump installed is an issue and related to this may be the information that they are provided. A more detailed investigation is needed to explore these issues further and identify any other related issues: positive or negative experiences and where improvements could be made to the installation service.