VOICES Project- Children’s Views
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Voices Project- Children’s Views. Voices of children in critical care settings. A qualitative study
IRAS ID
184427
Contact name
Kerry Woolfall
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Liverpool
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 9 months, 31 days
Research summary
Research without prior consent (also called deferred consent) is a method used to involve very sick people, including children, into research studies. \n\nIt means that a child is automatically included in the study and given emergency treatment, and then after the emergency situation, a doctor or nurse will ask parents if it is ok to use information they have collected about their child. They will also ask parents if they want their child to continue to be in the study. If a child is feeling better they should be involved in this discussion. \n\nResearch without prior consent is used to help find the best treatments for very sick children.\n \nIn one of the first UK trials to use research without prior consent called the Catheter infections in Children Trial (CATCH), children were almost never involved in decisions about the research - only 3 children were asked out of 1485 children involved to the trial. This is because children were too young or too poorly to be involved in research discussions.\n \nWe want to find out what children think about research without prior consent and find ways of involving children in decisions about research in the future. We will conduct interviews and focus groups to explore children and young people’s views on:\n- being involved in research without being told about it first;\n- whether research without prior consent is ok in some situations like in an emergency; \n- the best way to involve CYP in this type of research;\n- what problems there might be in doing this type of research;\n- how do the CYP feel about their parents agreeing to the trial on their behalf. \n\nWe aim to involve 15-25 children from across the UK recruited through clinics at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Facebook adverts and the NIHR Children: Young Persons’ Advisory Group.
REC name
North West - Liverpool Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/NW/0915
Date of REC Opinion
7 Dec 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion