#MRSPride Speaker Evening: Understanding the experiences of LGBT NEETs

Research by BritainThinks has become the first of its kind to examine the specific experiences and challenges faced by LGBT young people not in education, employment or training (NEET).

Holly Wicks, Director, and Rowan Douglas, Senior Research Executive, BritainThinks; and Josh Bradlow, Head of Policy, Stonewall reveal how this study conducted for Stonewall explored both the challenges faced by this hard-to-reach group and how to address them through positive interventions.

What you’ll learn:

• A rich ethnographic study, both exploratory and strategic in nature, that has led to the formulation of tangible interventions 
• Why representation of the entire LGBT community in research is crucial –an opportunity to hear the voices of trans and non-binary participants and how to work sensitively with this audience
• Experiences of recruiting 16-24 year-old LGBT NEETs and ensuring diverse representation of different identities within this group; for example BAME people, disabled people and those with long term health conditions
• Best practice in working with vulnerable young people experiencing multiple complex challenges; including how to help participants feel comfortable talking about difficult experiences and personal aspects of their identity and history

Eleven per cent of 16-24 year-olds in Britain today are NEET: not in education, employment or training. Yet until recently, no research had ever been conducted into the experiences of the LGBT young people within this group. The study by BritainThinks for LGBT rights organisation Stonewall is the first of its kind to uncover the specific experiences of this group, exploring the factors that lead some LGBT young people to find themselves with NEET status as well as the barriers faced by those young people seeking to re-enter employment, education or training.

To ensure diverse representation of LGBT young people, the study used a flexible and creative recruitment process, working with traditional recruiters, community support organisations, LGBT young people themselves and businesses catering to the LGBT community. 

The initial scoping phase involved in-depth interviews with 18 LGBT and four non-LGBT NEET young people, which provided a rich insight into the challenges that some face and how these contribute to their NEET status.

This was followed by a development phase using a co-creative workshop to explore how those challenges could be addressed through interventions by key stakeholders – such as schools, colleges, workplaces, the Government and local authorities – as well as how the participants responded to these potential interventions.

In our #MRSPride Speaker Evening, we hear the findings of this important study, as well as reflections and learnings about recruiting and undertaking sensitive research with this particularly hard-to-reach and, in many cases, vulnerable audience.

About the speakers:

Holly Wicks is a Director at BritainThinks, with particular expertise in arts, culture, education and sports research for clients such as Arts Council England, Universities UK, Teach First and the Jockey Club. Holly joined BritainThinks in 2017 from ComRes, where she led the public sector and social research team.

Rowan Douglas is a Senior Research Executive at BritainThinks, with particular interest and expertise in health and social care research and working with hard-to-reach audiences, for clients including the Department for Health and Social Care, the British Lung Foundation, Barnardo’s and the Health Foundation.

Josh Bradlow is Head of Policy at Stonewall. He joined in 2016 from Cancer Research UK and has contributed to and led numerous reports at Stonewall, as well as writing for the Huffington Post and working with the Resolution Foundation as part of UCL’s Grand Challenges of Justice and Equality.

Booking will open 6 weeks before the event takes place.