The research, carried out from May to October 2006, aimed to evaluate the Forum as a model of good practice for multi-agency partnerships in other cities and regions in EU member states. The research employed an inductive qualitative approach to attempt to gain an in-depth insight into the perceptions of the respondents about the operation and impact of the Forum. Conversational interviews were carried out with 26 respondents who included 16 Forum members and 10 respondents drawn from five different London boroughs. The interviews (with one conducted by telephone) ranged in length from 20 minutes in one case to 75 minutes in another. To facilitate an open discussion in the interviews all respondents were given a guarantee of anonymity in that none of the words they used would be attributed to identifiable people directly by name or indirectly by other means such as identifying their organisational affiliation and position. A participant observation exercise was also carried out in two of the presentation meetings of the Forum. The research used a number of elements of a grounded theory approach to data collection and analysis:

• • Analytic induction: themes and issues were derived inductively from the data. Given the resource constraints on the research the data were interrogated broadly, rather than minutely.

• • Theoretical sampling: themes and issues drove the data collection in terms of the research participants and the lines of inquiry pursued.

• • Flexibility: because the lines of inquiry emerged and developed in the course of data collection no two interviews were the same in respect of the questions asked. Each respondent therefore constituted one piece of a jigsaw put together to represent the work of the Forum as presented in Chapter Five of this book.

• • Data analysis went hand-in-hand with data collection: and the relevant literature was also consulted as lines of inquiry emerged. The research therefore involved an iterative process of movement between data, analysis, and literature.

A presentation of the research findings was made to a meeting of the Forum in August 2006 and the research evolved in response to feedback at that meeting and further discussion at a subsequent meeting. Following the production of the final report a sub-group of the Forum was established to take forward matters illuminated by the research.