Data for this study were collected, both remotely and in-person, by two female researchers, MG and FW, who are both experienced in conducting qualitative research with culturally and ethnically diverse communities. Interviews were conducted between May and July 2021, and hence, at the time of data collection participants had endured three national lockdowns, and those from Leicester had experienced additional regional lockdowns between the second and third national lockdowns. Interested participants gave consent online or on paper, and filled in a short demographic questionnaire, which included information on age, sex, ethnicity, qualification, employment status, job role (if employed), home postcode and country of birth. Participants were invited to take part in a one-to-one interview, which was conducted in English and was either through Microsoft Teams, or over the telephone or in-person. Participants were offered the choice of mode that they would prefer to be interviewed and while the majority of interviews were conducted online, some participants also opted to be interviewed telephonically or face-to-face. Although we did not perceive any major differences in the data collected through the three different modes, in retrospect, the telephonic ones probably took longer to establish the initial rapport as non-verbal cues such as smiles and nods could not be exchanged with participants. Despite this limitation, in all the modes, both the interviewers used vocables such as ‘uh-huh’ or where required probed and offered gentle encouragement to demonstrate their involvement and interest which helped with the flow of the discussions.
The topic guide was designed to explore individuals’ experiences of the pandemic with opportunities to probe in-depth about their economic, social and cultural contexts (see online supplemental file 1). The topic guide was developed from prompts in the literature, and also informed by the research team’s ongoing as well as past engagements with some of these communities. Interviews lasted for 45–60 mins, and participants were given shopping vouchers as a token of appreciation. Interviews were recorded with prior permission and recordings were transcribed by professional transcribers, and transcripts were checked for accuracy by the research team.