METHODOLOGY The study was grounded in UNHCR’s participatory assessment methodology, and the standards contained within the UNHCR Tool for Participatory Assessment in Operations.44 A participatory assessment is a process of building partnerships with persons of concern, service providers and local government through structured dialogue. This field-tested methodology entails holding separate discussions with different stakeholders, in order to gather accurate information on specific protection and integration concerns and the underlying causes of these, to understand the capacities of those involved and to listen to proposed solutions. Given the participatory nature of the assessment, and the need to promote meaningful dialogue with stakeholders, the primary approach to data collection and analysis was qualitative. INTERVIEWS & INTERVIEWEES From December 2019 to November 2020, 12 individual semi-structured interviews were conducted. Some were conducted in person where the interviewees were living: two at UNHCR’s Recognised Stateless Person photographed in London. © UNHCR/Katie Barlow. offices in London, two in Bradford and one in Wolverhampton. Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, which prevented travel around the country, the remainder were conducted over the phone. The interviews were either conducted in English without an interpreter or with interpreter support for those who spoke Arabic. The interviewees were identified through UNHCR’s routine casework, legal providers who identified former or current clients and through UNHCR’s network of community workers. We sought to interview adults who had ongoing applications in the SDP45 and who had received statelessness leave, ideally within the last three years. UNHCR also ended up interviewing two individuals who currently had applications for asylum as one had strong indicators of statelessness and was considering applying for statelessness leave, and the second had previously applied for statelessness leave. With regard to the latter, it was considered important to hear from those who have been refused statelessness leave but face continuing challenges proving their legal status and in regularising their immigration status in the UK. 44 UNHCR, The UNHCR Tool for Participatory Assessment in Operations, May 2006, available from: www.refworld.org/docid/462df4232.html 45 This refers to those who have made a valid application to the Secretary of State for leave to remain as a stateless person under Part 14 of the Immigration Rules but where a decision has not yet been made by the Home Office. 25