Discover your role: setting up a Public Engagement and Involvement Forum for Wales
Hundreds of people across Wales help make health and social care research happen every week. The support of members of the public is essential in making sure research is well run and ultimately has a positive impact on people’s lives.
People can take part in individual research studies (called ‘participation’) or they can share their personal experiences to help researchers prioritise, design and deliver their research effectively (called ‘involvement’). But before people can get involved or participate, they need to know what research is happening and what role that they can play. Spreading the word about research is called ‘engagement.’
Putting the plan into action
In 2020 Health and Care Research Wales published an action plan which sets out how to improve public involvement and engagement in Welsh health and social care research. This plan, called Discover Your Role in Health and Social Care Research, was created in collaboration with members of the public, researchers and research administrators, and sets out actions to take across seven focus areas.
The first focus area outlines the need for a more coherent network for public involvement discussions where people can share good practice and get support. From this, a plan for setting up a Public Engagement and Involvement Forum for Wales was developed and then explored during a workshop held on 26 January 2021.
During this online workshop, many different individuals came together to discuss how the Forum could work. Overall, there was strong support for the Forum and for the proposed model of three events a year, underpinned by the creation of smaller groups of ‘working parties’ to address key priorities. It was agreed that the Forum should be open to anybody who wants to take part and though meetings will initially be held virtually, in the future there will be a mix of online and face-to-face events.
Finding solutions together
Soo Vinnicombe, Research Officer and Patient and Public Involvement lead at the National Centre for Population Health and Wellbeing Research, based at Bangor University, attended the workshop meeting on 26 January. She said:
“We hope that the Forum will provide us with opportunities to work more collaboratively to increase public involvement across Wales and improve the experience for people. Moving events and meetings online during this pandemic has created opportunities for some members of the public to be involved in research, but for others who don’t have access to a laptop at home or have issues connecting to the internet, it has presented more barriers.
“It’s very important that public involvement in research is open to everyone. The more inclusive research is, the more impact it will have. Through the Forum we want to explore the barriers for people getting involved in research more widely and work together to find the best solutions. The research process can often be quite rushed, so being prepared to act quickly is key. The Forum is a positive step towards this and it will be interesting to see how it develops in 2021.”
Bringing involvement in research to life
It is important that the Forum engages with as many people as possible and brings involvement in research to life. This includes hearing from different voices, both members of the public and researchers, about their experiences of public involvement.
If you would like to know more about the next steps for the Public Engagement and Involvement Forum please read the Summary of Discussion document.
You can also explore the proposal briefing pack.
Keep up to date with public involvement opportunities and events in Wales by signing up to our weekly ‘Today's Research’ bulletin.
Want to learn more about public involvement? Find out how you can help with research. Work in research? Read our support and guidance.
First published: 18 February 2021