CRN Greater Manchester Core team blog series: Workforce, Learning and Development Team - Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement
As part of upholding our agreed team values, it's encouraged for everyone to play a role in engaging with the public through our day to day role or through additional opportunities such as research festivals and international celebration days.
In addition, the CRN Performance Operating Framework and resulting Contract Support Pages for Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) require some core PPIE function within each LCRN team.
It's been a whole year since the workforce team absorbed these PPIE activities for CRN GM into its remit. In that time, we've taken stock of what the LCRN contractual requirements are and turned that into a PPIE function that is shared across the team, so that on any day we can be having a mixture of training, workforce and PPIE conversations.
For LCRNs, our focus on PPIE for research delivery is very nuanced as other teams specialising in PPIE focus across the research cycle. The specific workstreams we must support as a LCRN are
- Participant in Research Experience Survey (PRES) - led locally by Martin Occleston, Learning Technologist
- Research Ready Communities - led locally by Mary Speake, Workforce, Learning and Development Lead
- Public Research Champions - led locally by Seonaid Beddows, Workforce, Learning and Development Manager
Having a shared action plan ensures we’re moving towards our PPIE objectives, plus we report to the NIHR CRN Coordinating Centre twice per year on these workstreams specifically, plus questions related to how the whole team are engaging with members of the public, community groups and organisations. Our first report for 2023-24 is on the horizon, so we’ll be sharing the working document soon with team leads for shared input to demonstrate the breadth and depth of PPIE activities across the GM team.
Back in August, we also reported to our Partnership Board.
Did you know?
To give context on the direction of travel for PPIE:
PPIE is one of the NIHR’s six core work streams as outlined in the Best Research for Best Health: The Next Chapter strategy.
The CQC Assessment framework, Well-Led Section (W2.3 & 2.5; W3.2; W7.1&7.2; W7.5) has clear requirements for NHS departments to engage with service users across a range of activities from decision-making to shaping future services. From a research delivery perspective, all provider partner organisations in receipt of NIHR CRN infrastructure funding and support services have a responsibility to ensure they are considering PPIE and how this applies to research delivery in their organisation.
To support this objective, we will shortly be creating a Community of Practice for our Partners to exchange knowledge and understanding around research delivery PPIE.
That the NIHR PPIE infrastructure are working together in delivery of some shared objectives via a funding stream known as REND? The Phase 1 REND work is now leading to the planning of Phase 2 which will run until March 2024. Some of the work we will be supporting in this period will be around connecting up parts of the GM systems related to health and care - and research.
Food for thought?
Hopefully this gives you some insight into our PPIE responsibilities, how we meet them and how we’re starting to scope out what’s important to understand and include in this part of our service.
Please get in touch if you feel there’s more you need to know or you wish to collaborate.
Our shared inbox is learning.lcrnsnorthwest@nihr.ac.uk
Mary Speake
Workforce, Learning and Development Lead
October 2023
The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.
