Getting children and young people’s voices heard in Bristol
27 November 2015
Children and young people are often under-represented in consultation exercises. Earlier in 2015, Bristol was in danger of losing two projects that involved children and young people (CYP) in health research. Bristol Health Partners stepped in to provide direct support, through Patient and Public Involvement Facilitator, Mike Bell. Mike is part of the People in Health West of England team, which offers patient and public involvement strategy, support and advice to CLAHRC West and other partners. Mike’s first task was to find out what groups existed and then to identify ways of working together to ensure they were all viable.
One such group is the Bristol Young Person’s Advisory Group (YPAG) based at the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children, part of the national Generation R project. The group is made up of young people aged between 11 and 17 who meet during holidays and half term breaks to help health researchers with their projects by offering critical evaluation of research ideas, information and methodology.
Another group meets regularly during lunch times at Redland Green School. The group is made up of year 12 students with an interest in research. Over a 15 week period, the students are taught research methods by Claire Novak, a Research Fellow at the Centre for Child and Adolescent Health at the University of Bristol. They are supported in undertaking a research project of their own design which they eventually present to the university staff. In return, they make themselves available to researchers who need advice and evaluation of their projects. Claire and Mike are trying to identify a school to provide a similar cohort of year nine students.
The last group is the Young Healthwatch Young People’s Reference Group. They have played a pivotal role in advising the Bristol Clinical Commissioning Group on the re-commissioning of children’s community health services, are aged 11-25 and meet regularly in central Bristol.
This means that CLAHRC West can draw on these valuable groups to make sure children and young people’s voices are represented in its research.