Resources launched for co-producing health and social care research

New resources and training have been developed by members of the public who have been involved in the co-production of research, alongside researchers and a public involvement lead from the National Institute for Health and Care Research Applied Research Collaboration West (NIHR ARC West).

Co-producing research is when researchers, practitioners and members of the public collaborate to develop research. The new resources are designed to support more equal relationships between everyone involved in co-producing research.

Researchers worked together with people who have been involved in co-production to jointly create:

• reflective questions to help everyone think about how they can work with people more equally through a process of co-produced research
• a map of resources to guide researchers, professionals and public contributors through the different tools and guidance that can help people produce research together
• a training course ‘Co-production in health and social care research’. The next training date will be on Wednesday 13 May 2020 – sign up to attend. Feedback from previous course participants includes: “I’m inspired to look at working in co-production projects – I like the creativity and more egalitarian approach to creating knowledge”; “Overall was excellent”; “I feel inspired just to try something”.

One of the aims of co-production is to get everyone to work together in more equal partnerships and share responsibility and power throughout the research project. However, there are many factors that affect how people work together, such as hierarchies in universities and in the NHS, unfair treatment of people and unequal distribution of wealth.

Dr Michelle Farr, one of the researchers involved, said:

“We hope that these reflective questions, map of resources and training can help everyone think about how they can work more collaboratively with members of the public through their health and social care research.”