This guide and a diagram for adults and another for young people have been developed by public contributors. They are intended to help you engage with public contributors during all stages of your research project.
Involving public contributors helps ensure that your project is ethical, democratic and practical. It requires a thoughtful and structured approach. We at the National Institute for Health and Care Research Applied Research Collaboration West (NIHR ARC West) are very proud to have a diverse and experienced group of public contributors who are available to support and inform research projects throughout the region. This includes a young people’s advisory group (YPAG) and local groups involving people from ethnically diverse communities. We would welcome more contributors from under-served groups.
It is important that public contributors are drawn from all quarters of our society. Age, disability, ethnicity, gender, language and cultural considerations or lack of access to digital platforms should not inhibit engagement. However, we know that many people face barriers to involvement in health and care research, and we must work together to remove these.
Many public contributors have a varied and extensive lived experience as citizens, patients, carers and some have also worked within the NHS as healthcare professionals or managers, so they bring with them knowledge and insight which should be very useful.
One of the main advantages of engaging with public contributors is that they are not entirely focussed on the academic research process, so they have a complementary perspective that helps improve the quality of health and social care research. They want to understand how such research might benefit patients and society at large, as well as represent value for money. They are particularly keen to see good research outcomes implemented and this should form part of your early discussions with them.
When you invite a public contributor to work with you on a research project it is helpful to decide together what their contribution should be – how much or how little involvement is required, when it starts and when it concludes. It is important not to see this as a “tick box exercise” but a real opportunity to gain another perspective. To enable people to contribute effectively, ensure you ask them about any individual needs they may have which will enable them to participate fully.
Let public contributors know what you want them to review or feedback on and invite them to identify areas where they can support the research. Let them know if they have made a difference or informed your research in a new way. In a 2021 NIHR survey of public contributors, while most contributors welcomed the opportunity to be involved and 79% stated that they were satisfied or very satisfied with their involvement, some “stated that they did not receive feedback, (or) rarely got opportunities to give feedback.”
Find out more about NIHR’s work on embedding public involvement:
To support you with your public involvement practices, there are various resources and guidance available, including: