What are we trying to do?
This project aims to explore public views of the terms ‘Neighbourhood Health Service’ and ‘family doctor’, which are concepts central to the new NHS reforms. 

 

We will also:

 

• Evaluate a new participatory role for public contributors as peer co-researchers, to help design and deliver a survey to gather these views.
• Reflect on how public contributors can move beyond advisory roles to actively shape and do research.
• Explore the value of peer co-research delivered surveys by comparing the survey sample diversity with other established survey methods.

 

 

Why is this important?
It is important that the public understand and know what to expect from new NHS reforms. If policy language is not clear, the public may have different expectations to what is delivered. This can lead to mistrust and dissatisfaction.

 

One way to check understanding is through public consultations, but these often fail to engage diverse communities, who might all have different views.

 

This project aims to address the gap by doing public consultation differently by working with peer co-researchers and focusing on equality, diversity, and inclusion. 

 

 

How are we doing it?
Using a participatory action research approach, we are bringing together established public contributors from a) PRIMER (Primary care Research in Manchester Engagement Resource), b) NIHR GM PSRC (Greater Manchester Patient Safety Research Collaboration), and c) our own, NIHR ARC-GM PCIE Panel to design, conduct, and analyse the results of the survey and reflect on the strengths and challenges of the new peer co-researcher role.

 

We are using a seven step approach:

 

1. Workshop - Understanding public contributor roles (identification).
2. Workshop - Co-designing the survey (planning).
3. Workshop - Training for delivering the survey (planning).
4. Conducting a survey (action).
5. Workshop - Survey data analysis (evaluation and reflection).
6. Navigating university bureaucracy (reflection).
7. Workshop - Making sense of the process (reflection).

 

 

Who are we working with?

• PRIMER (Primary care Research in Manchester Engagement Resource),
• NIHR GM PSRC (Greater Manchester Patient Safety Research Collaboration),
• NIHR ARC-GM PCIE Panel
• NIHR ARC-GM Community Research Champions (CRCs).
• VCFSE (Voluntary, Community, Faith, and Social Enterprise) organisations such as Awakening Minds and Wai Yin Society.
• University of Manchester researchers and managers supporting these groups.

 

 

More information

 

 

Programme Manager

 

Alison Littlewood

alison.j.littlewood@manchester.ac.uk