19 Dec Finding islands of good practice: a public involvement travel guide
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19 December 2023
Finding islands of good practice: a public involvement travel guide
In this blog Mary Newburn and Naomi Morley, both passionate advocates for public involvement, discuss a mini-series of co-designed webinars aimed at people interested in public involvement in research and services. They discuss how the mini-series came about, its aims and the ideas explored. The webinars were funded by the NIHR’s Children’s Health and Maternity programme.
 Mary Newburn Patient and public involvement lead, maternity and perinatal mental health theme, NIHR ARC South London |
NM
Research associate in the NIHR ARC South West Peninsula patient and public involvement team |
How the mini-series came about
Mary
I got in touch with Naomi particularly wanting to focus on how we could further service user leadership in public involvement in research. Several women involved in maternity services advocacy from a service user perspective are now working in research involvement. We want to have better infrastructure to enable people who come to research that way to be able to influence how public involvement is done, and to be confident and competent co-applicants, public involvement leaders, and mentors.
I came to Naomi directly after the ARC South London maternity and perinatal mental health annual public involvement strategy group meeting (November 2022). We had been discussing public involvement capacity building and the need for infrastructure to enable peer support, accessible involvement resources, a newsletter or other signposting mechanism, and either a new group, or to expand an existing ‘community of practice’. Rachel Plachcinski, an experienced public involvement facilitator and longstanding colleague, joined us to talk about needs.
Naomi
I am coordinating public involvement on the NIHR’s Children’s Health and Maternity national priority programme and have started a community of practice for programme partners to build partnerships and share learning in public involvement. The programme aims to work collaboratively, utilising cross-ARC expertise from all backgrounds, and building networks that create new knowledge, identify learning and future opportunities. Mary and I met through this group and when she approached me to discuss capacity building in public involvement, we felt the challenges and needs we had each encountered really resonated.
We began to plan. We were aware that there are many islands of public involvement good practice and expertise, but also wide seas of isolation and uncertainty. There are unanswered questions about ways to do public involvement well and the support that communities and individuals may need.
Naomi
Mary suggested that the national Children’s Health and Maternity programme would present a fantastic opportunity to share learning through a series of webinars with a wide audience to strengthen networks and build capacity. She was absolutely right and the collaboration was born.
Aims and objectives
We agreed to co-design and co-host three public involvement webinars as a mini-series for people with an interest in public involvement in research and services: community members and activists, experienced and early-career researchers, public involvement leads, peer researchers, third sector organisations and individuals. Our aims were to encourage cross-project learning and networking, and create new opportunities for developing good practice in public involvement.
We committed to:
Test a 90-minute, lunchtime slot, enabling some people to come during their lunch break, and to avoid school drop-off and pick-up times
Create a safe and inviting space where a wide and diverse range of contributors could address issues collaboratively
Record presentations and host on YouTube so resources are accessible beyond the live events
Monitor numbers, and the public/academic/public involvement leadership roles of people attending
Collect feedback about needs and reactions to the webinars
What happened in practice?
total attendees across three webinars
Webinar 1
Webinar 2
Webinar 3
The events were advertised through email and social media with the help of the PenARC and ARC South London communications teams. Each time, around half to three-quarters of those who registered for a free place attended.
At each event we shared suggested short ground rules and explained what had prompted the series. Each webinar included three presentations followed by time for discussion. Webinar topics were:
Building capacity in Patient and Public Involvement leadership
Exploring how we can develop good practice and presenting solutions to support public partners.
Ethics, Equity and Budgeting in Public Involvement
Focusing on how we can promote inclusive approaches that are safe whilst acknowledging people’s right to be heard.
Emotions in Public Involvement
Exploring approaches that allow knowledge to be shared through personal experiences and emotions.
Watch the webinar recordings on YouTube →
NIHR Children’s Health and Maternity Programme — Public Involvement webinar series
Critical feedback
At each webinar, attendees were highly engaged with the topics, asking questions, giving feedback and communicating using the chat function. Those who commented felt that the topics were highly relevant, and that presenters and delegates shared valuable insights and useful practical advice. People expressed gratitude that we had opened important conversations and said they had felt supported and empowered to put advice into practice.
However, there was also a commonly held view that people would have liked longer breakout sessions and more opportunity for interaction.
A screenshot from one of the three public involvement webinars.On reflection, the webinars were successful: demonstrated by the high numbers booking and attending, and the feedback. We met our aims to create a safe space to explore capacity building approaches. However, the theme of each webinar was broad, and presentations and discussion, while highly stimulating, only scratched the surface of the many important issues.
It might have been more useful to condense the focus of each event, and cover less ground to go into greater depth — for example, dedicating a whole webinar to being a public co-applicant, covering objectives, responsibilities, rights and needs in detail, with speakers from different projects sharing pitfalls encountered and good practice.
Personal reflections
Naomi
“It has been a wonderful opportunity to work with Mary on this series. I feel that I have grown personally through this collaboration and have learnt a lot from Mary and all the connections we made. The work and reflections that were shared in the sessions and the people we have met (speakers and delegates) are inspiring. Each topic and talk opened a needed conversation.”
“I think the title Mary chose for this blog is spot on. Like a travel guide, this webinar series has highlighted many islands of good practice, but has also left room for much more exploration and opportunities ahead.”
“Some highlights of the webinars for me were the presentations given jointly by a researcher and community member, demonstrating co-production in action; and our golden thread of equity, diversity and inclusion demonstrated through the ethnicity, heritage, dis/abilities and other characteristics of contributors. The talks about emotions (in research) were novel and set out how to do respectful and non-exploitative, trauma-informed research with adults and children who are often marginalised or/and feel powerless and stigmatised.”
“I came away with a renewed sense that there is a big demand for an open and inclusive community of practice (or several) around public involvement in research. This might include webinars, a website, peer support and mentoring, advice for researchers and for public involvement leads and individual experts by experience. We need to discuss this with NIHR and explore future funding opportunities.”
Mary Newburn — PPIE lead, maternity and perinatal mental health theme, NIHR ARC South London
Find out more
- →
Watch the webinar recordings — NIHR Children’s Health and Maternity Programme Public Involvement webinar series (YouTube) - →
Read the full report — Finding islands of good practice: a public involvement travel guide, Newburn M and Morley N (February 2025) 📄 PDF - →
View infographic: Strengthening public involvement in research — NIHR ARCs South West Peninsula, Yorkshire & Humber and South London (Feb 2025) - →
View infographic: Considerations for public involvement — NIHR ARCs South West Peninsula, Yorkshire & Humber and South London (Feb 2025)
Acknowledgements
Thank you to all those who came along to share their views and experiences of public involvement in research. We are grateful to all contributing speakers, public advisers and leaders:
- Rachel Plachcinski — Building capacity in PPI leadership (Listen2Baby)
- Agnes Agyepong — Involving diverse communities in research
- Cassandra Newall — Giving birth mothers a voice
- Lynne Wright — Being a public member co-applicant
- Tania Sutedja — Overcoming challenges in PPI
- Kane Wilton — Involving care-experienced advisors
- Felicity Shenton, ARC North East North Cumbria
- Kristin Liabo, ARC South West Peninsula
- Rachel Rowe, National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit, Oxford
- Jill Domoney, King’s College London / ARC South London
- Rosie McGuire, Anna Freud National Centre / UCL
- Lauren Asare, ARC South West Peninsula
- Kaat De Backer, King’s College London / ARC South London
- Mandy Cheetham, ARC North East North Cumbria
Original source: arc-sl.nihr.ac.uk — NIHR ARC South London legacy content archived May 2026.
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