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Your Public Involvement Newsletter |
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Hello everyone and welcome to the first Public Involvement Newsletter.
If you’d prefer to receive this as a word document, call Kat on 020 7104 8168 or email public.involvement@hra.nhs.uk.
Members of our Community Insight Group have asked us to improve how we communicate with you and, in particular, how we feedback and follow up on activity that is underway.
So, we want to send you fewer emails, but include more information in each one.
We plan to send you one newsletter a month, with five sections:
- get involved in the work of the HRA – invitations to work with us
- what difference is public involvement making to the HRA’s work - an update on work in progress
- HRA news
- public involvement news from outside the HRA
- do you know? General information about the HRA
Our long-term aim is to make our communication more ‘two way’. We would like to have more dialogue, updates, and feedback from members of the Public Involvement Network as well as HRA staff. We can all learn from what has worked, and what hasn’t.
We are grateful to members of the HRA’s Community Insight Group for their ongoing encouragement and help with this.
What do you think? Email the Public Involvement Team with your thoughts.
- do the five headings make sense and is the content interesting and useful?
- Are you happy to be sent information about things that are going on inside the HRA and more widely?
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 Dolapo Ogunleye, member of the Public Involvement Network, speaking at the launch of the HRA's 2022-25 strategy
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In the first section of the newsletter, we will share information on different ways of working with us. This month we don’t have any new invitations, but we expect to have more next month. |
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In this section, we aim to respond to one of the questions we are most frequently asked – what changed because of public involvement?
Sometimes this happens quickly and clearly, and sometimes it happens slowly or unexpectedly. Either way, we plan to keep you up to date on work you’ve helped us with, and what has changed as a result.
Developing and launching the HRA’s new three-year strategy
Earlier this year, eight members of the Public Involvement Network worked alongside HRA staff to develop and launch the HRA’s 2022-2025 strategy.
HRA Chief Executive Matt Westmore reflected on the difference the group’s input made. He wrote about some of the practical differences such as better decisions, a more inclusive event, more accessible language, and credibility. He also reflected on needing to hear from a diverse range of perspectives, and the moral right to be heard.
‘Involvement wasn't a time limited project to produce a 'thing', it's an ongoing way of working. Over the last year I met with dozens of people 1:1, heard from hundreds in workshops etc. My team had even more conversations over an even longer period.’
Manoj Mistry, member of the Public Involvement Network said:
'As a Public Contributor, I was delighted to be able to genuinely co-produce HRA's new strategy, actively ensuring that the patient, carer, and public voice is central, recognised and always heard. Our input has been valued and incorporated.’
 Circle Steele, Chief Executive of the Wai Yin Society during a workshop
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In this section, we’ll share news of areas of HRA’s work that we think you may be interested in.
Public conversations about ethics review
We recently published a thought-provoking blog by Louise Vale, a member of the HRA’s Public Involvement Network. Louise had advised the HRA on a series of workshops with 46 members of the public. She was impressed by how quickly people got to grips with ethical issues, even if they had not been involved in health research.
She used her blog to highlight people’s ideas and suggestions.
We are recruiting a new Public Involvement Officer
The HRA is developing a new website to help build trust in social care and health research. The new Public Involvement Officer will make sure that service users, patients, carers, and the wider public shape the website.
The post is for seven months. It’s possible to work from home, one of the HRA’s offices, or a mixture of both.
 Two people looking at a website
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In this section, we plan to share news of activities organised by other groups or organisations. If you have questions, please get in touch directly with the organisers.
The UK’s first user-led inclusive involvement conference
Have you heard? Shaping our Lives still have ‘in person’ spaces left at the first ever user-led inclusive involvement conference. It will take place in Birmingham on 1 November. To find our more you can look online or contact Shaping Our Lives on hello@shapingourlives.org.uk or on 0345 241 0383.
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We plan to use this section of the newsletter to explain something about the HRA or introduce you to our colleagues and the people we work with.
Community Insight Group
The HRA employs around 270 people. But we work closely with over 1,000 people who are members of the Confidentiality Advisory Group (CAG), Research Ethics Committees (RECs) and the Public Involvement Network (PIN). We refer to these people as ‘the HRA community’. What do all these people do?
- CAG provides expert advice on the use of confidential patient information
- RECs review research proposals and give an opinion about whether the research is ethical. Their approval is needed for the research to go ahead.
- PIN members share information, views, and experiences to guide the HRA’s work - from website design, to recruitment, to policy
The Community Insight Group was created in July 2021. It aims to better engage, support, and recognise those who volunteer and work with us. The group meets every two months to share feedback and discuss ideas to improve their experience of working with us.
REC member Rita Patel describes her motivation for joining the group:
‘In working with this group, I will not only share my views, but I will listen to the views of other members of the group, including the wider HRA Community, and together we will influence the future for all our members’.
We are currently working with the Group to explore how we can learn and improve the way that it works in future.
The HRA board
The HRA board oversees the delivery of our strategy, our approach to risk, and establishes the culture and values of the organisation.
The board usually meets every two months. Members of the public are welcome to observe the meeting.
Our website is updated with the meeting dates and papers. We also have some questions and answers about the meetings.
Feedback, concerns, and complaints
The HRA have a small but brilliant team that deal with feedback, concerns, and complaints about our work. They also handle concerns about behaviour or conduct of another responsible body or a third party, for example a researcher, research team or Clinical Research Organisation. You can contact them on complaints@hra.nhs.uk.
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If anything in this email is unclear or you have questions, please email public.involvement@hra.nhs.uk or phone Kat Evans, Public Involvement Officer on 020 7104 8168.
As this email is for members of the HRA Public Involvement Network, we ask you not forward it. If you know someone who might be interested, please suggest they contact us to join the network.
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