Centre for Public Engagement host second successful conference

The Centre for Public Engagement hosted their second annual conference, Public and Patient Involvement in Research: The art of engagement, on 16 September 2015 at SGUL.

The well attended event, chaired by the Dean of the Faculty Andy Kent and Annette Boaz, included a range of speakers, both educationalists and service users, who explored the challenges of, and solutions to, meaningful patient and public involvement in every stage of health and social care research.

Professor Hugh McKenna, from Ulster University, began the day by exploring how the impact of public and patient involvement in research could be captured, particularly for the Research Excellence Framework (REF).

Richard Parnell, public panel member at the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR), noted the growing importance of public and patient involvement in research, and advised on how to ensure effective public and patient involvement including in research governance and ensuring the research was used in practice.

Gary Hickey and Holly Elson, from the Centre for Public Engagement, outlined the soon to be launched Public Engagement Network. This is a database of service users which will be accessible to all staff at the Faculty of Health, Social Care and Education, who need to involve service users in their research and/or design and delivery of education.

Kati Turner and colleagues, from the PEER Group (Peer Expertise in Education and Research) at St George’s, University of London, explained how their group worked to ensure effective patient and public involvement in research projects, outlining the challenges they faced and how they were overcome.

Other speakers gave presentations on the topic of public and patient involvement in research:

• Impact or Impasse? PPI in a cross-national study of recovery-focused care planning

Prof Alan Simpson, City University London

• Service Users Involvement in Social Care Research

Prof Shula Ramon, University of Hertfordshire

• Involvement in research: tensions and insights for a service user and social work researcher

Dr Joanna Fox, Anglia Ruskin University

• Public and patient involvement and public engagement in science: are there links? Is there something to learn?

Clémence Pinel, King’s College, University of London

In addition to the presentations, engaging panel discussions were held with the audience, which was comprised of a diverse selection of academic staff, students, service users and representatives from external organisations. These discussions explored the challenges, benefits and practical applications of patient and public involvement in research from a variety of different perspectives.