Our Strategic Objectives
Here are our CRN East of England Strategic Objectives, which focus on seven areas where the environment is changing or there are potential structural weaknesses in which we need to work with urgency to deliver transformative change over the next five to ten years.
2022-23 CRN East of England Annual Planning
We are working hard in collaboration with our regional Partner Organisations to deliver our Strategic Objectives for 2023-24, which align with the NIHR's Best Research for Best Health: The Next Chapter, published in June 2021. Please contact our team for more detailed information.
Research Inclusion: Our Strategic Vision
Ways of working & our culture
Ensure we are a culturally competent workforce and monitor progress across CRN East of England (EoE).
Expand work in Places & Settings
Identify key areas with reduced research participation
Deliver the Research Ready Community programme
Primary Care research services in these places informed by Public Health (PH) principles
Stakeholder engagement work in each of our places
Hospice and Schools engagement work
Continue to build care home network.
Portfolio focus & development
Portfolio organised against the CORE20 clinical areas (NHS E/I and Integrated Care Systems) to be shared with Specialty Research Leads, Partners & ICBs
Support Chief Investigators to respond to targeted funding calls.
Work with more East of England People
Understand the Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) profile of CRN funded workforce
Expand our Pubic Contributor panel and their diversity
Ensure discharge our responsibilities under Public Sector Equality Duty, making reasonable adjustments as needed
Enhance opportunities for NMAHPs applicants to Greenshoots and other NIHR focussed schemes
Open opportunities up to people with learning disabilities
YOUNG FARMERS engagement initiative
Deliver Social Care Practitioner opportunities in 23/24.
Develop & Foster our Partnerships
Establish Social Care leaders group to drive forward NIHR research opportunities for all
Engage with University of Suffolk and University of Bedfordshire
Continue to build regional collaboration through NIHR EoE research inclusion steering group
Consolidate the Local Authority PH leaders group and focus on CRN EoE strategic objectives
Support research representation within ICS bodies.
Widen participation
Learn and share from Partners who are collecting participant EDI data
Develop CRN EoE plan to ensure Year of Birth data from all PO participants (eligible studies)
Consolidate the Local Authority PH leaders group and focus on CRN EoE strategic objectives to build capacity and capability
Translation services – pilot projects - work with NHS England to clarify regulator requirements for translations facilitation and support to enable research participation.
Reducing health inequalities in research: Our Strategic Plan
What would equality in access to health research look like?
Health inequalities are avoidable, preventable, unfair and unjust differences in health status between groups, population or individuals. Equality in access to health research would ensure that research study participants accurately reflect the people affected by the condition irrespective of their age, ethnicity, socio economic status etc.
Who is affected by unequal access to health research?
The social gradient: people who are at a disadvantage due to socioeconomic status, income, education & employment
Disadvantaged groups: certain minority ethnic communities, older people, or those living in rural areas
Inclusion health groups: those who are vulnerable, such as people who are homeless, having learning disabilities or asylum seekers
Access affected by the 9 protected characteristics (age, sex, race, sexual orientation, marriage/civil partnership, pregnancy & maternity, gender reassignment, religion/belief, and disability).
What are our responsibilities?
Planned response to NIHR 'Best Research for Best Health' strategic objectives
Work with Partners, Public Contributors and other stakeholders to agree priorities
Increase our understanding of health inequalities and research participation through an agreed approach to capturing participant profile data i.e. ‘knowing our participants’
Share our related developments with CRNCC projects to support development of best practice systems to underpin work
Study support service & business support teams work with our Partners and Chief Investigators provide resources and guidance regarding on site placement and widening access.
What are our objectives?
To reduce inequalities in access to opportunities to participate in research
To reduce health inequalities through participation in research.
How are we addressing inequalities?
Delivering our strategic plan
Recognise need for initiative and action across the whole system
Strengthening our place based work based on annual reviews.
The principles guiding our approach to reducing inequalities in access to research
Increase our understanding of health inequalities and research participation through an agreed approach to capturing participant profile data i.e. ‘knowing our participants’
Allocating resource strategically to support initiatives to widen participation
Collaborate with other organisations / stakeholders to join up, promote and embed action to reduce inequalities in access to research
Sign post and align work with NIHR partners to ensure positive research experience for our communities & customers
Work in partnership with local people in our place based work to help create & co produce pathways to enable participation of disadvantaged groups
Place based work informed by 5 ‘levelling up for health principles’ (John Ford et al, 2021*)
Measure impact of initiatives – plan for improvement.
People
People who are disadvantaged – socioeconomic gradient
People with learning disabilities
People whose first language is not English
People from ethnic minorities
Young people who live in rural settings.
Plan
Convene a panel of people with Learning Difficulties to hear their challenges and co-produce solutions
Support initiatives to address language barriers
Develop plans to undertake the DHSC led programme to collect NHS number of research participants to better understand our EoE research participants and drive forward our widening access work
Gather & analyse Year of Birth data to inform understanding of gaps and necessary actions
Collaborate with NIHR regional Partners through inclusion steering group to realise synergies across strategic ‘inequalities’ plans
Cultural competency: provide CRN staff with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to understand their patients, and how health inequalities can manifest differently
Young Farmers engagement initiative.
Places
Identify places of socio economic disadvantage and health need with Public Health stakeholders
Be purposeful in investing in place, e.g. in local authorities and Integrated Care Systems that will help to widen access to research opportunities
Identify key partners working in these places for support and alignment.
Plan
Build research readiness with Partners in places where data (incomplete) and soft intelligence indicates participation is low
Refresh the research service model, including site identification, to support research participation opportunities closer to home
Work with NIHR partners to engage and foster collaborations with community/ voluntary sector services to identify priority areas for research and raise awareness of opportunities for research with these groups
Deliver the ‘Research Ready Communities’ programme
Develop and strengthen our hospices, care and residential homes, schools networks and build readiness for research and in year study participation
Play active part in REND projects and their action plans with ICB colleagues.
Portfolio
Support a portfolio of research that addresses the health needs of our population, with focus on ‘CORE5’
Ensure study design and recruitment strategies are inclusive.
Plan
Map existing portfolio onto NHSE ‘CORE20PLUS5’ for adults, and children & young people - internal reporting shared with SRLs, POs and ICBs.
Provide POs with local health prevalence data for review against existing portfolio
EDI toolkit for Trusts to ensure capability to offer opportunities to all patients – could share with supranetwork
Support efforts to create a portfolio that is led by ‘community ready researchers’
Portfolio work with SRLs – health needs
Promote trial designs to facilitate participation including remote trial designs and digitally enabled models. (Avoiding digital exclusion)
Make it easy to participate by default
Delivering research to make patients, the NHS and social care, better