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Pete Latchford, Public Contributor
12 February 2025
Pete Latchford is a public contributor with NIHR RSS Specialist Centre for Public Health (SCPH) delivered by Newcastle University and Partners and brings a wealth of lived experience as a service user and carer. Pete firmly believes that public contributors play a significant role in planning and developing research which will have a meaningful impact on public health.
As part of Pete’s public contributor role with SCPH we invited him to be part of the LARP funding panel for the January 2025 call.
Hear about Pete’s experience, and why he would recommend becoming involved in research!
I volunteered to be part of the decision-making panel to decide funding for the third round of LARP funding. LARPs work within their local authority to harness the power of research. They identify what research is taking place; where the gaps are; what the priorities are; connect departments with applications for research funding and upskill relevant staff in quality research skills. I volunteered to be part of the panel because I think it’s really important for councils to use research and be research active.
As part of the process, I was assigned 4 funding applications and had to assess them against a rubric scoring template. I enjoyed reading the applications, I had to score them and share my scores back to the SCPH before we had the panel meeting. At the panel meeting we discussed all of the applications.
I really enjoyed being part of the panel. It’s helped me gain a better understanding of public health research in local authorities. I was surprised to find there were differences with NHS health research, and that not all local authorities were set up to do their own public health research.
It was great to be part of the panel as public contributors are not a tick box at a certain stage of research, we need to be integral to the whole process. We all bring our own unique skills, experience, and qualities that help create the most effective research.
My inclusion in the funding panel helps normalise the involvement of public contributors. Some of the panel also commented how good it was to have a public perspective included.
To sum up my experience I would say the panel was thorough and robust, and everyone was supportive.
I would recommend anyone who is interested in becoming a public contributor to go for it! The work is challenging but it is very worthwhile to know that, in a supportive environment, you are making a difference to public health outcomes.
You can find out more about our public and community partnership work by speaking to Kasia Kurowska, Public and Community Partnership Manager: kasia.kurowska@newcastle.ac.uk
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