Embedded Files
20 June 2025
As part of our PCP work, local authorities told us that they wanted us to prioritise evaluation of public and community involvement. So, over the last few months we have been working to support developments for evaluating public and community involvement in public health research.
NIHR has placed significant importance on measuring the impact and difference made by public and community involvement in health research.
In early May, Dr Bronia Arnott, along with colleagues from NIHR Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC) Blackpool, including their community co-researcher and the co-research officer, and Kasia Kurowska, our PCP Manager, led localities leads from North Yorkshire Council and HDRC North Yorkshire colleagues through a Ripple Effect Mapping training workshop.
The group evaluated one of their flagship community anchor projects and considered the intended, and unintended, impacts of the funding and identified how it had made a difference to community resilience in local areas of North Yorkshire.
We also attended a national NIHR HDRC meeting on evaluating public and community involvement in research hosted by HDRC Surrey. The aim of this meeting to discuss some of the key frameworks for public involvement evaluation and share best practice with worked examples.
At this session we shared our top tips for this type of evaluation and things to consider when getting started.
Our top tips:
Set your evaluation approach at the start (or as soon as possible) and include your contributors
Be clear who you are measuring impact for
Be clear what you are evaluating and be realistic
Choose what works for you and your contributors – there is no holy grail
Be bold – adapt if needed
Dr Negin Sarafraz-Shekary, Head of NIHR HDRC Surrey (Surrey County Council), and Public Health Engagement Lead for SCPH said: “Evaluation is an important element of good PCP, to ensure that feedback and the difference made is understood by public, communities and local authority researchers. In my role as a PHEL I am happy to support a conversation on how to best do this with the local authorities within my geographical areas and HDRCs nationally.”
We ended May hosting a webinar ‘Evaluating public and community involvement’. With 200 people registered, we knew this was an important issue on our colleagues’ minds. During the webinar, we heard from colleagues who have used ripple effect mapping, a modified version of PIRIT and Theory of Change, and the benefits and challenges of using each were. This was followed by a very engagement discussion with attendees to understand how they can be used in PCP work locally.
All of these activities have been so well received that SCPH is now considering developing further support on evaluations to benefit local authorities across the country in late 2025 and 2026. This will include:
Train the trainer sessions on Ripple Effect Mapping
Webinars highlighting other public and community involvement evaluation methods such as GRIPP2, PiiAF and the Cube.
SCPH would like to thank the following colleagues for their expert advice and support in delivering the PCP activity in May:
Dr Bronia Arnott, Patient & Public Involvement & Engagement Methodologist, NIHR RSS Hub delivered by Newcastle University and Partners and Knowledge Exchange Broker, NIHR PHIRST Fusion
Sandra Bee, Community Co Researcher, NIHR HDRC Blackpool
Natalie Holt, Community Co Research Officer, NIHR HDRC Blackpool
Dr Negin Sarafraz-Shekary, Head of NIHR HDRC Surrey (Surrey County Council), and Public Health Engagement Lead for SCPH
Laura Dunkley, Evaluation Lead, NIHR HDRC Southampton
Ella Turner, Programme Manager, NIHR HDRC Surrey
Lisa Mohebati, Research Fellow, University of Surrey
Charlotte Hunt, Research Involvement Officer, NIHR HDRC North Yorkshire
Dr Rebecca Clarke, Research Officer, NIHR HDRC Cumberland
Gillian Samuell, Senior Public Involvement in Research Coordinator, NIHR School for Public Health Research, Public Mental Health Programme , The McPin Foundation
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse