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7 October 2025
To reduce health inequalities, we need to make research more inclusive. Working with community co-researchers can be a powerful way to approach this and is a great way for members of the public with relevant experience to affect positive change in their own communities.
Blackpool Council was awarded NIHR funding to set up a Health Determinants Research Collaboration, a partnership between Blackpool Council, Lancaster University, the local community, the voluntary sector and Blackpool Teaching Hospitals in 2022. This partnership is known as Blackpool Researching Together.
One of the aims of Blackpool Researching Together is to use the day-to-day experiences of Blackpool residents to inform decisions about how council and health services are designed and delivered, with the aim of ultimately improving people’s health, especially those facing the greatest challenges.
Blackpool Researching Together partnered with NIHR Public Health Intervention Responsive Studies Teams (PHIRST) Fusion to understand the impact of working with community co-researchers as part of the Cosy Homes in Lancashire (CHiL) scheme. The CHiL scheme supports residents to have warm, energy efficient homes.
Following initial work on the CHiL evaluation, community co-researchers were invited to explore the impact of their involvement in the project.
To explore this, 7 community co-researchers took part in workshops using a Ripple Effects Mapping (REM) methodology. This is a participatory approach to understanding impact which recognises and celebrates areas of progress and can effectively build motivation amongst those involved.
The first REM workshop took place in May 2024, 5 months after the community co-researchers first become involved in the CHiL scheme evaluation. At this point, the community co-researchers were about to start co-facilitating interviews with residents about their experience of the Cosy Homes scheme. The community co-researchers co-developed the topic guide for interviews, and helped anticipate barriers for residents to take part.
Through the REM workshop, the community co-researchers identified their personal journey, from feeling like ‘imposters’ to becoming ‘research ready’. They also identified that regular meetings had enabled them to build trust and confidence. They also recognised how applying their lived experience made the research more accessible to under-served communities.
“I felt a bit of imposter syndrome and I thought ‘Do they really know that I haven’t done research before?’ but then I realised the importance of lived experience. Living and having worked in Blackpool. I’ve got that experience of Blackpool and the problems in Blackpool. So, I felt that was useful”
- Sandra, Community Co-researcher
A second REM workshop took place in November 2024, after the community co-researchers had facilitated a number of interviews. In this workshop, they identified that research can be ‘a bit of a rollercoaster’ with challenges around recruitment of research participants, and their own confidence in delivering research alongside highs and positive experiences. They have applied their learning from this project to subsequent research projects.
In addition to participating in the workshops themselves, the community co-researchers have been active in analysing the data that has come out of the workshops and disseminating the results, including writing an abstract for an international conference which has been accepted. They have also written a blog post about their experience, which is available here: https://phirst.nihr.ac.uk/chil-coresearcher-blog/
“It’s just been an incredible chance to actually have that feeling of being listened to as a Blackpool community resident”
- Matt, Community Co-researcher
For practical advice on how to undertake a Ripple Effects Mapping workshop in more detail, see Introduction to Ripple Effects Mapping - ARC West.
Read more about the CHiL evaluation on the PHIRST website
Find out more about Blackpool Researching Together
For more information, email hdrc@blackpool.gov.uk
This learning story was prepared with support from NIHR RSS Specialist Centre for Public Health delivered by Newcastle University and Partners. With thanks to HDRC Blackpool for providing the content.
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