From Public Contributor to Public Engagement Officer, meet Irum Durrani

Irum’s Journey... 

Irum’s public involvement journey began in September 2020 with the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) North West Coast, after a friend mentioned their work as a public contributor. Although Irum was interested in both research and health, she initially felt uncertain that she was the right person, or had the right skills, to be a public contributor. Reassurance from ARC colleagues that her lived experience and perspective were valued was essential in building her confidence in the role, as well as understanding that she did not need to speak academic language to be an effective public contributor. Over the next 4 years, Irum was a Public Involvement Co-Lead for capacity building, and represented the public and community in the group that wrote the Public Involvement strategy for the ARC. These experiences led her to understand the ways in which health inequalities impact people in the North West, and the importance of public involvement in governance as well as individual research projects. Feeling listened to, and that she was genuinely able to shape decisions, were important factors in how Irum felt about her public contributor role.  

Irum joined the NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN) North West Coast, now Regional Research Delivery Network (RRDN) North West, as a Research Engagement Officer in 2021. This part-time role supported work to move research from hospital to community settings. During her time with the CRN, Irum worked on 2 important initiatives to support communities to become research ready, and to develop a research engagement network programme. Working alongside a partnership with Blackpool Council, HealthWatch Blackpool and the Boingboing Foundation, Irum supported the recruitment of 10 community research champions from under-served and underrepresented communities in research. As a Research Engagement Officer, she worked alongside community members to co-design the community champion role, to support them to design community conversation forms, and run 15 workshops with other members of the community. Using creative methods for engagement was key to the workshop's success and Irum used activities including a ‘wish tree’, a ‘wall of barriers’ and sticky dot voting to make participation both engaging and fun. At the end of the sessions, people were asked to vote and this demonstrated how perceptions had changed and how they were much more likely to get involved in research activity. Important findings came out of these conversations around the language barriers to getting involved, and resources were translated into ten languages to ensure accessibility as a result.  

Irum joined NIHR HDRC Liverpool as a Public Engagement Officer in September 2024. An important part of this role is overseeing collaboration between Liverpool City Council, the voluntary and community sector and academic partners. To do this successfully, it is essential that the community is an equal partner in the collaboration, and that all partners have an active voice. Irum has set up a task and finish group with representatives from academia, the voluntary and community sector, and colleagues from across Liverpool City Council. The group feed into the planning for community involvement before proposals are taken to a working group. By having representation across the Council in this important decision-making group, Irum has been able to build understanding and support for the importance of meaningful community involvement and to ensure Council colleagues have influence alongside other partners. The group are currently developing an ambitious strategy to: 

• Involve community members in setting research priorities and in every stage of the research process 

• Build research capacity in the local voluntary and community sector and for community members so they can share community intelligence, and support training of community champions in digital story telling 

• Connect community insight with policy change 

Irum has drawn on her experience over the last 5 years to ensure community members are at the heart of this work: 

"Because of my experience as a public contributor, I am always thinking about the experience of engagement from the community perspective. I ask myself how I would feel if I was taking part and what more could I want?” 

She recognises there is always space for reflection and learning: 

“I’ve seen the impact of meaningful involvement first-hand and know the importance of ensuring engagement activities are not tokenistic. Things won’t always be perfect, and it is important to recognise where you are in terms of the quality of your involvement and continuously reflect on how to improve. I find the ladder of involvement a useful tool to do this.” 

Irum is passionate about supporting others to develop their skills and confidence as public contributors:  

“Being a public contributor led me on an unexpected, and wonderful, career journey. Because of my experience, I am committed to the values that underpin community involvement in public health research and making the experience positive for others” 

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 Liverpool for providing the content.