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(Pictured: Felicity Shenton (right) received the award from Pamela Graham, Co-Chair of the Fuse Public Involvement and Engagement Group, Northumbria University)

The NIHR ARC North East and North Cumbria’s Public Involvement and Community Engagement Manager, Dr Felicity (Fizz) Shenton, has been recognised for her outstanding leadership in inclusive research practices, in this year’s Fuse Awards.

Fuse, The Centre for Translational Research in Public Health launched the Fuse Awards to honour individuals and teams whose collaborative, creative, and inclusive approaches are shaping the future of health and care in the North East and North Cumbria region.

This year’s awards showcased excellence in public involvement and engagement, communication, and translational research.

Fizz has expertly led Public Involvement and Community Engagement for the ARC NENC since early 2020. She was shortlisted in the category for ‘Excellence in Public Involvement and Engagement’  and went on to win the award.

As part of her work with Fuse, Fizz co-developed the NENC Peer Research Community of Practice, engaging more than 200 participants across several events, and has introduced creative methods such as Lego and drawing to make engagement more accessible.

She has also established both a Public Advisory Network and a Young Public Advisory Network, driving regional best practice in public involvement.

Fizz said: “I am really proud to have received this award on behalf of the ARC NENC.

“Over the past five and a half years we have developed some fantastic partnerships with VCSE organisations, public partners, researchers, practitioners and clinicians, to deliver innovative, diverse and inclusive opportunities for public involvement and community engagement.

“This is a social justice issue, we cannot achieve meaningful, impactful research in health and social care without developing partnerships with the people and communities that have real lived experience and who make an important difference throughout the research.”

Read more about the ARC NENC’s approach to meaningful Public Involvement and Community Engagement.

In addition, the Sunderland Plus Project Evaluation, funded by the ARC NENC, won the Fuse Award for ‘Outstanding Translational Research Initiative’.

The Sunderland Plus Project was shaped by the needs of underserved communities and aligned to local policy priorities. The team worked in close partnership with local government, third-sector organisations, a community engagement group, primary care and academia to launch a mobile health bus which offers primary care, preventative interventions and relational support, to improves access to healthcare for people facing substance use, mental ill-health, and homelessness.

The ARC NENC-funded ‘Eyes on the Baby’ project was also shortlisted in the category for Outstanding Translational Research.

Eyes on the Baby is an exemplary translational research initiative tackling Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SUDI) inequalities in the North East. Co-designed by researchers and strategic managers from social care, this multi-agency workforce programme trains a wide range of staff to deliver targeted SUDI-prevention support to priority families.

The Divided Households study, supported by ARC NENC, was also shortlisted in the category for Innovative and Creative Communications.

The project aims to improve support for children and young people who have a family member in prison, using a co-produced and rights-based approach.

Working closely with children and young people who have experienced visiting a parent in prison, the team co-produced a range of accessible, engaging outputs that respectfully reflected their lived experiences – to reach public, practitioner, and policy audiences, ensuring wide impact and engagement on a sensitive topic.

Read more about the Fuse Awards.