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A public involvement and community engagement (PICE) group that has made a significant contribution to national research into health and care inequalities, has been awarded a quality assurance standard.

The Health and Care Inequalities Public Involvement and Community Engagement (PICE) advisory group was established to support the work of the NIHR Health and Care Inequalities National Research Consortium, which is co-ordinated by the ARC North East and North Cumbria.

The group involves contributors from a wide age range from several geographical areas of the country including areas of social and economic deprivation, ethnically minoritized communities and cultural diversity. The group also has members with lived experience of disability.

The PICE group, which has been in place since the very beginning of the Consortium programme, was formed to guide decisions around which projects the Consortium should fund, as well as to offer ongoing feedback and guidance from a public perspective, as the research projects developed.

The work of the PICE group and its impact on the Consortium’s research programme was evaluated by Investing in Children – who have developed  a public involvement award called the Dialogue and Change Award. The Award is made when there is evidence that members of the public have been meaningfully involved in discussions that shape how research is being carried out.

Members of the group described how important it felt to be involved from the very start, and a number commented they felt they had been listened to and their advice had been taken on board and used.

The PICE group was also actively involved in the planning and delivery of a national conference to showcase the Consortium work, which members of the group expressed as being an important opportunity to highlight the importance of public involvement in research.

You can download the full report, below.