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We are pleased to introduce our Public Involvement and Community Engagement (PICE) Strategy for the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) North East and North Cumbria (NENC).

The strategy sets out the ongoing commitment across the NIHR ARC NENC to ensure that we are developing, conducting and disseminating applied research that is useful and meaningful to the public and to local communities, and that there are ongoing opportunities for real engagement and involvement in ARC NENC activities.

This strategy will also offer a valuable source of information for researchers, to familiarise themselves with expected standards for public involvement across the ARC NENC and to support the integration of PICE activity in their work.

From both an operational and research perspective, we believe this strategy can facilitate and strengthen collaboration between researchers and communities, contributing to the ARC North East and North Cumbria’s vision to reduce health inequalities and promote ‘better, fairer health and care at all ages and in all places’.

The National Standards for Public Involvement in Research are embedded in the strategy and these six standards will be used as the basis for its annual review.

The importance of Public Involvement and Community Engagement

In the early stages of the development of the ARC in the North East and North Cumbria, we undertook a great deal of consultation and engagement activity.

This included working with the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector, local communities and members of the public. Feedback from the people involved indicated a strong view that using the traditional term ’patient and public involvement’ (PPI) did not feel inclusive of all members of the public and all communities, and suggested a heavy leaning towards ‘health’ research rather than the more generic and inclusive health and social care agenda.

This view was taken on board and a decision made that the ARC NENC would use the term ‘Public Involvement and Community Engagement’ to reflect this.

We hope that from the outset we have been able to demonstrate that we are listening and acting on the views that are expressed.

Developing and shaping the strategy

Work to develop this PICE Strategy started in the summer of 2020 and has involved many contributors. Two members of the ARC NENC Public Advisory Network, Steve and Irene, worked to help shape the initial drafts and have taken part in meetings and workshops throughout this process. Steve has proof-read the final document to ensure its accuracy. In January 2021 we held a workshop together with the PICE Leads from each of the ARC Research Themes, to help shape and inform the strategy.

The Research Theme Leads and the ARC Management Team have also had the opportunity to contribute to various drafts. The final draft was presented to the ARC Executive Board in February 2021 and will be presented to the ARC Stakeholder Board at the end of March.

Enabling active public involvement in ARC NENC activities

We have developed a diverse and active Public Advisory Network (PAN), as well as a Young Public Advisory Network which is creating opportunities for children and young people to be involved in our work.

The PAN includes individual members of the public and representatives from a number of community groups. There are representatives from the PAN involved in the governance structures of the ARC including: Stakeholder Board, Executive Board, Implementation Advisory Group, Website Development Group, Open Funding Call Panel, and the Knowledge Exchange Task and Finish Group. Involvement of members of this group in all of the governance arrangements ensures that there is a strong and active voice at all levels across the ARC.

We are also involved the Multiverse Lab, which is an innovative and creative way of gathering the views of the public and local communities about the health and social care research agenda that is significant to them. There are plans to deliver this as a face to face experience in local communities across the region later this summer, if Covid restrictions allow.

In addition to the PICE activities across the NENC, we have also been supporting and co-ordinating the PICE Groups for the National Inequalities Consortium and the National Prevention Consortium. These have created additional opportunities for people and communities across the North East and North Cumbria to engage in conversations at a national level.

Evidencing the impact of PICE activities

We are piloting a Dialogue and Change Award to gather evidence of the impact of PICE activities across the research projects funded through our annual Open Funding Call, to ensure that we can evidence tangible change as a result of PICE activity. We also appointed a Research Fellow in Public Involvement and Community Engagement in early 2021, to support the delivery and evidencing of real impact from PICE activities.

You can download the Public Involvement and Community Engagement strategy, below.

This document is currently available in a PDF format. If you would like this document in a different format, or need any help to read or understand its contents, we would be happy to help. please email us at [email protected] for assistance.

For further information please contact:

[email protected] – Public Involvement and Community Engagement Manager
[email protected] – Research Fellow in Public Involvement and Community Engagement