Working in partnership with public contributors, patients, service users, experts by experience and with communities is an integral part of conducting health and social care research.
Ensuring that there are opportunities for the voices of the most marginalised and excluded/unheard communities to be at the heart of research is a social justice issue.
Creating opportunities that support ethical practice in research, requires attention to the values and principles that underpin reciprocal, meaningful and sustainable relationships with people and communities.
We have developed these guidelines to support researchers, public contributors, practitioners and anyone interested in health and care research to work towards ethically sound research practice specifically for the Public Patient Involvement/ Engagement (PPI/PPIE) element of the work.
They do not replace the need for formal ethical approval for a research study (for example through NHS or University ethics processes).
The guidelines are intended for use by people working in or contributing to health and social care research including public contributors, VCSE organisations as well as researchers.
Download the Ethical Practice Guidelines
Ethical Practice Guidelines for Public Involvement and Community Engagement