Introduction

The REAL Supply Research Unit held its first Public and Community Involvement (PCI) online workshop on Thursday 27 June. Initiating the unit’s PCI efforts, it was a successful and engaging event with the purpose of enhancing the unit’s understanding and approach to meaningful and creative PCI strategies. The workshop brought together public contributors, public involvement leads and unit members, fostering a collaborative environment for learning and discussion.

The aim of the PCI Workshop – why did we come together?

We had four main aims we wanted to achieve with this first PCI workshop:

(i) To Engage: allow for open communication between the REAL supply team and public contributors, and to reach a point of mutual understanding and interest.

(ii) To Inform: provide our public contributors with comprehensive information about the REAL Supply Unit, the field of health economics, and our current ideas for the research topics

(iii) To Collaborate: work together to identify key areas of interest and potential PCI approaches we could utilise within our research. 

(iv) To Empower: equip our public contributors with the knowledge and tools to contribute effectively to our research initiatives.

The format of the PCI workshop – how did we do it?

To achieve the aims of the workshop, our Head of Public and Community Involvement, Sarah Birch, worked collaboratively with our strategic research advisors, Jennifer Bostock and Alison Allam, as well as with the REAL supply management team, Johnny Townsend, Alison Symington and Catherine-Rose Stocks-Rankin. We designed an online event for 20 public contributors invited from University of Kent and University of York involvement networks.  We achieved a good range in geographic representation (including a diverse representation of coastal, urban and rural locations), age, ethnicity and ‘lived experiences’ with our invited public contributors, and we were able to ‘match-make’ people’s interests to research topic discussion groups for the breakout session.

The workshop was structured as a mix of information sessions (answering questions on: What is the Real Supply Unit?  What is Economics and how does this relate to Health and Social Care?  What are the current REAL supply research areas of interest?), as well as breakout sessions to listen to our public contributors about their views and opinions (for example, how should we tackle public and community involvement in economics focussed research?  Have we covered the most relevant research areas?  Do our current research resonate with you?).

A video still of our ‘What is Economics?’ session with Dr Diane Skåtun

We were able to capture people’s thoughts through word clouds, polls, notes, an online questionnaire, as well as a scribe producing a picture of our discussions during the workshop.

What did we learn from our public contributors?

The workshop fostered a collaborative atmosphere where participants could share their experiences and ideas, generating learning and building a supportive network of public engagement members. The workshop demonstrated that:

• There is capacity and interest to inform people about the REAL supply and the relevance of economics in Health and Social care: 

50% of public contributors reported that they learnt a lot about the overall aims and visions of the REAL supply unit, over 66% reported they learnt either a fair amount or a lot about Economics and its relevance to Health and Social Care, and 75% learnt either a fair amount or a lot about the research topics currently being developed by the REAL supply unit.  One public contributor commented that the workshop was ‘Really informative – I feel able to explain to someone what economics is about’.  

• This is a challenging subject and we need to consider our methods of involvement:

We need to speak to a wide range of people to get a diverse view.  We also need to ensure there is preparatory information available and varied ways of involvement (for example, flexibility with meetings, holding online as well as face-to-face meetings). When thinking about factors in the long-term, one public contributor commented that they found it helpful to put themselves in their ‘Grandchildren’s’ shoes’ to move the focus away from the current issues and trends. 

A scribe of our ‘How to do public and community involvement in economics research’ session

• The research topics are of interest to our public contributors, but there is also more to consider.

The topics resonated well with the public contributors, with 64% of our contributors finding the workforce theme of most importance for the research into the long-term future of the Health and Social Care system.  Our public contributors also suggested that the team should consider additional research into ‘environmental factors’ and ‘living wages’ and their effect on the long term supply of health and social care.