Just thought I would pass on these two pieces by Candy Morris, Research Champion for the NHS, and Mike Farrar, CEO of the NHS Confederation, respectively, about the importance of public involvement in the NHS.
Candy’s article appears in the Department of Health’s regular bulletin ‘The Month,’ and focuses on public involvement in clinical research. The link seems to be a little unreliable but keep trying as it is a good read. Mike’s article in The Guardian looks at public involvement in the wider NHS and he rehearses some favoured themes of his, not least the need for greater openness and transparency.
It is good to see two leaders who I very much respect put their views on public involvement in writing. Their commitment has been reflected in the organisations they have run. Last week a colleague from the NHS Confederation was telling me that they are looking to do a lot more work in this area and that would have been unthinkable not so long ago. It has also been noticeable since Mike – he of the NW Exemplar of course -took over at the ‘Confed’ how much more it has done to focus on research issues.
We need more of this from others.
I’m pondering writing a piece in the next day or so sharing some worries I have about learning and development in PPI, particularly the seense I have that we are paying little atention to helping develop the public involvement leaders and colleagues of the future. Would welcome comments and thoughts while I put the piece together.
Simon Denegri's Lay Review 
This organisation established by David Gilbert may be of interest for your forthcoming blog: The Centre for Patient Leadership (CPL) provides learning and support for a new generation of healthcare leaders – Patient Leaders.
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Simon
Too often the learning for involving people in research was about the structures and processes both of research and involvement so that we could understand.
Recently I have returned as a casual worker for Macmillan as they have kindly made their introductory research course more generic. The second and perhaps more significant development is that it is both called and is fundamentally about Building Research Partnerships so that people learn FROM EACH OTHER. Info at http://tinyurl.com/8p7dt6d
The insights gained are therefore more equally gained by both the public and professionals working in research.
You, however, pose a further question about leadership. There are many of us who have been working ‘on the inside’ partly because we were asked and aware that the door could be shut at any time.
We have learned to ask questions about what research is available, enquiring how research organisations are working together, how open is the data, how is NHS research money having a direct effect of NHS patients. But we have come to these quietly and on our own.
Too often we were taught about involvement, about so called PPI, rather than how we can make a real difference to change research. We have made some inroads to improving the culture and climate but now is the time for change.
Hope this helps
Derek
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