Getting Involved

Patient and Public Involvement

Public involvement is an essential part of the development of modern health care services. Research that reflects the needs and views of the public is more likely to produce results that can be used to improve practice in health and social care.

NETSCC's research programmes are all committed to involving patients and the public as much as possible in the research that we fund and manage.

Not all of our programmes are about 'high tech' medicine or clinical interventions. Some of our research looks at the health of whole communities or at how health and social care services are best organised for people who need them.

We have over 350 people involved in different aspects of the work of our research programmes - but we always need more.

Ways to get involved

• Sign up for our PPI newsletter and receive regular updates on what's happening in PPI here at NETSCC
  
  
• Suggest a research topic to any NETS programme
  Anyone can suggest a topic that would benefit from research, at any time.
  
  Please follow the link for the relevant programme to suggest a topic:
  EME

HS&DR
HTA
PHR

We also invite patients and members of the public engaged with charities and patient-led groups to discussions with clinicians when we develop and refine research questions about particular conditions or treatments.

• Reviewing
  We recruit reviewers from a varierty of fields including patients and members of the public. Public reviewers are invited to read and comment on research briefs and full research proposals, looking in particular at whether the research addresses issues of importance to patients and the public. For research proposals, public reviewers also examine whether patients and the public are appropriately involved in the research process.
  
  From 2012 onwards, public reviewers will also comment on summaries of selected key research findings that will be communicated to interested patient and carer communities.
  
  If you have personal experience or understanding of any aspect of health conditions or treatment/care environments or an interest in public health issues, talk to us about becoming a reviewer.
  
  For more information about reviewing, please contact Vicky Bowness.
  
  
• Membership of panels, commissioning boards and our journal series editorial board
  Patient and public involvement in our panels and boards helps to ensure that we assess funding applications according to patient need. It offers a broader and more relevant perspective on research proposals by increasing the range of knowledge and insight available to us.
  
  As a public board or panel member you would join a group of about 20 people who have a wide range of backgrounds and bring considerable experience and expertise, including NHS managers, clinical and research professionals. As a member of the editorial board you would bring a public perspective to the work of managing the publication of final research reports.

• Membership of our PPI reference group
  Our PPI reference group advises NETSCC on the development of effective ways of working at every stage of the research management process. It has six public members.  Click here for more information about the reference group.
  
  Vacancies arise from time to time for public members of our panels or boards. We always recruit members through an open appointment process involving an application and interview. We advertise all such vacancies on our website, and on a range of other relevant sites, and via our mailing list.
  

NETSCC's PPI framework
We have agreed a detailed framework of standards for the ways in which we involve patients and the public and are working to meet these standards.
Click here for more information about our PPI framework

PPI resources

We are developing some web resources to support our PPI contributors. A research terms glossary adapted from the Cochrane collaboration is available here. We have also set up a short survey to gather your feedback as a user of our PPI pages.

Opportunities for involvement inside and outside NETSCC
All NETSCC research programmes welcome public involvement. Click on the links below to see the opportunities.

Our counterpart research management centre The Central Commissioning Facility (CCF) also seeks public contributors for reviewing and committee/board opportunities.

The People in Research website shows a range of opportunities to get involved in research management and also in supporting the design and conduct of research studies.

The Clinical Research Networks for England all seek public contributors for the work they do to support and facilitate clinical research.

The NIHR Research Design Services support researchers to develop and design research proposals.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) involves patients and members of the public with specific experience or interests on their committees and working groups. For more information, please click here.