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Supporting the NIHR workforce to engage with under-served communities 

Producing meaningful answers to what NIHR CRNCC stakeholders and workforce need to make research happen in the NHS and health and social care

A skilled clinical research delivery workforce is crucial to making research happen in the NHS and other health and social care settings nationwide. But what skills are needed? And how could they be acquired?

 

The NIHR Clinical Research Network Coordinating Centre (CRNCC) supports patients, the public and health and care organisations across England to participate in high-quality research. Included in its overarching annual objectives are to ‘widen participation in research by enabling the involvement of a range of health and social care providers’, and to ‘demonstrate to people taking part in health and social care researchstudies that their contribution is valued’. 

 

To support those objectives the NIHR CRNCC wanted to develop a ‘Community Ready Research’ resource hub to build skills and knowledge within its Local Clinical Research Networks. The resource hub and toolkit would be used to build staff knowledge and skills and support them to engage with under-served communities. 

 

In 2023 NIHR CRNCC asked us to design and facilitate a workshop to inform the design and development including content and existing resources. We created a workshop with a blend of semi-structured questions and playful participatory activities to help stakeholders get comfortable and explore their own experiences and feelings. Stakeholders were invited from across the NIHR workforce all working in different ways with patients and the public to deliver health research. 

 

We had really honest conversations with staff from all levels and disciplines and brought to light a vast amount of knowledge and skills. We took the transcripts of those conversations away and our research team explored them to uncover what staff need to build skills and knowledge in this often-challenging landscape, and how the toolkit can respond to that need.

Feedback and results in the form of a final report informed the design of the ongoing capacity building service and resources, ensuring it meets the aims and needs of the workforce. The NIHR CRNCC team had all the answers within their own workforce; they just needed our capacity to listen and digest it. 

NIHR Clinical Research Logo

"This workshop report is fantastic, thank you! We have learnt so much from working with your team and now we have a plan for taking the resource hub forward. I am excited for us to take it forward :D Huge thanks for Kohlrabi's help with this!"


Khadija Badri

Community Engagement Manager

National Coordinating Centre (CRNCC) | NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN)

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