Colleagues from across national ARCs recently came together to look at community engagement work across the NIHR ARC programme and to share both learning and best practice.

At the online event in March, led by ARC NWC, ARC Greater Manchester and ARC North East and North Cumbria (NENC), the event focused on creating sustainable networks to support community engagement in research. Whilst looking at the infrastructure and networks which need to be in place for sustainable and meaningful community engagement to happen, the event also explored what the facilitators and barriers are to making that happen. Following three presentations showing how different ARCs in the north are trying to engage communities in research, discussions followed on how to create some resources from these conversations and ensure any learning gained is put into practice.

Claire Selby, Stakeholder Research and Engagement Network Manager for ARC NWC, said: “We need to look at the work of ARCs with communities and the VCFSE sector, so we can understand the value of this and therefore make a case for better resourcing of this in any future iterations of ARCs, and also how to make it happen in practical terms. This needs to be a collective voice, including the VCFSE sector, to make a strong case for both WHY we do this work and HOW to do it most effectively.”

Felicity Shenton, Public Involvement & Community Engagement Manager for NIHR ARC NENC said, “It is really important that the VCFSE sector has the resources and capacity to contribute to the health and social care research agenda as they have direct access to and a better understanding of the communities that are frequently left out of the research conversations and are seen as ‘hard to reach’ and ‘marginalised’. The VCFSE sector has a long track record of working with, in and for the communities that researchers need to be engaging with. The ARCs have a unique opportunity to support these relationships and build sustainable research partnerships.”

The reception to the event was really positive with an acknowledgement of how much more there is to do with regards to community engagement in the ARCs. One of the participants commented: “The funding and research project culture is dominated by clinical and academic institutions and social care comes through as a third influence. While the principle is at the forefront of our minds to engage community organisations, there is a steep learning curve that charities cannot afford in terms of dedicated time. We are reliant on ARCs to provide a connecting hub where we can learn how to partner and join in bids and how to engage with resulting research projects effectively.”

The coordinating group is planning another event on the morning of Thursday 15th June and would welcome any thoughts or feedback about this upcoming event, as well as next steps for sharing learning. Please get in touch via arcnwc@liverpool.ac.uk.