Commissioned by the Lincolnshire institute for Rural and Coastal Health (LIRCH), based within the Medical School at the University of Lincoln, Every-One supports the CAKE programme in its new phase of development, enabling increased reach, involvement, and impact.
We facilitate monthly meetings of the CAKE group, taking a chairing role, organising meetings, and producing notes from each meeting for group members. We will be recruiting new members to increase public membership, helping them to join, supporting all members to engage and contribute.
A subgroup of public members is actively working to help researchers who seek advice on public and patient involvement (PPI), supporting them to develop their inclusive thinking and practice methods in research. Researchers are initially invited to attend CAKE meetings with short presentations, with more focused support work following.
We have a member of the team based for one day a week within LIRCH at the University of Lincoln. They work more closely with research project leads to enable them to develop community reach and involvement in their projects, providing advice and support over an extended period towards project bid submissions. The role also includes gathering and promoting examples of effective, inclusive public involvement in research at LIRCH, which includes seeking future opportunities for regional, national, and international sharing of good PPI practice. A new LIRCH website will include a CAKE area, hosting film and photography as well as text-based information, giving a ‘show and tell’ platform for this work, examples of good practice and resources. We will contribute to its development and to future content.
Through our work with LIRCH and CAKE, we will support more researchers to develop inclusive and innovative ways to meaningfully collaborate with and recognise people in communities, as valued co-researchers and not simply the subjects of research. We will facilitate and promote good practice. Over time, we will support LIRCH to become nationally and globally recognised as an institute of excellence in co-production and public involvement in research.