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Patient Experience and Public Involvement

The Patient Experience and Public Involvement Unit conducts research that informs the patient experience of health and social care. There is an excellent track record of publications and research impact, reflecting the academic success of the Unit.

Unit staff

Staff Job title
Professor Julia Jones Professor of Public Involvement and Health
Professor Brian Littlechild Professor of Social Work and Research Lead for Social Work
Sonya Prime Public Involvement Co-ordinator
Dr Elspeth MathieReader in Health and Social Care
Dr Daksha TrivediReader in Applied  Health Care Research
Nigel Smeeton Senior Research Fellow
Dr Louca-Mai BradySenior Research Fellow
Dr David SolomonResearch Fellow
Dr Han NewmanSenior Research Assistant

How we work

We involve the public at all stages of our research and integral to this ethos is the Public Involvement in Research group (PIRg), which has been embedded in our research unit since 2005 and is composed of members of the public, service users and carers.

Public involvement and patient experience, are themes which cut across all of CRIPACC's programme areas: supporting and complementing the other main programme areas within the Centre.

Strong collaborations

Under the current leadership of Professor Julia Jones, CRIPACC has achieved an excellent national and international reputation and established strong collaborations with a wide range of external partners including:

  • NIHR Centre for Involvement and Dissemination
  • Hertfordshire Healthwatch
  • NIHR ARC
  • Research Design Service (East of England)
  • NIHR National Mental Health Implementation Network.

Professor Brian Littlechild is a Founding Member of the European Research Institute for Social Work.

Inclusive Involvement Research

Unit staff are currently engaged in implementation and research work within the Inclusive Involvement in Research for Practice-led Health and Social Care (IIRP) research theme of the ARC East of England. Dr. Elspeth Mathie (UH) and Professor Fiona Poland (UEA) co-lead the IIRP of the ARC East of England. Inclusive involvement research projects currently ongoing within the ARC East of England.

Completed studies

  • RAPPORT: Research with Patient and Public Involvement: A Realist Evaluation. Collaboration between University of Hertfordshire, University of East Anglia, University of Warwick and University of Kent (2013-2015). Funded by the National Institute for Health Research ‘Health Services and Delivery Research’ funding programme. CI for the study was Professor Patricia Wilson (now University of Kent).
  • Impact of Patient and Public Involvement (PPI): ‘Completing the Feedback Cycle’ The study is based at the University of Hertfordshire, working with six PPI organisations across the East of England. The study is led by Dr Elspeth Mathie
  • Guidance and the PPI feedback for Researchers has been co-designed and is available.

For more information about the research unit please contact Professor Julia Jones.

For more information about the Public Involvement in research group (PIRg) please contact Sonya Prime.