Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) Summer School

Meaningful PPIE gives people with experience of health, illness and care the opportunity to contribute their knowledge, perspectives and expertise to research.

It can help researchers better understand what matters to patients, carers and communities, while creating opportunities for people to work alongside researchers as partners in shaping research.

But meaningful involvement is about more than simply creating opportunities for people to participate. It requires researchers to think carefully about whose voices are heard, how different forms of knowledge are valued, and how relationships can be built on trust, respect and equality.

The Summer School creates space to explore these questions. It encourages participants to think critically about their own practice and consider how creativity, inclusion, justice and collaboration can help strengthen PPIE.

The Summer School is designed for people who are undertaking, supporting or interested in health and care research, including:

• Early career researchers and PhD students
• Senior academics and researchers
• PPIE leads, coordinators and facilitators
• Health and care professionals
• People who are new to public involvement
• Researchers looking to strengthen existing approaches to PPIE

The interdisciplinary nature of the Summer School means that participants learn alongside people from different professional backgrounds, disciplines and levels of experience.

Whether you are new to PPIE or have years of experience, the Summer School provides an opportunity to step back from day-to-day research and reflect on what meaningful involvement can look like in practice.

The Summer School explores a range of themes and approaches, including:

• The values and principles underpinning meaningful PPIE
• Power, participation, justice and equity in involvement
• Creativity as a method and ethos in research partnerships
• Working collaboratively with people with lived experience
• Inclusive approaches to involving seldom-heard groups
• The challenges and opportunities of partnership working
• Leadership, culture and organisational approaches to PPIE
• Evaluating the quality and impact of public involvement
• Reflecting on your own practice and identifying opportunities for change

The programme is designed to encourage discussion and reflection rather than simply provide a set of tools or techniques. Participants are supported to consider how the learning can be applied within their own research, organisations and partnerships.

A key feature of the Summer School is the opportunity to learn alongside public collaborators, academics and other people involved in health and care research.

Public contributors bring their own experiences, perspectives and expertise to the programme, helping participants to explore PPIE from different viewpoints.

The Summer School also uses creative and participatory approaches to learning. Interactive workshops, small-group activities, case-based learning and structured reflection provide different ways to explore ideas and share experiences.

The emphasis is on creating a safe and supportive environment where participants can ask questions, challenge assumptions, share experiences and learn from one another.

“It filled me with joy! I felt really energised and inspired but it also gave me space to be reflective about my practice and why the hell I’m doing what I do!”

Across the three-day programme, participants will have opportunities to:

• Explore and reflect on their own approach to PPIE
• Learn from public collaborators and experienced practitioners
• Share experiences with researchers and professionals from different disciplines
• Take part in practical and creative activities
• Develop ideas and approaches to strengthen involvement
• Consider how to apply their learning in their own work
• Build connections with others interested in meaningful PPIE

The Summer School is deliberately designed to create time and space for reflection. Rather than focusing solely on what participants should do, it encourages them to think about why they involve people, whose voices are included, and what needs to change to create more meaningful partnerships.