ENHANCE team delivers NIHR webinar on integrating the voice of children and young people in weight management research

Healthy and Active 100 Living Well with a Health Condition Training and Education

AWRC theme lead Dr Cath Homer of the School of Sport and Physical Activity has delivered a webinar for the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) PPI in Action series: Integrating the Lived Experience of Children and Young People in Weight Management.

Watch the webinar

Cath joined co-researchers Kath Sharman, Dr Lucie Nield and Prof. Louisa Ells to share expertise on involving children and young people (CYP) in research, drawing on learnings from the NIHR-funded Evaluating the NHS englANd Complications from Excess weight clinics (ENHANCE) project, which is due to conclude later this year.

Reflecting on the project, the team are clear that the full integration of their CYP patient and public involvement (PPI) group, the ARROWS, has been critical to the project’s success.

The ARROWS is a nationally representative group of children and young people, and their families, formed at the very early stages of ENHANCE and fully embedded within the project’s design, delivery and dissemination of findings.

Studies designed with the voices of CYP and families who have lived experience of obesity and related comorbidities ensure they ask the questions in a meaningful and sensitive way. Working with the ARROWS also developed the research team’s understanding of language, stigma and awareness of some of the challenges families faced to accessing care and they were able to use this learning when designing study materials.

The team shared evidence of what worked well and the challenges they faced. Kath Sharman of Sheffield community-based tier 3 weight management programme SHINE shared first-hand experience of developing a CYP PPI group. She provided guidance for others interested in doing so, from using frameworks such as the Lundy Model and Roger Hart’s Ladder to support planning, to the importance of adopting a person-centred approach to PPI that recognises the different learning and communication styles of CYP and their families who might be involved in PPI.

The research benefits of undertaking PPI with CYP are significant, but the process should not be rushed. The University of Sheffield’s Dr Lucie Nield emphasised the importance of slowly building trust, a sense of belonging and a shared vocabulary within the group, citing the ARROWS residential weekend, held in the early stages of the project, as an example of good practice and success.

Looking ahead, Prof. Louisa Ells of Leeds Beckett University encouraged research teams to further engage in meaningful PPI with CYP and concluded the session with a call to action for NIHR, challenging them to consider how young people might be included as official PPI co-applicants within NIHR systems and without widening digital inequalities.

Building on their successful PPI work during the ENHANCE project, the team have also been involved in establishing the first national lived experience hub for obesity. The Obesity Voices Hub at Leeds Beckett University already has more than 300 members and is open to researchers, policymakers and practitioners looking to engage with lived experience.

Find out more about joining or working with the hub, and view its library of resources