Community research champions and inclusion in West Yorkshire: findings from four World café events

Background

The reach and impact of community organisations is a crucial mechanism in tackling health inequalities, and the NHS Long term plan includes a shift to health provision in digital and community settings. In West Yorkshire, the NHS have funded a Research Engagement Network (REN) of community research champions, to increase research participation from diverse communities. We held a series of World café research events to capture learning from the REN across a range of sectors.

Methods

Following public engagement workshops, and community conversations held between the WYICB Research Engagement Network community research champions and members of the public, a World Café event was held in a community venue in February 2025 to collect views on outcome measures from a range of stakeholders: academic, policy, health and care services, VCSOs and community champions. A second event focusing on champions’ experience of research was held in July, and a third and fourth focusing on barriers and enablers to research participation in November 25 and April 26. Discussions were recorded, transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis.

Results

More than 120 stakeholders attended the workshops from a range of sectors. Following line by line coding the data was organised under the following key themes: Information governance; Resource Allocation; Power and co-production; Accessibility; The Power of ‘No’; Communication; Engagement. The importance of working together and valuing community knowledge and learning equally or above academic expertise was a common recurring theme.

Conclusions

To increase diversity in research participation, community organisations must be supported to collect, manage and share ownership of the research and the data. The research itself must be relevant, appropriate and of value to communities, and the reasons for doing it must be clearly explained.

Key messages

• Involving community organisations as equal partners in developing methods ot increase diversity in research participation gives valuable insights into concerns of underrepresented groups.

• Co-developing research with community organisations that is relevant, appropriate, shared and easy to explain may increase response rates and fill in knowledge gaps in diverse communities.