Help make health and care research more relevant for your communities
Join us in building beneficial partnerships and collaborative approaches to shaping research
The voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector has a track record of engaging and supporting the communities of Greater Manchester to improve health and wellbeing and tackle inequalities. However, a lot of valuable good practices and work in this area are not documented and can be difficult to sustain without adequate investment and funding.
Whilst health and care research shapes the diagnosis, care and treatment that affects us all, many communities don’t have a say in how it's designed and carried out. Similarly, many communities don't participate in research relevant to health and wellbeing which limits the potential impact of research findings relevant for tackling inequalities. There's much potential for collaborative work to address these issues.
We’re working with members from the Greater Manchester VCSE Leadership Group and key health and care research organisations to better understand how we can develop a culture of mutually beneficial partnerships between researchers and communities and improve health and care research for everyone’s benefit.
We're pleased for this opportunity to work with key Greater Manchester stakeholders including Integrated Care System (ICS) and research institutions on the development of a regional research network that puts the voices of communities at the heart of research. Greater Manchester has a history of cross-sector collaboration, and we hope this initiative will support the VCSE Accord, ICS's commitment to tackling health inequalities, showcase best practice and influence the future of health and care research in our City region.
Charles Kwaku-Odoi, Chief Officer, CAHN, Co-chair, GM VCSE Leadership Group, Population Health Group
If you're a VCSE organisation in Greater Manchester we want to hear your views, perspectives and ideas about how we can work better together to ensure everyone can have a say in health and care research. We want to learn from the VCSE sector and create a forum to showcase what works in your communities to improve health outcomes based on evidence and good practice.
There are lots of ways you can get involved and your time commitment will be funded:
Take part in our survey by the end of April 2023 to share what works well and what doesn’t, your current priorities for health and care research and what the gaps are.
Join workshops in March 2023 where we’ll work together to identify how to build long-term relationships and sustained connections between research organisations and communities and develop approaches to address current barriers to involvement and participation in health research.
Be part of creating new resources for more effective partnership working and empowering communities to have a voice in research
Take part in showcase events where communities and other VCSE organisations will share learnings about research partnerships they have experienced and how they would like health researchers to work with them.
Our first phase will focus on Rochdale, Oldham, Bolton and Manchester. If you're running events in these areas between now and the end of April 2023 and would like us to come and speak to your community about the project, please get in touch. Alternatively, we can run a session with your community group. In either case, we'll cover all the costs associated with running a session (including payments for those who attend on the day). We'll attend on the day to support. Please email research@cahn.org.uk to find out more.
By creating opportunities for shared understanding and the development of collaborative approaches, we have the potential to ensure that all communities in Greater Manchester are involved in shaping health and care research, reducing unfair and avoidable health differences, and improving quality of life for people in our communities.
The VCSE sector has been especially pro-active in tackling new challenges and worsening health inequalities during the COVID-19 pandemic. We want to strengthen our partnerships and shared goals, especially to address health inequalities going forward with community voices at the heart of the research that we do.
Caroline Sanders, Applied Research Collaboration, Greater Manchester and Greater Manchester Patient Safety Translational Research Centre
This project is a starting point for future partnership working in health research, and understanding the important areas to focus on to make change around unfair health differences in Greater Manchester.
If you’re from a VCSE organisation and would like to get involved or for more information, please contact CAHN’s research team – research@cahn.org.uk
