Personal and Public Involvement (PPI)
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Within Northern Ireland, organisations have a statutory duty to involve service users, carers and the public in the commissioning, planning and delivery of all Health and Social Care (HSC). This process is known as Personal and Public Involvement (PPI). It means including individuals in decisions about their specific care or treatment and consulting members of the public and the wider community on the design, delivery and location of services. For more information see the Department of Health's PPI Guidance.
What does PPI mean for research?
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In research, PPI means involving people in all aspects of the research process as partners rather than as research participants. This is also referred to as 'Patient and Public Involvement'.
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PPI partners are part of the research team and can help shape all stages of the research cycle such as the research topic or question, how the research is carried out, and how the results are shared and applied in practice.
How does HSC R&D Division promote PPI in research?
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HSC R&D Division provides funding to support Health and Social Care research. This is used to build research infrastructure (networks, facilities etc), train health and social care researchers, and support research studies and clinical trials. We want to ensure that PPI is integrated into all stages of the research cycle in the projects that we fund.
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PPI helps researchers ask the right questions, prioritise topics that are important to patients and carers, and ultimately achieve outcomes which are meaningful to people. We also know that PPI can encourage more people to take part in research studies or clinical trials, help ensure research findings are heard and reported in an easily understandable way, and improve care in the future.
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To find out more, please read:
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We also actively promote the UK Standards for Public involvement which have been designed to improve the quality and consistency of public involvement in research.
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To help support and encourage innovative practice in the delivery of PPI, we have a PPI in Research Small Grant Scheme. This Scheme is open to researchers, health professionals or patient and public representatives working in the field of Health and Social Care Research in Northern Ireland.
- HSC R&D Division has also established a group of PPI representatives who support it in its activities. The name of this group is PIER which stands for ‘Public Involvement Enhancing Research’. You can find out more here.
Support for researchers
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We provide training and support to researchers who want to learn more about PPI in research and have also produced a PPI Resource Library for Researchers.
Support for patients, carers and members of the public
- Starting our Guide - Why and how to get involved in research. This Starting Out Guide has been written to help and advise members of the public who would like to get involved, or have recently become involved in research.
- Find out more about people's experiences of being involved in research by viewing this series of videos from Healthtalk.org.
- Read NIHR's 'Public Information Pack (PIP): How to get involved in NHS, public health and social care research'.
- Complete our 'Building Research Partnerships' training to find out more about PPI in research.
- Consider joining our group of trained PPI partners who support HSC R&D Activities. The group is called 'PIER' (Public Involvement Enhancing Research) and you can find out more by clicking here.
- Or, browse our full resource library.
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You can also contact Dr Alan McMichael (PPI lead for HSC Research) for further information. Email: Alan.McMichael@hscni.net