Engagement

Why engagement is important!

Young people have a right to a voice in decisions made about them. Many of our members ask how to get started with engagement work in their area.

In conjunction with the RCPCH and Us team we have collected a range of resources to assist healthcare professionals ensure the ethical and meaningful participation of young people in healthcare.

Engaging Children and young people in research.

Contact your local YPAG group for more help and guidance. Contact details are available through the Generation R website below.

  • BeGOOD Citizens - University of Oxford. Approx 30 members aged 15-18 years. Cover Ethical issues and mental health.

  • Bristol Royal Hospital YPAG. Group members are aged between 10-17 years and the group cover all aspects and types of research

  • Eye YPAG Moorfield Hospital London. Approx 16 group members aged 8-16 years and cover research involving eyes and vision

  • GOSH YPAG . Approx 24 members ages 8-21 years and cover all aspects and types of research.

  • Kent, Surrey & Sussex -Royal Alexandra Children's Hospital Brighton Group members are aged between 8-18 years & a parent & carer group runs parallel. The groups cover all aspects and types of research.

  • Leicester YPAG - All aspects and types of research

  • Liverpool - Alder Hey. Approx 22 group members aged 9-21 years and cover all types and aspects of research.

  • Manchester VoiceUp. Approx 50 members aged 11-24 years and cover all types and aspects of research.

  • North England -YPAGne Royal Victoria Infirmary. Approx 40 group members aged 11-18 years and cover all types and aspects of research.

  • Nottingham Approx 20 group members aged8-18 years and cover all aspects and types of research.

  • ScotCRN - Group members are aged between 11-18 years and cover all aspects of research.

  • Southampton has two groups, Group members are aged 8-18 years and 16-24 and cover all types and aspects of research.

  • West Midlands - Birmingham. Approx 20 group members aged 12-20 years covering all types and aspects of research

  • YourRheum - Manchester. Group members are aged 11-24 years and cover research involving rheumatic conditions.

RCPCH&Us

RCPCH &Us works with children, young people and families all over the UK to help shape and inform child health policy and practice through a range of projects, event and activities. The Engagement Collaborative provides information, support and guidance for health workers, services and organisations on how to create good practice engagement and participation opportunities and systems with a free newsletter for workers plus 1:1 sessions or group training.

You can find lots of co-produced resources to support children and young people in their health journey such as emoji cards, health diaries or feelings posters (and more), plus materials to support services such as how to write an engagement plan, engagement legislation and involving voice in services/committees (and more!) at https://www.rcpch.ac.uk/resources/rcpch-and_us or email and_us@rcpch.ac.uk Follow our social media to see what we are up to!


@RCPCH_and_Us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Creating Health Information for Young People

Guide to producing health information for children and young people (2020 edition) from Patient Information forum. Read more....


Generation R

YPAGne

Based in Newcastle upon Tyne YPAGne provides help to researchers across the country. With experience in co-production and co-design the group

GenerationR is a National Network (GenerationR Alliance) of Young People’s Advisory Group’s (YPAGs) based across the UK. Groups work together to improve health through research. Projects groups work together include an online toolkit for setting up a YPAG group.


Young People's Involvement in Paediatric Dentistry

YPAGne has worked closely with Dental Services in Newcastle for a number of years. Grieg initially approached the group in 2017 to help him design a questionnaire for his study, this lead to an ongoing relationship with Greig returning to the group to update them on the progress of his study. Grieg values the benefits of involving young people in research and has won various awards for his work; not only that but the group value his continued communication and voted him one of the most popular researches to work with in 2019, inviting him to speak about his work with YPAGne at their open evening.

Co-producing a patient experience project

In 2019, YPAGne moved into co-production, starting a patient experience project which involved medical students and secondary school aged young people exploring their peers’ experience of transition from paediatric to adult healthcare in an outpatient setting.

YPAGne worked closely with the medical students to develop plans for project delivery in the paediatric outpatient department of a tertiary centre. Novel co-production training was developed for YPAGne members and delivered as part of the project. Medical students mentored YPAGne members and supervised them delivering questionnaires (summer 2019). Data are being analysed collaboratively and young project members are contributing to the project write up.