The SOCRATES – Ethos – Minimal Means, Maximum Meaning
The SOCRATES approach to Public Involvement and Co-Production (PPI CoPro) starts by recognising that academics do not know everything and that we must recognise this before we can start to learn from others. We take a proactive and reactive approach to involving the public whilst recognising the rapidity within which the evaluations must occur. We know that we can learn from ‘the public’ about everything and we aim to involve the public in guiding every stage of evaluation, from ideas to impact, to the extent that our time and resources allow.
The PPI Co-Pro Team
We have a core PPI Co-Pro team co-led by Jennifer Bostock, who is a public advisor with extensive knowledge of involvement and ethics (amongst other things), and SOCRATES Codirector, Professor Cath Larkins. Cath is an academic with experience in delivering meaningful impactful co-production in research and policymaking including in rapid evaluations in social care settings.
We have a core public advisory group of 18 members. The diverse group have a wide range of experiences of social care.
Our public advisory group are supported by Tamsin Walker, who ensures they are engaged in central SOCRATES activities, as well as coproducing within evaluation level research. Tamsin and the PAG are assisted by Jo Ward, the SOCRATES Research Coordinator.
The Public Advisory Group (PAG)
You can read more about this group and meet some of its members on the Public Advisory Group Team Page.
By getting to know our advisors, their experiences, skills and passions we can offer them opportunities with mutual benefit to them and SOCRATES. In addition to advising on evaluations, the Public Advisory Group codesign and deliver training on coproduction for the whole SOCRATES team, coproduce communications and engagement activities, advise on Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and contribute to strategic direction.
"I got involved as someone who has been involved in patient and public involvement work for over 12 years and who had lived experience of both health and social care as a service user and a carer. My motivation for the patient and public involvement work remains what is was at the beginning 12 years ago that there are things in the care and treatment that people and their loved ones receive that ate not right and I want to do all I can to change that." - Debs Smith, PAG
The Evaluation Advisory Networks (EANs)
Up to three public advisors from the core PAG group are matched to individual evaluations based on people’s lived experience. Our PAG group is diverse and with three advisors per project the projects can all benefit from this diversity of life experiences. Each evaluation also engages with a network of relevant public and social care professionals. In each evaluation, this network of advisors works in different ways. Usually this will involve providing guidance on evaluation methods, analysis and outputs. Sometimes advisors will also become peer researchers.
Reflecting on our PPI-CoPro work
We use the ‘lattice of participation’—a way of thinking about who is sharing power in different stages of research—to reflect on and record the elements of involvement and coproduction achieved through our work. The Public Advisory Group has created a SOCRATES version of this lattice, to help team members tailor their activities to fit the needs and opportunities of individual evaluations and of the programme as a whole. It helps us try to make sure that stakeholders influence as many aspects of the evaluation as possible, within the limits of resources and time.