1. Co-researching with carers: what difference does it make? Terry Blatter, Valerie Ganderton, Rosemary Littlechild and Denise Tanner: University of Birmingham

2. Our plan  Brief outline of the project  Carer motivations to get involved  The impact of carer involvement: –on carer co-researchers –on carer participants –on research outcomes in policy and practice

3. ‘Understanding and Improving Transitions of Older People’ This project was funded by the National Institute for Health Research Service Delivery and Organisation Programme (Project No 08/1809/28). The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of Health. The presenters wish to acknowledge the major contribution made to this research by participants, co-researchers, partner organisations and academic colleagues.

4. The ‘Care Transitions’ project: starting points: Exploring older people’s experiences of care transitions Needs/experiences of some groups are complex and not well understood Implementation of research findings into practice remains problematic Participatory action research approach

5. The research design Transition experiences: In-depth interviews with older people and carers; follow up interviews after 6 months PHASE 1 Working with local statutory and third sector partners to identify and implement changes PHASE 2

6. The participants: Transitions as experienced by four ‘groups’ of older people in different areas of England Dementia (SOLIHULL) BME group (LEICESTER) Rural area (GLOUCESTERSHIRE) Low population of older people (MANCHESTER)

7. Our approach Participatory action research (PAR): –partnerships –co-research model –involvement at all stages

8. Roles of the co-researchers  Boosting recruitment  Planning interview process and designing research tools  Carrying out interviews  Informing ‘data’ via reflections  Discussion and analysis of findings  Planning and delivering feedback to stakeholders  Follow-on implementation activities

9. Evaluation: “What has been the impact of the participatory approach on the research process and on the research outcomes?”  Semi-independent evaluation  Telephone interviews (partner organisations)  Interviews (academic leads)  Focus groups (co-researchers)  All Sites Day feedback (national advisory group members and local managers)

10. What are the views and experiences of carer co-researchers about the impact of their involvement?

11. What motivated you to get involved in this project?

12. What difference has it made to you personally?

13. What difference do you think it made to the carers you interviewed?

14. What difference do you think it made to the impact of the research on policy and practice?

15. Perceptions of impact

16. http://www.netscc.ac.uk/hsdr/files/project/SDO_F R_08-1809-228_V01.pdf Full Report Understanding and improving transitions of older people: a user and carer centred approach Jo Ellins, Jon Glasby, Denise Tanner, Shirley McIver, Deborah Davidson, Rosemary Littlechild, Iain Snelling, Robin Miller, Kelly Hall, Katie Spence and the Care Transitions Project co-researchers.

17. Thank you! Contacts: Rosemary Littlechild: r.j.littlechild@bham.ac.ukr.j.littlechild@bham.ac.uk Denise Tanner: d.l.tanner@bham.ac.ukd.l.tanner@bham.ac.uk Institute for Applied Social Studies University of Birmingham Birmingham B15 2TT England