People who have experience of using adult social care services and carers are important partners in ASCRU. They help our research to be relevant, insightful and clear and easy to understand.
In October 2023 we refreshed our PIEG by advertising to find people with experience of using or caring for somebody who uses adult social care services to become members of PIEG. We now have 21 public advisors with a variety of experiences of adult social care in England.
PIEG members are supported by the ASCRU Public Involvement Leads, Jennifer Bostock and Karen Jones.
Members of PIEG work with us to make sure that our work is relevant to people who use adult social care services. Public advisors:
PIEG members work closely with ASCRU’s Management Group and a public advisor attends the monthly management meeting.
The group meets twice a year.
For a definition of some of the common terms used in health and social care see the Think Local Act Personal (TLAP) Jargon Buster.
For definitions of some common research or public involvement terms see the NIHR Glossary.
“I used to work with a project that helped older people to access community based support in Sheffield, which involved a lot of contact with unpaid carers, and the knowledge and learning I acquired through my involvement in the ASCRU unpaid care project proved helpful in thinking about the development of this role.”
– Patrick Wood
“Being involved in the ASCRU 2 programme has been informative and wonderful experience for me.
As a carer for elderly family member, I have silently tried to cope with everyday health and care challenges. But after joining the ASCRU 2 programme at the LSE as PPI contributor to assist the programme team on the review of available published evidence and to develop policy statements on how Adult Social Care could be improved, I have started to understand my challenges are not unusual but similar to what most patients and carers are experiencing across UK.
As a PPI contributor in the programme, I have been able to help and highlight what will be useful for patients to improve their health and wellbeing in the short (next 12 – 18 months), medium (next 2 – 5 years) and in the long term (3 – 10 years).
Being involved as a PPI member in this programme has been a useful learning for me, but more than this I have felt respected and motivated to assist the programme team. This has only been possible because of regular monthly engagement from the ASCRU 2 programme team and with the option to attend annual in-person event which allows all public contributors and research teams to come together for the day to share programme updates and priorities on outcome.”
– Rashmi Kumar
