Study title

This project aimed to test and create new ways for researchers, disabled people and other health and social care service users to work in partnership so that research can (1) be shaped and informed by the experiences of service users (2) better meet service user needs (3) positively impact society. The data could not be archived due to ethical considerations. Interview schedules are made available for future reuse.This project will test and create new ways for researchers, Disabled people and other health and social care service users to work in partnership so that research can (1) be shaped and informed by the experiences of service users (2) better meet service user needs (3) positively impact society. Traditionally research has been a one-way process - researchers come up with their own questions and then try to answer them. Recently people have argued that if researchers want to ask and answer the most important questions, they must work with people who have personal experience of the issues being researched. This may seem like common sense but is a big change from how research has traditionally been done. This has created new challenges. For example, how do service users get involved in research? And, what are the best ways for researchers and service users to work together? These questions seem simple but studies show many researchers struggle, or do not try, to work with service users. Our project brings together social scientists from King's College London and Shaping Our Lives - a national organisation led by and for Disabled people - to achieve two aims: (1) to work in partnership to develop new services that will support Disabled people and service users to become more involved in research and (2) to test a new approach to partnership working to help researchers and service users work together more fairly and effectively. Shaping Our Lives have created a network of organisations led by Disabled people and service users and were recently awarded 4...