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Edition 2 - January 2025

Welcome to the latest edition of the
Blackpool Researching Together newsletter!

Keep reading to find out more about our Annual Learning event,
learn about our research funding opportunities and meet our
new Consultant in Public Health.
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Year 2 Annual Learning Event
Thank you to everyone who was able to join us at our second annual learning event in November.

This year’s theme was “Co-production within research” and focused on the importance of co-producing research and how we are working together with our local community to share their lived experience and help influence services and systems.

The day was a great success with some really positive feedback on the co-production work already taking place in Blackpool. We're already planning next years event to make it even bigger and better!
Find out more
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Welcome to the team Heather!
We're excited to welcome our new Consultant in Public Health, Heather Catt, to the Blackpool Researching Together team. 

Heather has joined us after 3 and half years working as the health inequalities and prevention lead for Blackpool Victoria Hospital. We're sure her experience will prove invaluable to the team!
Meet the team
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Research funding opportunities now open
Following the success of our first round of seed funding grants, applications are now open for the next round.

The grants provide up to £20,000 to support health inequalities research, enabling more residents and community organisations to work alongside Blackpool Council and academics to develop research proposals that could lead to larger funding bids, or be used for short-term, focused projects which support research skills development, such as evaluations.

Applications are welcomed from any Blackpool-based organisations or groups who have previously expressed an interest in becoming more research active or are already carrying out research.
Find out more
Project updates
Exercise referral scheme review
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Working with Active Blackpool, the team are involved in co-designing an exercise referral pathway to improve uptake of the current exercise referral scheme by understanding and overcoming the current barriers to accessing the scheme and completion of the programme. 

Community co-researcher Sandra helped facilitate two co-designed workshops to find out what works with the current system, what barriers there are to uptake and completion, and what can be improved and how. The workshops were held with a mixture of exercise practitioners and community participants of the scheme. 

Following the workshops the next stage of the project is to transcribe the information before analysis can take place.
Cosy Homes in Lancashire evaluation
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Working with PHIRST Fusion Research, the team have been evaluating who is benefitting most from the Cosy Homes in Lancashire (CHiL) scheme currently and if there are people most in need who are missing out on this opportunity.

The team have been involved in gathering information about what helps or causes a barrier on the uptake of these schemes using a range of evaluation methods, the results are now being analysed.

Community co-researchers Sandra and Sharon have been filming their experiences of co-producing research on this project which has been shared at the NIHR ARC North East and North Cumbria Peer Research Community of Practice event.
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Focus on housing
Where a person lives can have a big impact on their health, which is why housing is one of our priority areas.

We're working to provide research in areas that will help address some of the concerns of our local residents including the Cosy Homes in Lancashire (CHiL) evaluation and Supported Housing Improvement Programme (SHiP) evaluation.

Wider work is already taking place across the town to improve housing conditions, including a selective licensing scheme and £90m housing regeneration project.
Find out more
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Community blog - Chat & Play community group
Following her work as a co-researcher for Blackpool Researching Together, Siobhan saw a gap in the community groups available to families in her area and decided to do something about it.

She has now created a Chat & Play community group, providing a safe space for local families of all ages to come together for support, hot meals and toys/craft supplies.
Read more
Blackpool Researching Together and HDRC Cumberland colleagues all gathered in around a table in an office environment.
Welcoming HDRC Cumberland to Blackpool
Last month we had the pleasure of welcoming some of the HDRC Cumberland team to Blackpool.

It was great to hear how their first year as a HDRC is going. We discussed everything from our co-production model to the steps they've taken already to start embedding a research culture.

There are now 30 HDRC's and we're all learning together and sharing our experiences to get the best outcome for everyone!
Keep in touch
Website: www.blackpool.gov.uk/ResearchingTogether
Email: HDRC@blackpool.gov.uk
Don't forget to follow our social media for all the latest news!
Blackpool Council   |   PO Box 4  |   Blackpool   |   FY1 1NA
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The NIHR Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC) Blackpool is part of the NIHR and hosted by Blackpool Council. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.

NIHR Health Determinants Research Collaborations enable local authorities to become more research-active, embedding a culture of evidence-based decision making.