CRN Wessex Highlight Report 2023/4

Part 1: Social value (including under-served)

The Wessex region works collectively to ensure social value is embedded universally as a core service requirement. A small number of the region’s achievements are highlighted below.

Small grant scheme working with communities under-served by research

The CRN Wessex Small Grant Scheme Steering Group works with communities under-served by research to better understand their needs, opportunities and challenges.  A breadth of meaningful projects received funding from the ring-fenced budget via this scheme. This includes innovative work involving co-researchers and participatory research from the ground up - such projects are difficult to fund elsewhere, addressing an unmet need.  The main impact of the scheme has been cross-sector collaborations with patients/public/community organisations to encourage research outside the NHS.  Outcomes of this funding and the partnerships include capacity building, relationships development, provision of evidence for further funding, publications, resources, presentations, events, empowerment, participant recruitment, raised awareness and identification of communities under-served by research.  A Showcase event was held to celebrate projects which were summarised in the form of an illustration (.PDF), and a number of case studies have been developed e.g. diabetes and Youth Options. 

Hosting work experience through the Research Ready Communities initiative 

As part of the Research Ready Communities initiative CRN Wessex is collaborating with the URBOND charity in Portsmouth through their community integration and youth development programmes.  Our co-produced action plan is implemented with the Community Champions trained through the Research Ready Communities initiative.  Building on the podcast raising awareness of research and careers in research, challenging gender stereotypes and backgrounds, and the careers talks with the youth development programme, CRN Wessex hosted two young people for three days of work experience during August 2023.  The programme involved workplace shadowing and time for reflection culminating in the delivery of a presentation of the learnings and an evaluation of the experience.  A video summarising the initiative is available here and a podcast with the young people sharing their experiences is available here. 

Weymouth Building Trust Project

This project aimed to support local NHS partners with the launch of the new Weymouth Research Hub and ensure its acceptance within local communities. The hub is the first clinical trials facility to open in the town, with potential to hugely expand access to health research for this deprived coastal population. The team’s first study was a Covid-19 vaccine trial. With this scheduled to open during a climate of vaccine hesitancy and fatigue, the local NHS Trust responsible for delivering vaccine programmes warned local people were unlikely to be interested, and could be actively hostile. The hub therefore needed to be supported by a specialised programme of community engagement. This project made links with trusted community leaders to help break down barriers. We ran a series of introductory workshops, explaining what health research is, and how it improves NHS care and treatments. These sessions were well attended and well received. As a result, community leaders agreed to act as trusted links with their localities, helping us recruit to forthcoming studies and keeping connections lively and functioning. 

Wessex Research Buses

This year saw the launch of our two Wessex Research Buses. The aim of these vehicles is to take research into the heart of communities. We know from participant feedback (PRES) that travel into hospitals makes it hard for some people to take part in research. The difficulties of finding and paying for public transport is a problem for many. For those driving, there is the pressure of trying to park on arrival. Navigating sprawling sites is also off-putting. By going mobile, we are responding to this feedback. The buses can park in community centres, supermarkets and residential streets. This changes the ask completely - meaning we are taking opportunities to people, rather than demanding they come to us. This is a key way to improve diversity, widen participation and address health inequalities. The buses will work with and build relationships with communities which have never previously engaged with us. They are available for hire by partner organisations meaning they will benefit the wider region. They can also be used for outreach and engagement work, an important stage in readying communities for research. Further information on the Wessex Research Buses can be found here.

Part 2: Local initiatives/projects/programmes that have resulted in a national difference

The Wessex core and direct delivery teams are fully engaged in projects that make a national difference. Some examples from the team are summarised below.

‘Your Study Overview’ dashboard

The "Your Study Overview" national Qlik Sense dashboard was introduced this year. The dashboard was a collaborative creation, beginning with an idea in a CRN CC Virtual Business Intelligence Unit 'hack' session, and CRN Wessex Business Intelligence led the development. The dashboard offers a summary of a selected project, highlighting key performance statistics for the study and its sites. Notable features include RTT tracking, a map with site summary data, a link to confirm research activity for the selected study and recruitment tracking against the sample size. Available across the UK, the dashboard provides study leaders, CRN support teams and participating sites with an easy way to see the study summary. It can be accessed using a direct link which has been included in communications and other dashboards.

Industry Collaboration and Engagement

Our CRN Wessex DDT lead along with national DDT representatives facilitated the PharmaForum Webinar, which turned into a "Call to Arms" for industry involvement in protocol design to support research in underserved communities. Through this initiative, industry in collaboration with UK researchers will have better opportunities to successfully  conduct research and promote health and prosperity.

Part 3: Local initiatives/projects/programmes to grow the commercial portfolio

A selection of local initiatives to support the growth of the commercial portfolio are as follows.

CRN Wessex Portfolio GP Research Fellows

The Wessex Portfolio GP Research Fellow programme supports GPs who have completed vocational training and wish to work as clinician researchers to develop their skill set.  The GP research fellows posts were primarily focused on research delivery, with the long term aim of developing research capacity and capability as well as leadership skills for those working in primary care. The clinical sessions were funded with at least two consecutive sessions based in the local Wessex Research Hubs in Southampton and Bournemouth. The third session was held within a host GP practice, with an in-house GP research lead supervisor.  One of several outcome measures was to increase clinical research delivery in a primary and community care setting in terms of both the commercial and non-commercial NIHR Portfolio. An additional aim was to support and encourage the development of future Chief and Principal investigators. This research experience has been evaluated as highly valuable. All research fellows gained experience in recruiting, consenting and following up participants.

Oncology pharmacy - strategic workforce funding

The LCRN facilitated a working group to explore ways to streamline processes in Oncology Pharmacy at a regional level, as this is one of the largest commercial portfolios and was experiencing capacity issues and delays in set up. On average 1 to 2 studies were approved per month, with a significant number of studies on the waiting list. Funding was awarded to the Oncology Pharmacy team at University Hospitals Southampton to increase specialist oncology pharmacy capacity and support transcription and validation of cancer protocols onto the regional prescribing system. The Oncology Pharmacy team appointed 3 members of staff to support the initiative, 2 full time Pharmacists and a part time Pharmacy Technician. As a result, the number of commercial studies approved has doubled with further improvements expected over the coming months. 

National RATER Programme

In collaboration with the CRNCC, the Wessex senior RDM has continued to lead the national RATER programme. RATER is now embedded across the CRNs with regional rater leads meeting regularly as a national group. The programme’s NIHR Learn toolkit was launched early 2023 and now has 257 professionals enrolled. A key RATER programme aim is to increase numbers of trained raters available to support commercial trial delivery and enable quicker site set-up. Through successful engagement with industry, a pilot focusing on rater development is underway between Roche and the RATER team involving four NHS sites. At a leadership level, funding has been secured to appoint a co-lead who will expand RATER for those delivering assessments in Parkinson’s disease research. There are discussions underway to explore the feasibility of extending RATER to other specialties.