Participatory Action Research Lead (KTP Associate)

1. Establishing a co-produced approach – The KTP Associate will familiarise themselves with the work of the Minstead Trust and assemble a project steering group comprised of relevant stakeholders. They will work together to shape and oversee the ongoing KTP to ensure it remains relevant to the lives of those it seeks to impact. They will also complete a scoping exercise and literature review, and contribute to gaining research ethics approval.
2. Participatory mapping -Through planning with the project steering group, the KTP Associate will engage with relevant stakeholder groups (both internal to the Minstead Trust and more widely across the sector) to undertake participatory data collection to understand their various perspectives on the issue above. This will include identified areas of existing good practices. They also begin to plan and undertake defined activities to support Minstead Trust in better understanding co-production and how they might utilise it as an approach to service improvement.
3. Co-producing the new ways of working – Data from stage two will be analysed and used in an iterative fashion, to develop relevant new ways of working with the stakeholder groups. This stage will also include the co-production and enactment of an internal implementation
plan and related learnings.
4. External implementation (developing a community of practice) – The KTP Associate will lead on presenting the new ways of working to relevant external stakeholders (for example, family carer organisations, other social care providers, and local authority commissioners).
This will include the development of relevant case studies. They will also continue to undertake defined activities to support Minstead Trust staff in better understanding coproduction and how they might utilise it as an approach to service improvement.
5. Reporting and final documentation preparation – The KTP Associate will lead on developing future case studies and documentation relevant to the work that has been completed. This will include preparing relevant manuscripts for publication.
6. Consolidation and evaluation – The KTP Associate, in collaboration with relevant colleagues, will develop and finalise relevant communication and marketing materials relevant to the new ways of working, including case studies and materials for teach

The University of Essex is excited to have formed a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with the Minstead Trust. The Minstead Trust is a charity based in Hampshire, which works in collaboration with people with learning disabilities and their family carers, to enable them to achieve greater independence and live happier and healthier lives. One of their main areas of work is accommodation support. As they transition into adult accommodation support services, adults with a learning disability, their family carers, and Minstead Trust accommodation support staff form a tripartite relationship through which support is planned and delivered within the Minstead Trust. However, to date practices in support provision have differed, leading to miscommunications, relationship difficulties, and some areas of inconsistency and discontinuity in provided support and living circumstances. There are also often difficulties experienced during the transition from child to adult learning disability services. These are sector wide issues, which ultimately impact service users’ participation in the various activities and occupations that provide meaning, purpose, and routine within their everyday lives.

The KTP will last for 24 months and utilise a participatory action research (PAR) approach to engage relevant stakeholders who comprise and surround the tripartite relationship described above. Together they will co-produce, implement, and evaluate distinct new ways of working. These new ways of working will revolutionise engagement between adults with learning disabilities, their family
carers, and Minstead Trust staff, and lead to improved experiences for all stakeholders.

As a KTP, the KTP Associate role constitutes more than just the completion of a research project, as the focus of the role is to facilitate knowledge transfer between the University and the Minstead Trust. A key objective is that the KTP also embeds the capability of co-production within the Minstead Trust through staff engagement and support. Co-production involves partnership working towards a
mutually defined aim, where everyone connected with an issue plays an active part, and existing skills, experience and knowledge are valued and utilised (Pettican et al, 2022).