Service user and public involvement in research (often referred to as patient and public involvement or PPI) is an important issue for health and social care practitioners, for whom co-production of research is perceived to be in line with professional person-centred values (Harries et al., 2019). In order to embrace this principle, we suggest that it is essential to understand how service users have historically been marginalised in research, a position that both reflects and perpetuates organisational policy and professional assumptions, attitudes and approaches. Within health and social care, research has traditionally been led and undertaken by professionals and practitioners. In general, the voices of service users, family

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Allied health professional (AHP) research and development (R&D) locality groups were formed as part of a Northern and Yorkshire Regional R&D initiative in 1998 to provide infrastructure support for R&D, however, their sustainability has proved problematic. This paper charts the journey of one locality group and uses the research cycle model to illustrate an attempt to make interdisciplinary research capacity building in practice a reality. Collaborative development of a research proposal proved valuable, despite not gaining funding. An initiative to build research capacity in both qualified AHP staff and pre-registration Masters’ students in the context of research project supervision is being promoted as part of pre-registration Masters programmes at Northumbria University. Locality group members have formed a collaborative learning group to support research-minded practitioners. For those individuals who want to make the move from research consumer to researcher in practice, infrastructure support remains inadequate. Innovative intra- and inter-organizational models need to be explored.

Approaches to the development of strategy within the context of change vary in both style and success. A participatory approach to change provides everyone involved in the process with the opportunity to share their experience and knowledge, explore common values and create something they can have shared ownership of and responsibility for. The challenges to management are often around their perceived position of power, their need to control and plan the change process and the concept that ideas are best generated by experts.

Background A health inequalities gap exists between wealthy and deprived areas. Community-level occupation-focused interventions may support citizens and address inequities within their environments. Since the global financial crash of 2008 and fiscal policy changes within the United Kingdom, there has been a rise in food insecurity. Community volunteer initiatives have responded by providing for their residents. The aim of this study was to explore how occupational therapists may be agents for social change through exploring perspectives of members and volunteers from a community food cooperative in an area of social deprivation. Methods Eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with cooperative members and volunteers within a food cooperative established to address food insecurity in a local community. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Results We found three main themes: It’s Not a Foodbank, Shared Hardship and a cross-cutting theme of Community. The results suggest occupation-focused responses can support the development of community and collective occupations thereby contributing solutions to shared problems. Conclusion A community-centred, rights-based approach has supported local community need where socio-economic disadvantage and health inequalities were identified. Scope exists for occupational therapists to work genuinely with (not for) communities to address occupational injustice through collective occupation.