Apply to join the CA:RING Advisory Group!
CA:RING brings together young people and parents with researchers working in children’s healthcare.
We believe that people should have a say in research which can improve their care and well-being. Young people and parents can help researchers understand what’s important and how they can be fair and inclusive.
If you would like to apply to join our Advisory Group, please read the information below and then click the “Apply Now” button at the end.
This is a paid opportunity so scroll down for more details.
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The information in this video is exactly the same as the text below. If you have accessibility needs that work better with a plain-text document, you can find this here.
This video is 5m44s long.
Once you’re ready, you can scroll down to the “Apply Now” button at the bottom of this page.
What are we asking for?
It’s early days for CA:RING so we are looking for people to join our “Advisory Group”. This will be a group of people who can help us make decisions about our community.
There are two advisory groups:
- one for young people (aged 14 to 24)
- one for parents, carers and guardians
The Advisory Group will decide:
- What healthcare issues CA:RING should focus on and what our values are
- How we run the community
- Which research studies we will help with, and
- How we can make the community welcoming and inclusive
What is Patient and Public Involvement?
Patient and Public Involvement (or “PPI”) is about anyone who helps doctors or researchers make their research better. It’s not the same as being a “participant” in a clinical study! For example, when doing “PPI” people can:
- Explain to researchers what is important to young people and what kinds of things researchers should study
- Check study documents and make sure they “make sense” and are written in plain language
- Help researchers find study participants
- Help researchers explain their study results and what they mean
How much of my time will this take up?
To start, the Advisory Group will meet every 2 weeks to “create” the community together. After this, we will meet once a month.
We will do things like:
- Learn more about how research works
- Do fun activities together
- Work with visiting researchers to help them
All of our meetings will be taking place online, so you won’t need to travel or be in a room with lots of people you don’t know.
What’s in it for me?
- An opportunity to really make a difference to research and young people’s health and well-being
- Learn something new and pick up new skills (for fun, or to enhance your UCAS or CV)
- Become part of a community and meet new people
- Use your experiences to make research involvement better for others
- Get paid for your time and effort (£15 an hour if you’re under 18, or £25 if you’re over)
You need:
- To be living in the UK
- To be a young person aged 14 to 24 or a parent or carer to a young person under 25
- To be interested in making a difference to young people’s healthcare research
You don’t need:
- To have any experience of health problems. But if you do, you would be welcome to talk about it if you want to.
- To be worried that you won’t understand complicated medical studies or won’t have anything to say. We will explain everything in plain terms!
- To have any experience at all with research or “patient and public involvement”. We will get you up to speed!
How will you pick people for the Advisory Group?
It is very important to us that our Advisory Group is diverse. We only have a limited number of “spots” on the Advisory Group, so we will do our best to make sure that its members represent many different identities and backgrounds in the UK. This can mean people of different genders, ethnicities or religions – but also other social factors like where people live.
We probably would not be able to get it perfect, but we will do the best we can! If you applied but didn’t get a spot on Advisory Group, we would still encourage you to join the CA:RING Community itself. This means that you will get a newsletter with updates and other opportunities for getting involved. Just select the tick-box at the end of the application form.
What will happen after I apply?
1. We have 40 “spots” to fill. We have 20 “spots” on the Young People’s Advisory Group and 20 “spots” on the Parents & Carers Advisory Group.
2. An introductory chat. We will invite you to have a quick 1:1 online chat with us. This is so we can start getting to know each other, make sure you are comfortable with everything, and give you the chance to ask any questions. If you’re under 16 you’ll also need to bring a parent or guardian.
To keep our members safe, we will also need you to show a photo ID on camera. We won’t take any copies, we just want to be sure that you are who you say we are.
3. Off we go! The Advisory Group will then start meeting regularly to help us run the CA:RING community. You will meet real researchers and work with them to help them make their studies better.
4. Join the CA:RING Hub. If we aren’t able to include you in the Advisory Group, we will let you know by email and explain other ways to get involved.
Apply to the CA:RING Advisory Group
If you don’t want to join our Advisory Group you can still join the CA:RING Community and hear about one-off opportunities to get involved in healthcare projects.
