Public and Community Engagement

Purposeful P&CE works comes from knowledge creation and exchange with communities to ensure positive outcomes and effective change. Our approach has been to:

• Network and collaborate with key stakeholders and community groups to identify areas of priority.
• Train and develop academic and professional service staff.
• Embed P&CE within our education, research, and business engagement activities.
• Invest in support of open research
• Resource key activities – financially (to include software, personnel, projects, and activities)
• Evaluate the work undertaken in terms of impact and significance.
• Learn from best practice and reward/celebrate engagement.

UON’s public and community engagement priorities are articulated as four Changemaker Commitments:

1. Every young person can flourish and learn.
2. Positive health and wellbeing is fostered and promoted for all.
3. Ensuring the communities’ cultures, heritage, and environment are respected, protected, and enhanced for future generations.
4. Building and sustaining a positive environment in which entrepreneurial opportunities are supported to grow.

These commitments encourage cross-disciplinary approaches, focussing activities, and allocation of resources to create positive engagement and social impact. UON collaborates with established networks to ensure strategic alignment with local and regional needs. Examples of collaboration includes the Northamptonshire Health and Wellbeing Board, the Southeast Midlands Local Enterprise Partnerships (SEMLEP), the County’s Heritage Forum, and Local Authorities and Statutory Bodies. As part of the university’s strategy development an exercise is currently underway to remap the stakeholders and develop a revised strategy for engagement.

Responsibility for research, impact and knowledge exchange is shared between the Dean of Research, Impact and Innovation and the Director for Enterprise and Employability. These posts work closely ensuring P&CE is supported with an appropriate infrastructure that supports academic and professional service engagement. The co-creation of Knowledge Exchange and Research Strategies and operational plans guide the working of two key University Central committees (the Research, Innovation and Impact Committee and the Business, Engagement, Enterprise, and Entrepreneurial Committee. Both committees report to the University Senate and Leadership Team chaired by the Vice Chancellor.

We believe the key to advancing and embedding EDI priorities is to have strong policies, procedures, training and development alongside dedicated projects and funding to support positive change. UON has staff advocacy networks including the Global Ethnic Majority, LGBTQ+, the Disability, Women’s, and Gender Research Groups. We have developed a suite of training that focusses on EDI including decolonising the curriculum and research agenda, EDI in research methodologies, and unconscious bias training. Internal funding has been dedicated to race and equality-related KE projects. UON is committed to the five principles articulated in the Equality Commission Unit’s Race Equality Charter. This provides a framework to identify and address institutional and cultural barriers faced by UON staff from ethnic minorities.

UON has a comprehensive support infrastructure (Public and Community Engagement), enabling effective P&CE for academic and professional service staff. All UON Institutes and Centres engage in P&CE and are monitored annually. The same applies to our Student Futures team and our Schools Engagement and Liaison teams. The community engagement team provides training and support for staff and students and our online portal provides access to community engagement opportunities and personal development activities. The Changemaker Fellowship provides community leadership development. Our placement team works to align student and community interests and all course validation and review panels have relevant industry/professional representation. Staff are entitled to paid community leave to undertake community engagement and UON is an active participant in the county’s volunteer passport programme.

Resourcing comes from core budget, HEIF, QR, and external funding to support dedicated staffing (Figure 1), and various internal project funding, alongside a commitment to open research via our public research portal (Pure). Funding also supports partnerships with key stakeholders to leverage additional resource.

Recognition and reward for staff and students comes from explicit recognition in job descriptions from 2022/23 and time in workload allocations. Further support comes from internally funded allocations in learning and teaching, Business Innovation, impact-related, participatory and community engagement projects. In terms of reward, our Associate Professor and Professorial Schemes recognise P&CE. Celebration comes in the form of our Changemaker, STAAR and Diamond Research awards.

In practical terms, Equality Impact Analyses are undertaken for all University policies and procedures related to P&CE activities. We have a range of policies including sabbatical leave, study leave, flexible and remote working, and support for equality-related circumstances including reasonable adjustments needed to support engagement. In terms of P&CE activity we engage with our target audiences and professionals to ensure the event/activity/content will meet the right needs including consideration of venue, accessibility, dietary requirements, financial support, and time-related concerns. Public and patient involvement is underpinned by rigorous risk and ethics procedures.

The key programmes of activity at UON have mostly (but not exclusively) focused around the Changemaker Challenges and our commitment to social impact. All projects listed below have had support.

1. Every young person can flourish and learn

Key focus for the School Liaison and Engagement teams and the Centres for Active Digital Education and Education and Research lead in this area. Partnership work with a range of local, national, and international stakeholders, including children’s centres, NGOs, governments, further and higher education institutions, charities, nurseries, and schools ensure we meet the needs of the relevant communities.

Examples of Projects/Activities:

• ACES Action Northamptonshire (cross sector and multidisciplinary partnership focussed on disadvantaged communities in Northamptonshire).
• Aspire Higher (part of the Uni Connect national initiative to raise aspirations and support learners living in areas of deprivation).
• Artists in Residence (Paul Hamlyn Foundation funded Arts Education project offering pupils access to technical arts skills support through UON’s arts department and students).
• ASD East: Autism Spectrum Disorder – Empowering and Supporting Teachers
• Children as Researchers of their own Wellbeing (a project that empowered year 5 participants to design evaluation tools to measure the impact of ‘Music for Wellbeing’ delivered by Northampton Music and Performing Arts Trust).
• Science Outside the Classroom (European participatory project focussing on children with differing abilities and working with schools and teachers to enhance the learning possibilities and experiences of children).
• Song and Cultural Education Capacity in Young People (increased opportunities for youth participation in the experience of live music making through engagement with school choirs).
• STEAM Northants (activities to inspire and enthuse young people in all careers and subjects around STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and maths)
• UON Annual Lecture for Children and Young People

2. Positive health and wellbeing is fostered and promoted for all

Key focus for the Centres for Health Sciences and Services, Physical Activity and Life Sciences, Psychological and Sociological Sciences and the Institute of Social Impact and Innovation and the Institute for Public Safety and Criminal Knowledge. International, national, and local partnerships (e.g., Northamptonshire Healthcare Foundation Trust, National Volunteer Police Cadets) alongside membership of relevant bodies (e.g., Regional Advisory Boards, trustees for national associations and charities, community groups and forums) ensures the efficacy of the projects.

Examples of Projects/Activities:

• Angela Project (worked in partnership to develop a national Good Practice Guide distributed via the Young Dementia Network).
• Annual Memory Days (established to provide advice and signposting on issues relating to memory and dementia)
• Building a Well Communities Research Consortium to address health inequalities across Integrated Care Systems (interdisciplinary and cross-sector to develop new networks exploring how health and care systems can better integrate with community assets)
• Café Scientifique (public engagement events where researchers host public lectures and workshops in a local café).
• Connected Together CIC (engages communities informing wellbeing policy and practice),
• DEFIN-YD (Young onset dementia public engagement project).
• Forget Me Nots (set up to provide a normalised social engagement for people with dementia and their families).
• Public Health, ICS, and University of Northampton Partnership March 2023
• Regional life science forum (working in partnership with East Northamptonshire Council).
• Sepsis Roadshow (in collaboration with Northampton General Hospital and Sepsis UK to improve understanding of this disease).
• UnityDEM group (provided formal support and cognitive training for people with dementia and a support programme for family carers).
• University of Northampton’s Joint Action Dementia forum
• Waterside Campus (developed as an accessible community facility for the COVID-19 pandemic response.)

3. Ensuring the communities’ cultures, heritage, and environment are respected, protected, and enhanced for future generations

Key focus for the Centres for Cultural and Literary Studies, Historical Studies, Sustainable Futures (this Centre came into existence because of public and business enquiries) and the Institute for Creative Leather Technologies. Partners range for national organisations such as English Heritage to more local ones such Northamptonshire County Cricket Club, Northamptonshire Local Nature Partnership, Nene Valley Catchment Partnership, Northamptonshire Heritage Forum and East Midlands History and Heritage.

Examples of Projects/Activities:

• Changing Futures Week (showcases industry careers and opportunities through a packed agenda of masterclasses, keynote speakers, demonstrations, and workshops with leading industry speakers).
• Degree Show (to give the public a unique chance to view the work of the next generation of creative talent, showcasing the work from Photography to Fashion, Fine Art to Games Art.)
• Fine art Exhibition (public student art exhibitions delivered in community spaces and residencies)
• Greening the toy industry (collaborative project to reduce waste generated by poorly designed, products, packaging, and distribution systems)
• High Sherriff Lectures (annual lectures hosted by UON on behalf of the High Sheriff)
• Nenescape (collaborative project focusing on the River Nene between Northampton and Peterborough to celebrate, protect and conserve the natural and built heritage of the landscape)
• Northamptonshire Heritage Forum and Easy Midlands History and Heritage
•  (NLive is run by community volunteers alongside students and lecturers in developing content, producing programming, and journalism).
• Public Sector Poetry (for people working in, retired from, or studying to enter education, health and social care or social work).

4. Positive environment in which entrepreneurial opportunities are supported to grow.

Key focus for the Centre for Sustainable Business Practices, the Institute for Creative Leather Technologies, the Institute for Social Impact and Innovation, Student Futures and the work of the Changemaker Incubator and Business Team. Activities aimed at supporting sustainable and ethical business development and ensuring the public-private-third-academic sectors work together with communities as cocreators in understanding community needs and designing initiatives to address them.

Example Projects/Activities:

• Freshpact (collaboration with retailers, manufacturers and agribusinesses operating within food supply chains rooted in developing or emerging economies to identify shared high priority social and environmental challenges).
• Goodwill solutions CIC, (provides collaborative research, internships, PhD studentships, and KTP opportunities around logistics, social value, and the rehabilitation of offenders).
• Social Innovation Linkages for Knowledge Exchange Network (SILKEN), (partnership work to establish training and consultancy with external stakeholders, advocacy with policymakers and community engagement).

Further UON evidence of outcomes:

• 500+ outreach activities including public lectures, broadcasting, journalism, roadshows, book clubs, blogs, school visits, heritage events, performances, podcasting, media interviews and acting in advisory capacities.
• Open Research 2022: 135227 downloads of research outputs including articles, books, chapters, theses, reports, exhibitions, musical compositions, datasets, patents and performance related materials.

Evaluation of P&CE activities is included in the university’s social impact report. In 2021, the university adopted a social impact reporting framework all UON P&CE outputs and outcomes which are auditable and open to peer review. The first report produced is due to be published in March 2023.

The Institute for Social Innovation and Impact undertakes the evaluation of the impact of UON’s P&CE activity, building on their expertise in international knowledge exchange networks. HEIF funding will be invested in a further researcher in 2023/24 to expand the capability of the team and inform the wider debate on effective measurement.

Our P&CE plan includes input indicators such as:

• allocated HEIF funding to deliver P&CE activities
• increasing the engagement of staff and students in relevant CPD and P&CE by 50%
• increasing the number of students engaged in P&CE activities to 30%
• increase the number of associate professors and professors of enterprise and professional practice by 25%

Output measures include:

• increase public engagement with P&CE activities by 50%
• increase the number of UON/Community collaborative funding initiatives to 10 per annum
• increase staff involvement in P&CE activities by 25%

P&CE social impact framework outcomes are linked to levelling up, build back better, and road map priorities.

UON’s KE governance requires reports to the Business, Enterprise, and Engagement Committee, with recommendations for continuous improvement, and policy changes required to enhance P&CE. These are cascaded through the faculties, institutes, and centres to inform practice and enhance engagement. The KE plan identifies enhanced CPD and training for 2023/24 with £70,000 earmarked to enhance the provision, development, and introduction of new tools to support the development of a community of practice.

UON is in a period of transition in the way P&CE activities are evaluated, moving to a mixed approach including metrics and evaluations to inform continuous improvement. Implementation is at an early stage with the methodology now the infrastructure is in place to move forward. Further work is required to develop reporting systems and refine the KPIs, and measures adopted.

Responsibility for research and knowledge exchange is shared between the Dean of Research and Impact and the Director for Enterprise and Employability. These posts work closely ensuring KE is supported with an appropriate infrastructure. Both are part of the University Leadership Team (ULT) and Senate, giving KE a strategic voice and accountability.

The review of KE and research governance in 2021, identified the need to dedicate more time to ensure good governance of KE while retaining the existing strong arrangements in place for research. Senate agreed a new arrangement (fig 2) in July 2022. This two-committee structure introduced the Business, Engagement, Enterprise, and Entrepreneurial Committee and the Research, Innovation, and Impact Committee, replicated in Faculties to ensure effective two-way communication, best practice sharing, and infrastructure development.

Responsibility for research and knowledge exchange is shared between the Dean of Research and Impact and the Director for Enterprise and Employability. These posts work closely ensuring KE is supported with an appropriate infrastructure. Both are part of the University Leadership Team (ULT) and Senate, giving KE a strategic voice and accountability.

The review of KE and research governance in 2021, identified the need to dedicate more time to ensure good governance of KE while retaining the existing strong arrangements in place for research. Senate agreed a new arrangement (fig 2) in July 2022. This two-committee structure introduced the Business, Engagement, Enterprise, and Entrepreneurial Committee and the Research, Innovation, and Impact Committee, replicated in Faculties to ensure effective two-way communication, best practice sharing, and infrastructure development.

UON’s Knowledge Exchange Concordat identified five key priorities to improve the infrastructure:

1. Improve clarity of mission
2. Provide clarity over access P&CE for staff, students, communities, and publics.
3. Enhance the approach to evaluation
4. Improve collation and monitoring of data to inform continuous improvement
5. Create formal governance environment for KE including P&CE

Action plans for these priorities were brought together into the UON KE strategy (priority 1), approved by Senate in September 2022. Action plans form the work plan for BEEEC, with HEIF resources, responsibilities, and progress against milestones reviewed and monitored.  Priority 2 saw the introduction of the community engagement team as a single point of access for P&CE support, Priority 3 saw the adoption of a new evaluation framework, and Priority 4 developed PURE to accommodate P&CE activities. Priority 5 was achieved with the adoption of the governance arrangements outlined above. Dissemination and promotion of P&CE activities is achieved through partnership forums (e.g., SEMLEP skills forum, stakeholder groups, Industry liaison forums, Social Enterprise Mark HEI group, Social Enterprise UK HEI group, Health and Wellbeing Board, Business Improvement District committees, Northampton Forward, Voluntary Sector forums, University Court, UON’s PR department through a range of media outlets) and UON’s annual report