Table 3.

A summary of the input and effects of public contributors in developing public involvement in the study

Activity summary	Public Contributor input	Effects
Planning PPI inputa	Actively involved in implementing and reviewing how public members were involved in the study	Held annual PPI team meeting
		Reviewed and amended PPI role; recorded changes in an updated role document
		Confirmed role was co‐produced in response to study requirements and opportunities.
		Extended role to include analysis, interpretation, synthesis and dissemination of results, co‐producing and defining role, undertaking PPI Standards audit, Instigating annual training review
Recording effects of PPIa	Developed way to record data about PPI effects	Research team adopted a regular research team agenda item—‘PPI impact and effects’—with content noted in ‘Impact Box’ and reported in meeting minutes. Researchers and PPI team to contribute to evidence of effects
Stakeholder event phase 1	Oversaw recruitment and participation of public members at event	Devised recruitment strategy—developed recruitment information, who to target, follow‐up/thank you contacts, ensured financial support offered
		Amended pre‐information to public participants to ensure that information was informative and easy to understand
		Co‐facilitated discussions by public participants
Stakeholder event phase 2	As for stakeholder event phase 1 (above) plus clarified purpose of the second event and expected contribution of patient attendees.	Involved in meetings and email discussion querying the purpose of the event and need to avoid tokenistic involvement from patient attendees. Confirmed scope of event and commitment from CI to meaningful involvement. Resulting changes included:
		• amended recruitment letter and timetable for responses, • amended workshop format with greater mixing of PPI attendees with other stakeholders and at least 1 PPI contributor on each table and • J. H. and B. H. to co‐present and co‐facilitate the meeting
Public Involvement standards audita	J. H. led audit of public involvement and recommended changes in line with national standards. She reviewed actions after 12 months and reported back to the research team (Supporting Information: Appendix 5)	Following the audit, the team:
		• recruited more diverse public participants at stakeholder events • improved communication with a monthly study update • undertook PPI training reviews and • involved public contributors in producing plain English summaries of all research outputs to improve study dissemination
Within‐study communicationa	Noted from PPI audit the difficulty of remaining well informed of study activity between quarterly meetings	Monthly research updates were provided, available to all team members
Study scrutiny	2 public contributors on the Study Steering Committee (SSC)	Effects of SSC public involvement was recorded and reported

Abbreviation: PPI, public and patient involvement.

^a New activity.