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PHIRST South Bank resources

This page holds more information about PHIRST South Bank and how members of the public are involved in our research.

First five years

PHIRST South Bank was one of the four original teams commissioned in 2020 for a period of five years. In this period we completed ten evaluations, details below. To celebrate being recommissioned for our second quinquennium in 2025 we held a celebratory event for colleagues in public health. At this event we gave updates on some of our evaluations. We also discussed the learnings that we have collected across our projects and interactions with different stakeholders.

In this video from our celebratory event PHIRST South Bank Lead, Professor Susie Sykes, talks through the recurrent themes our team has observed and how we would like to develop these over the next five years. Our invite panel, all of whom have been involved in PHIRST evaluations, then shared their learning and reflections.

Projects

PHIRST South Bank completed ten projects during our first five year tenure. Click the links below for more details on each:

1. A realist evaluation of a public health community of practice advocacy project to restrict outdoor advertising of high fat, salt, and sugar foods.
2. Evaluation of the impact of Essex Community Action Site upon Attitudes, Behaviour and public health Systems during the COVID-19 pandemic.
3. Evaluation of the development of a behaviour change unit and its contribution to local government
4. Evaluation of a public health pathway for alcohol and substance users in the criminal justice setting in Nottinghamshire
5. Greater Manchester Communities Addressing Gambling Harms
6. An evaluation of the change from face-to-face to telephone specialist smoking cessation service and its effects on underserved communities in Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Milton Keynes
7. Reducing inequalities in exercise participation: Evaluation of the novel ‘Bracknell Forest Health and Well-Being Locality Service’ (BFHWBS)
8. An evaluation of a programme for young people in need of mental health support (16–25-year-olds living in Central Bedfordshire)
9. A process evaluation of the development and early implementation of a complex strategy to reduce serious youth violence in Lambeth
10. Evaluation of how 'hybrid' public health posts in local government support the delivery of healthier places in the Oxford-Cambridge Arc
11. Health Impact Assessment in Spatial Planning: a theory-building process evaluation of established practice in Wakefield District and Borough of Doncaster 
12. Be Active Birmingham: An evaluation of equity, value, and future options for a programme offering universal free access to leisure facilities

Reflections

Our team has published 2 articles reflecting on our teams experiences during the first 5 years.

=> What Supports and Constrains the Implementation of Robust and Rapid Evaluation Within Local Government Public Health Systems? Published in Health Expectations, 2006, available from: https://doi.org/10.1111/hex.70650

=> Why does local government need to engage with evaluation? And what happens if it doesn't? Published in Evaluative Practice the magazine of the UK Evaluation Society, available from: https://evaluation.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Evaluative-Practice-No6_v2.pdf

We have also written a blog outlining our best practice experiences of working with under-served groups in public health evaluations, read the blog. This was additional content for the May 2026 PHIRST webinar: Working with under served communities in public health research, watch on YouTube.

How we involve the public

Public health by its very nature should involve the public. To be effective, public health interventions need to be a good fit for the people they are aimed at. The only way to achieve this is by involving people from different backgrounds with different life experiences from the start. PHIRST South Bank has two public contributors that contribute meaningfully to all tiers of decision-making and actions, sitting on our executive committee and being part of our local public involvement panels. We have two public contributors and representatives from voluntary Community Faith and Social Enterprise organisations represented on our advisory group, contributing to our management and strategy. On each evaluation we also recruit up to 8 local people and those with direct experience of the topic that we're evaluating.

"In every project I've worked on members of the public have offered unique insights and drawn attention to things that we as a research team haven't considered" PHIRST South Bank Lead Professor Susie Sykes

New PHIRST South Bank evaluations

Musculoskeletal Hubs in North Yorkshire

We are looking for people living in North Yorkshire who have experience of MSK conditions and are of working age. We welcome participants from all backgrounds, especially those whose voices are underrepresented in health research. You will be paid for your time at £27.50 per hour. Public contributors will usually be asked to do approx 2 hours of work a month throughout the evaluation period.

Any accessibility requirements can be discussed with the team.

Please email PHIRST South Bank for more information