PHIRST Seminars

Our online sessions use PHIRST evaluations to discuss different elements of public health research. Scroll down for recordings of previous seminars or watch them along with other PHIRST video content on our NIHR PHIRST You Tube channel.

Seminar 9 - Working with under-served communities in public health research

Recorded on 7 May 2026, the session was hosted by PHIRST PHRESH and chaired by Dr Opeyemi Babatunde. Slides from the presentations are available to view here and you can watch the recording below.

This session focused on PHIRST evaluations that adapted and were flexible in their methods to involve under-served groups that face additional barriers to participating in research. Presenters shared practical insights into what worked well, what proved challenging, and what can be learned to support more inclusive and context‑sensitive public health research.

Sarah Janac and Anna Boath from PHIRST Elevate shared insights from their evaluation of Camden's Best Start for Baby service. They discussed logistical and ethical considerations of recruiting, collecting data and reimbursing parents from a range of different backgrounds and experiences (07:07-19:12).

Tricia Jessiman from PHIRST Insight presented findings from the evaluation of the Falls Exercise Management programme in Lincoln and was joined by Bev Pattison a public contributor on the project. They demonstrated how they had adapted their recruitment methods for a population of over 65s including accessible information sheets, in-person introductions to the study and face-to-face data collection. They also shared learnings from talking to people who had declined to participate in the exercise intervention (19:12-38:59).

Krysia Canvin from PHIRST PHRESH shared details from the evaluation of Projects Athena and Phoenix, supporting prison leavers in NE Lincolnshire. Krysia discussed the challenges involved in evaluating this individualised intervention with an extremely marginalised and stigmatised group where impact may be modest or inconsistent, from collecting data to assessing impact (38:59-53:14).

Blogs

In addition to the the webinar presentations, our PHIRST Connect and South Bank teams each produced blogs on the topic of working with under-served groups, drawing on their wide range of PHIRST evaluations:

PHIRST Connect, engaging under-served populations in public health research

PHIRST South Bank, working with under-served communities in evaluation research

Seminar 8 - Healthy Place Making: Improving Public Health through Planning

Recorded on 20 October 2025, the session was hosted by PHIRST Insight and chaired by Professor Russ Jago. Slides from the presentations are available to view here and you can watch the recording below.

This session focused on PHIRST evaluations that examine how local government public health and planning teams can work together to improve our environments. Emma Halliday from PHIRST LiLaC and Lourdes Madigasekera Elliott from Sussex County Council gave an update on the evaluation of Healthy Place Officer posts in East Sussex and Southampton (04:52-19:08) the Parent infant relationship initiative (05:39-29:54).

Thomas Mills from PHIRST South Bank presented their evaluation of similar posts created in the Oxford Cambridge Arc (19:08-33:34). Tom was joined by Sam Smith Sam Smith, now Planning Manager at NHS London Healthy Urban Development Unit but was the Public Health Principal for the Built Environment at Milton Keynes City Council during the evaluation.

The third presentation was PHIRST Insight's evaluation of supplementary planning guidance developed by Brent Council to improve amenity space in new developments presented by Hannah Littlecott (34:00-47:41).

A panel discussion (47:44-1:17:46) formed the final part of the session featuring observations from:

Adam Briggs, Director of the NIHR Public Health Research Programme and Deputy Director of Public Health at Oxfordshire City Council
Andrew Charlesworth-May, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Riham Lotfi, Public Partner, Evaluation of the Residential Amenity Space and Place Quality SPD (Supplementary Planning Document) in Brent
Andrew Netherton, Programme Manager (Housing, Planning and Environments for Health), Directorate for Prevention and the Public Health System, Office for Health Improvement and Disparities.

Seminar 7 - Evaluations of public health interventions with children and young people

Recorded on 14 May 2025, the session was hosted by PHIRST Fusion and chaired by Professor Elizabeth Goyder. Slides from the presentations are available to view here and you can read the From Questions to Cartoons blog on creating an animation for an evaluation.

This session discussed interventions aiming to improve the health and wellbeing of children and young people and discussed ways that they had been included in shaping and commenting on the evaluations. Nick Woodrow from PHIRST Fusion and Helena Cripps from Nottinghamshire County Council presented findings from the evaluation of the Parent infant relationship initiative (05:39-29:54). Feedback from parents helped tailor delivery of the service and ensure parents remained engaged. Quantitative data on greater milestone attainment in babies involved in the programme provided evidence during recommissioning of the service.

Samantha Garay from PHIRST Insight described the healthier advertising evaluation in Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan (30:23-46:01. Before bringing in restrictions on adverts for High Fat Salt and Sugar foods the councils wanted to know if there were any impacts of advertising on local children and young people. The evaluation showed high awareness of advertising and a sophisticated grasp of the impacts that restrictions may have. Samantha also shared how young people had been involved in shaping this research both in the questions it addressed and the materials used.

Finally, Jessica T Oha from PHIRST South Bank discussed an intervention to improve the mental health of 16-25 year olds in Central Bedfordshire (47:08-1:13:18). Jessica took the audience on a journey to think about the changes that had happened in their own lives between these ages and how those experiences impacted mental wellbeing. This intervention was effective in improving young people's mental health and increasing access to mental health support.

Seminar 6 - Using Routine Data to inform public health interventions

Recorded on 18 November 2024, the session was hosted by PHIRST LiLaC and chaired by Dr Emma Halliday. Slides from the presentations are available to view here and you can read the Routine Data blog which features more examples.

This session discussed PHIRST evaluations where routine data played a prominent role. The first presentation given by Peter van der Graaf discussed the PHIRST Fusion evaluation of the South Tyneside Social Navigators programme (06:17-28:22). The presentation explored how the PHIRST had helped to make the data being collected by the service more effective so that it provides more insights on how it is helping local residents.

Second Samantha Garay from PHIRST Insight presented the Mindset Teams in the Scottish education system evaluation (28:23-47:52). This presentation dealt with how PHIRST Insight accessed nationally collected data from the Scottish Government and how they processed this into a useable research resource.

Thirdly Emma Coombes from PHIRST LiLaC discussed two in-progress evaluations based in Liverpool: the housing retrofit programme and locally funded welfare schemes. Emma discussed some basics of data security and protection and how these evaluations are linking data collected by the Local Authority and NHS services to provide provide greater insights than either data set alone.

Seminar 5 - Creating a lasting legacy through evaluation

Recorded on 25 April 2024, the session was hosted by PHIRST Light and chaired by Professor Elizabeth Orton. Slides from the presentations are available to view here.

This session discussed examples where PHIRST teams have developed tools and / or procedures as part of their evaluation that have continued to be used by local teams for long term benefit and impact. Members of the PHIRST Light Public Advisory Group will reflect on their experiences working on PHIRST evaluations. The different perspective they bring to the research and that impact that this has on both themselves and the project.

The first presentation was given by Tom Mills from PHIRST South Bank and Ruth Dean from Hertfordshire County Council discussing the Central Bedford, Bedfordshire and Milton Keynes smoking cessation service. Tom and Ruth described the impact the evaluation had on the outreach activities conducted by the service to engage with different groups of smokers (07:09 - 32:20). Empowering the service to take a more strategic approach with this strand of it's work.

The second evaluation was the Southwark Holiday Activity Food (HAF) programme with Leandro Garcia from PHIRST Fusion and Anita Sewornu from Southwark Council. They described a network analysis tool developed by Fusion and it's ongoing use at Southwark Council. The tool enables the HAF programme to map activity providers and food providers geographically and the strength of connections between these organisations. This creates a clearer picture of the food network in the borough and may help improve efficiency or reduce disruption (32:51 - 1:06:07)

The final section was a structured discussion with members of the PHIRST Light Public Advisory Group (PAG): Marcia Hudson, Pradeep Khutti and Beauty Tshuma. They described their role in PHIRST Light evaluations and the importance and impact of inclusive patient and public involvement
(1:06:25 - 1:29:20).

Seminar 4 - Doing public health differently: Taking positives from the pandemic

Recorded on 5 December 2023, the session was hosted by PHIRST South Bank and chaired by Professor Susie Sykes. Slides from the presentations are available to view here.

The PHIRST initiative was commissioned in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic and many of the early evaluation projects looked at schemes related to these changes. The first part of the seminar described evaluations of services that had moved to or started to include a virtual method of service delivery during pandemic restrictions. First, Duncan Gillespie from PHIRST Fusion described the North Yorkshire Living Well Smokefree Service (09:24 - 23:45). This was followed by Adam Wagner and Nigel Lloyd from PHIRST Connect discussing the Leeds Drug and Alcohol Support Service (DASE study) and the Welsh National Exercise Referral Scheme (NERS) evaluations (26:30 - 44:26).

In the second section Daniel Frings from PHIRST South Bank presented the evaluation of the Essex Coronavirus community action site. This was an innovative collaboration between the Public Health team at Essex County Council and local social media influencers to use Facebook to deliver up to date public health messaging (1:03:52 - 1:21:36).

Finally, Professor Jane Wills from PHIRST South Bank chaired a discussion with Mary-Ann McKibben from Public Health Wales and Jane Hemuka from Sandwell Council. Mary-Ann and Jane gave their reflections on working with PHIRST on the Welsh National Exercise Referral Scheme and West Midlands COVID Community Champions evaluations, respectively (1:23:50 - 1:36:16).

Seminar 3 - Public Partnerships

Recorded on 25 April 2023 the session was hosted by PHIRST Connect and co-chaired by Professor Julia Jones and Amander Wellings. The seminar presented different ways that members of the public have been involved in PHIRST evaluations and the value their contributions have added in these.

The first presentation was given by Amander Wellings the Public Co-Applicant for PHIRST Connect looking at the UK Standards for Public Involvement in Research which Amander helped to co-author (03:42 - 13:32). Next was a recorded conversation between Dr Thomas Mills from PHIRST South Bank and James Grimes the Head of Education for the organisation, Gambling with Lives. They discussed the impact of lived experience in public health and practice using the example of a PHIRST evaluation of communities addressing gambling related harms in Greater Manchester (14:14 - 28:46).

Next, Judi Kidger from PHIRST Insight explained how they has involved school children as co-researchers on their PHIRST evaluation of universal school meals in the London borough of Hammersmith and Fulham (30:10 - 44:27). The final presentation was a structured discussion between Amander Wellings, Public Co-Applicant for PHIRST Connect and Sian Harding a member of the Connect Public Involvement in Research Group (PIRG). This focussed on how PHIRST Connect apply the UK Standards for Public Involvement in Research in practice. In particular, gaining insight from Sian as a relative new comer to public involvement and hearing her experiences (46:29 - 1:01:40).

Seminar 2 - Capacity Building in collaboration with local authorities and partners

Recorded on 3 November 2022 the session was hosted by PHIRST Insight and chaired by Professor Rona Campbell. It discussed different ways to build research capacity in the organisations that PHIRST works with.

Dr Jo Williams a Public Health Consultant at Bristol City Council and Senior Lecturer at Bristol University set the scene of public health within local governments and how the landscape may impact on PHIRST evaluations (07:29 - 20:19). Dr Peter Van Der Graaf from PHIRST Fusion then introduced the 'Embedded researcher' model used in evaluations and introduced Jenny Gillespie a Senior Health Promotion Officer with NHS Tayside who reflected on her role as an embedded researcher in the Healthy Weight Tayside evaluation (20:55 - 37:03).

Next, Tricia Jessiman from PHIRST Insight describes her experience of working with the Clinical Research Network on the Oxfordshire Active Travel evaluation. Tricia introduced Chris Hille from the Thames Valley and South Midlands Clinical Research Network and Priyanka Vasantavada from Oxfordshire County Council who gave their perspectives of working on the project (37:33 - 49:56).

Dr Katie Newby from PHIRST Connect talking increasing research capacity by training partner. She presented the example of training service coordinators from the Welsh National Exercise Referral Scheme in qualitative methodology (51:07 - 1:01:48). Dr Thomas Mills from PHIRST South Bank then described his use of co-inquiry on an evaluation of a smoking cessation service in the Bedfordshire area as a way to involve a wider network of public health practitioners (1:02:02 - 1:11:52).

Seminar 1 - Knowledge mobilisation and approaches to dissemination and impact

Recorded on 30 June 2022 the session was hosted by PHIRST Fusion and chaired by Professor Ashley Adamson.

Professor Jane Wills from PHIRST South Bank gave an overview of knowledge mobilisation and impact (07:47 - 13:13). She then introduced Neave Beard the Strengthening Communities Lead at Essex County Council. Neave shared her experience of working with PHIRST on the evaluation of a social media community page used to spread accurate public health information during the Covid pandemic (13:13 - 21:58).

Dr Andrew Passey from PHIRST Fusion then introduced the role of embedded practitioners in PHIRST evaluations. Andy Whitehead from South Gloucestershire County Council then reflected how this had facilitated the evaluation of emergency travel schemes introduced during the Covid pandemic (21:58 - 35:36).

Professor Katherine Brown and Amander Wellings, respectively, Lead for, and Public Co-Applicant for PHIRST Connect presented examples of Patient and Public Engagement and Involvement (PPIE), Co-production and Creative approaches linked to their evaluation of remote service delivery in the Leeds Drug and Alcohol Service. Please note this section contains excerpts from public engagement activities conducted in the course of the research, and contains language which may offend some readers or viewers. The PHIRST scheme has a strong emphasis on co-production and inclusion of the public voice. As such, retaining the language used by research participants and/or members of the public is considered important (46:38 - 01:05:18).

In the final section of the seminar Tricia Jessiman from PHIRST Insight gave a presentation on developing impact related to an evaluation of universal free school meals in the London borough of Hammersmith.

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