Getting RREAL about implementation of a Whole Systems Approach (WSA) to obesity prevention in Northern Ireland (NI): A process evaluation

How are the public involved in the evaluation?

The public are involved throughout this project in several ways. Local members of the public with lived experience contribute to advisory group meetings and provide insight on the local environment, research process, findings and outputs.

Throughout all PHIRST Connect projects the Public Involvement in Research group (PIRg) act as a critical friend on key elements of the research process. Three members of the PIRg are part of the research team, input into regular team meetings, review documentation and will provide insight into findings, recommendations and outputs.

Lay summary of research

Whole Systems Approaches aim to tackle obesity, not by focussing on individuals and what they need to do, but instead by paying attention to wider social, commercial, and environmental influences, such as the availability of affordable healthy food and access to green spaces. Whole Systems Approaches aim to bring together local stakeholders, members of the community and policy makers to map out all of the influences on obesity within a specific geographical area - the ‘system’, and then to plan positive changes to improve the health and wellbeing of everyone living there. The hope is that a new understanding of obesity can be used to improve the health and wellbeing of people living in Northern Ireland and reduce health care costs by reducing obesity.

Whole Systems Approaches are new ways of working that challenge long-held thinking and traditional practices. We will work with the Public Health Agency and the early adopter sites to evaluate how they get on with implementing a Whole Systems Approach for the first time using guidance published by Public Health England. We will use 'RREAL sheets' (a rapid evaluation and appraisal method from the Rapid Research Evaluation and Appraisal Lab) to collect and summarise data. We will identify lessons learnt from each early adopter site and whether other sites could be doing things differently in the future to make the process easier and more successful.

The study aims to answer the following research questions: 

• To what extent have the early adopter sites followed the Public Health England guidance on implementing a Whole Systems Approach to obesity?
• What barriers and facilitators have influenced whether the sites have followed the guidance?
• Where any changes are made by the early adopter sites to either the Public Health England process followed or the associated tools used, what is their view on how successful these were in supporting achievement of relevant phase-based outcomes?
• Is there evidence that joint working relationships, developed within the leadership groups as a result of this project, have resulted in new plans to work together on other public health priorities? 
• To what extent have sites been successful in engaging with stakeholders and members of the community as part of this process?