Table 2 Creative workshops to enable PPI in statistics mapped onto UK standards for public involvement and engagement with considerations of areas for improvement

Inclusive opportunities

Offering public involvement opportunities that are accessible and reach people and groups according to research needs

The creative approach was developed to ensure it is inclusive of different numeracy levels

We need to put more effort in ensuring a range of numeracy levels when recruiting to future workshops; future work can expand on diversity of participants aiming to include people with different levels of general literacy, socioeconomic backgrounds, and ethnicities

Working together

Work together in a way that values all contributions, and that builds and sustains mutually respectful and productive relationships

All participants in the workshop – creative professionals, public partners, and statisticians – had equal say in the discussions and final prototype they produced. Participants worked collaboratively to achieve the aim of the workshop

This was highlighted as a key strength of this approach by participants

Support and learning

Offer and promote learning opportunities that build confidence and skills for public involvement in research

The workshop is by its nature a learning opportunity to enable PPI. It is a learning opportunity for all stakeholders involved – statisticians developed their communication skills, creative professionals learned about statistics and patient’s role in shaping them, and public partners learned about statistics and their impact in their lives

This was highlighted as a key strength of this approach by participants, and we included reflective learning in our assessment of the final creative workshop; however, there is scope to collect more information about learning outcomes and needs from all stakeholders that could enhance or expand future initiatives

Communication

Use plain language for well-timed and relevant communications as part of involvement plans and activities

The workshop’s aim was precisely to develop shared ways to explain a statistical concept in plain language; plain language was an essential feature to achieve the common goal of preparing a communication output as only the statistician in each group would know what a treatment important difference is from a technical perspective

This was highlighted as a key strength of this approach by participants; however, suggestions for improvement included clearer communication at the start of the creative workshop of a 2-stage approach to developing the final prototype, as well as presenting examples of possible prototypes

Impact

Seek improvement by identifying and sharing the difference that public involvement makes to research

Given the participatory nature of the workshop, it is challenging to pinpoint what the specific contribution of public involvement was; rather, this was a team effort, and therefore it is challenging to separate each stakeholder group contribution from the whole

More research needs to be done to assess the impact of the fully developed prototypes in the understanding and meaningful involvement of patients and the public in treatment important differences; and to explore different potentially important outcomes from taking part in creative workshops

Governance

Involve the public in research management, regulation, leadership and decision making

The activity developed here and its prototypes aim to enable patient and public partners to be involved in future decision making related to a specific statistical concept, treatment important differences

Implementing the creative workshop approach to enhance learning and develop prototypes to communicate about other statistical and data related concepts, or wider complex concepts can help facilitate PPI in decision making of a wide range of research. This is particularly promising in areas where a key barrier for PPI in decision making is communication such as methodological research