Category: ROC news

1. A Tale of Two Counties Podcast

   Posted on 12:00pm Monday 14th Nov 2022

   Last month Rebecca O’Connor from ROC Research Consultancy was invited to chat to Matt Evans from Active Lincolnshire and Charlie Coward from Active Dorset on their Tale of Two Counties podcast. Since the summer of 2021, Active Lincolnshire have been working closely with Active Dorset in order to share learning and develop their ability to work in the Health and Care sector. ROC Research have been evaluating this work using their embedded researcher approach. 

    

   To share what they have both leant from working together, Matt and Charlie have produced a podcast series to help Active Partnerships across the country and others build confidence in their work to embed physical activity in health and care pathways as the new ICS structures emerge and develop their ability to work in the Health and Care sector. The series gives a fascinating insight into working in complex health systems and in episode 6, Rebecca  talks with Matt and Charlie to discuss how this work has been evaluated and some of what has been found, as well as the principles around monitoring 'systems working' rather than counting outputs. Have a listen here to find out more about how Rebecca and ROC Research work with organisations to help them make sense of the complex work they are involved in.

2. The history of ROC Research Consultancy

   Posted on 12:00pm Monday 2nd May 2022

   I’m Dr Rebecca O’Connor and I set up ROC Research Consultancy 5 years ago so that I could collaborate with great partners and help them use real life research to be even better at what they do.

   I started my career as a physiotherapist and research was a huge part of my training and practice. I found that when people understood the research behind their conditions and treatment plans, they were much more likely to change their behaviour to help them get better. Many healthcare professionals take this approach but I often wondered why with all these great individuals working within them, organisations like the NHS find it so hard to change and improve on a larger scale.

   To satisfy my growing curiosity, I took a sidestep from my physiotherapy career to undertake a PhD exploring how the NHS commissions services to enable it to provide high quality care through collaboration. My thesis ‘Where’s the logic in commissioning?’ developed a framework for understanding how individual, organisational and system behaviours can compliment each other, or how is often the case, fight against each other. Importantly, I’d also found a way to explain it in simpler terms that might actually help individuals and organisations to work together better and provide better services.

   I thought long and hard about continuing down a traditional academic route. I really valued the academics I had the privilege of working with and the high quality research they publish. But I wanted to use what I’d learnt in the here and now, and help organisations grappling with the challenges they face, to understand the context they work in and use evidence from their own work to help them improve and grow.

   ROC Research Consultancy was born in 2017 and since then I’ve worked with partners across the Midlands as an independent research partner. I’ll be sharing more about the approach I use as an embedded independent researcher on this page and look forward to hearing about your own experiences of working in this way.