Publish date: 14 May 2026
Colleagues from around Mersey Care made a strong impact at this year's national Research and Development Forum (RDF).
Held at the Birmingham Hilton Metropole, RDF26 brought together over 950 attendees, more than 30 exhibitors and a huge number of poster presentations from UK health and care research professionals. It’s a major date on the research calendar.
Mersey Care was well represented at the event, which served as a vibrant platform for collaboration where professionals shared ideas, showcased best practice, and explored the future of health and care research, development and innovation.
In what was described as a standout session, children and young people's research nurse Jenny Gilchrist presented insights on ‘Safeguarding in Children and Young People PPIE (Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement): When ethics don't apply, who protects the child?’.
Jenny highlighted gaps in safeguarding for children and young people in research and the need to move from a reactive approach to a proactive, standardised framework and toolkit. She was asked by the session chair to input into wider training issues.
A really special moment for Mersey Care was achieving runner-up in the poster competition against nearly 200 others. Academic posters are formal displays of research projects designed to share key findings in an engaging way. And we took this to a new level!
Research lead Michaela Thomson, clinical research practitioner Sahrish Ali, OT assistant Joshua Adamson and the Trust comms team worked with women from Aspen Wood. Their poster, ‘Collaborative Working Using Co-Production to Facilitate and Embed Inclusion and Engagement in Research and Evaluation for Those Residing in Mersey Care’s Specialist Learning Disability Division’, was co-produced with several female service users over numerous art sessions within the ward.
The story of creating the poster was accessible in a video, made on the wards, and accessible to delegates via a QR code. Michaela tells us:
"It was lovely to work with the women. More importantly, having their voice at the heart of our research means it is truly valid and shows how each of their experiences on our wards matters."
The team will be presenting the women on Aspen Wood with certificates and the award itself so they are fully recognised for their excellent work.
And Rachel Crick, Contract Programme Manager, also presented a well-received poster: ‘Managing Clinical Research: Lessons from Contract Research Organisations and NHS/University Settings’ to attendees which demonstrated the Trust’s strong presence at this year’s conference.
Well done all!
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