ORCID

Document Type

Article

Abstract

The adverse effects on parent and child outcomes of poverty and stressors associated with low income are well established. With notable exceptions, however, the potential role of frontline services in improving family financial well-being is underexplored. This article outlines how patient and public involvement (PPI) was initiated early on in research on financial well-being support (FWbS). It illustrates how research can build on and integrate what parents say about services and how to research them. The involvement work was undertaken in one city in part to inform the adaptation of an income maximisation service to be delivered in local children’s centres. Parents were involved using two approaches: open events with ‘silent conversations’, and individual conversations. Parents were invited to comment on four issues: which families should receive FWbS; how to make FWbS accessible; the process of delivering FWbS; and the nature or content of FWbS. The article describes how we approached parents via existing services, how conversations were facilitated and how parents’ views informed the immediate service redesign and new research on FWbS to improve parent and child outcomes. It also identifies learning, for instance on engaging people not involved in services, involving people throughout a project and offering training and support for researchers and service providers around how to involve people with lived experience of poverty in respectful and meaningful ways.

Publication Date

2026-01-01

Publication Title

Journal of Prevention

Volume

47

Issue

5

ISSN

2731-5533

Acceptance Date

2026-03-09

Deposit Date

2026-07-16

Funding

We are very grateful to the parents who contributed to the work described in this article and to the Plymouth City Council, children’s centre and Citizens Advice Plymouth staff who supported it. The time of Nick Axford, Vashti Berry, Amy Bond, Kristin Liabo and Rebecca Summers is supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration South West Peninsula. Additionally, the time of Kristin Liabo is supported by the NIHR Exeter Biomedical Research Centre. The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the National Institute for Health and Care Research or the Department of Health and Social Care. The work was funded by the Plymouth Institute of Health and Care Research and Plymouth Health Determinants Research Collaboration (NIHR Grant Number 151310).

Keywords

Co-production, Community involvement, Financial well-being, Lived experience, Parenting, Poverty, Prevention science, Public involvement, Financial Support, Parents/psychology, Humans

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

First Page

807

Last Page

818

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