Becky Purvis, Director of Policy and Partnerships
We want to make sure that everyone who volunteers, gets involved with our work or uses our services has the best experience possible. These individuals are best placed to tell us what that experience is like and where improvements can be made. Their feedback is gold dust, helping us understand how we can improve and better meet their needs.
This blog explains how we currently capture and use feedback and highlights how it is informing our work. It also sets out the next steps we are taking to do this more effectively in the future.
How we ask for feedback on experiences of using our services
Applicants and sponsors who have used our services are invited to complete our online feedback survey and rate a number of aspects including our website, their experience of the Integrated Research Application System (IRAS), the helpfulness of the correspondence they have received and their views of the committee meeting if they attended.
How we ask for feedback on experiences of volunteering or getting involved in our work
Every two years, we survey Research Ethics Committee (REC) and Confidentiality Advisory Group (CAG) members and public contributors who have been involved with us during that period. We ask a range of questions to help us better understand what is working well and where improvements may be needed.
We also gather feedback on an ongoing basis:
- we ask public contributors to share feedback with us after their involvement. They can share this in whatever way works best for them, often through a discussion with HRA staff once the activity has been completed
- REC and CAG members can provide feedback at any time, using our online form, or by speaking directly with HRA staff. They are reminded of this opportunity annually. Separate routes are available for raising concerns where needed and further information is available on our website
- whenever someone takes part in training, we ask them to complete a survey so that we can understand what worked well and where improvements could be made. We also ask REC members about their training and development needs through a survey every two to three years
- when we send email communications, we use analytics to help us understand what information people find most useful and where we may need to improve our communications
How we use feedback
We use the feedback we receive to continually monitor and assess our performance. This helps us understand what is working well and where improvements are needed.
Our Board monitors key performance indicators throughout the year so it can be assured that services are performing as expected and that action is being taken where improvements are needed. The latest report from our Board meeting in May 2026 shows our performance against a selected set of key indicators between 1 January and 31 March 2026.
Every month, feedback on using our services is collated and shared internally with relevant HRA teams and with our partners in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Teams identify common themes and use these insights to inform improvements to our work and support our wider quality assurance activity.
We explain how feedback is informing our work in a ‘you said, we did’ report, published on our website every six-months. A summary of feedback from REC and CAG members and public contributors is also included, setting out how this feedback is shaping our work.
How feedback is shaping our work
For example, feedback highlighted that when information is received from us, it's not always clear what action, if any, is required or by when. Different teams across the HRA communicate with and engage different groups on a range of topics, such as training opportunities and updates on our digital services.
For the first time, we have brought these colleagues together to reflect on this feedback and agree a shared approach to what we want those engaging with us to know, think, feel and do as a result of our engagement. We use these guiding principles to support a coordinated programme of communications and wider activity, helping to reduce confusion and improve consistency, both of which feedback told us were important. This is how we intend to support those engaging with us through changes at the HRA, both now and in the months ahead.
How we use feedback from our HRA Community survey
We use feedback from our two-yearly survey of REC and CAG members and public contributors in a slightly different way. This information helps us to identify and prioritise improvements to people's experience of working with us. We work with HRA Community members to develop an action plan informed by the survey findings, agreeing what we will change over the following two years and monitoring our progress against those commitments.
We are currently developing the commitments we will make in response to our 2026 survey findings.
How we ask for and act on feedback has been an issue raised with us in previous surveys. In our 2024 action plan, we committed to making it easier for people to give us feedback and to reporting on how we have acted on it at least annually.
A summary of feedback from REC and CAG member and public contributors is now included in our regular ‘you said, we did’ report. In November 2025, the HRA Community Committee reviewed a summary of the ways we receive feedback and how we act on it. They noted that good processes were already in place, but these could be made more visible. This feedback helped inform the development of this blog.
The Committee was also interested in understanding more about how feedback is prioritised and how we gather feedback from people who may not feel confident or able to provide it. Members also shared insights that helped shape the questions included in the 2026 survey. This will provide more detailed data to help us improve the way we gather feedback and act on what we hear.
Why does it sometimes feel like feedback is not acted on?
Feedback informs what we do, but we cannot make every change that people suggest. We consider the feedback we receive alongside other information to identify the best way forward. Sometimes that means we are not able to change something that people tell us is not working for them, or that it may take time for us to make a change.
A good example is our online research application system. Our current systems are old and difficult to change. We know that people can find them challenging to use and that they can feel clunky and difficult to navigate. This feedback has informed our decision to build a new digital service.
However, this takes time. We are confident that our new service, plan and manage health and care research, will address many of these issues. It will also be easier for us to continue improving it in the future. However, we understand that, for our users, the pace of change can sometimes make it feel as though their feedback is not being heard.
What next?
The experiences of those who use our services and engage with us are at the heart of how we are designing our new digital services and improving the ways we work. We are currently looking for people involved in doing research to help us with user testing.
We are also putting in place improved internal systems to help us respond to questions and enquiries more effectively. This includes technology that helps us log enquiries and provide quick answers to frequently asked questions. It will also help us identify trends in questions we receive so that we can understand underlying issues and act on them.
Our 2026 HRA Community Survey included a focus on our members’ experiences of giving us feedback and how we acted on it. We will use these insights to agree actions that will help us improve how we do this.
We are also changing how we involve diverse perspectives in our work so that we can be informed by a broad range of experiences and views. This includes hosting our first HRA open day in autumn 2026 where we will invite REC and CAG members, public contributors and wider stakeholders including researchers, policymakers, sponsors and research ethicists, to take part in sessions with HRA staff and Board members to help inform our work. We’ll share more about opportunities to take part soon.
Why this matters
The HRA is here to deliver our mission to make it easier to do health and social care research that people can trust. Our people, including our staff and almost 1,000 volunteers and public contributors who make up our HRA Community, all play an important role in achieving that mission.
We could not do this without them. It is therefore crucial that we listen and learn from their experiences, as well as the experiences of everyone who interacts with and uses our services. By doing so, we can continue to improve our work and support research that can improve people’s health and wellbeing.