Using Participatory Action Research to inform local action on health inequalities in Ealing
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Authors
Dr Bayparvah Kaur Gehdu
Dr Jo Howard
Dr Santiago Ripoll
Mariah Cannon
Janine Shaw
Contact
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Issue Date
06-May-26
Type
Conference Abstract
Language
Keywords
Working with people and communities
Alternative Title
Abstract
Background/Objectives/Stage at submission (work in progress)
Health inequalities arise from interacting social, environmental, and structural factors that conventional research can struggle to capture. Evidence may therefore be insufficiently local, weakly aligned with residents' lived experience, and less likely to inform effective action. Participatory Action Research (PAR) offers an alternative by centring lived experience, making connections between drivers visible, and enabling collective action.
This abstract presents the design, delivery and early learning from Ealing's Community Action Research programme, delivered through the NIHR Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC). Using participatory, systems-oriented methods, the programme generates locally grounded evidence on the drivers of health inequalities and supports translation of that evidence into local action.
Methods
The programme uses a two-stage PAR approach that values lived experience and relationship-building across the system. Stage one (from January 2025) focused on community-led evidence generation. Twenty-two community researchers, representing the diversity of Ealing's seven towns, were trained in participatory research and storytelling methods by academic experts from the Institute of Development Studies. They collected over 130 resident stories about their experiences of living in Ealing. Stories were analysed collectively to create a systems causal map showing how social conditions, services, and environments connect to health outcomes, emphasising relationships between factors rather than isolated issues.
Stage two (September 2025-May 2026, underway) focuses on translating this evidence into action. Community researchers identified six priority causal pathways, unsuitable housing; language barriers and employment; domestic violence; referral access and signposting for SEND; young people's access to youth services and access to green spaces to improve wellbeing. Action Research Groups for each pathway, bringing together community researchers with relevant council officers and voluntary/community sector partners to co-develop theories of change, test actions, and reflect on learning over time through a cyclical, non-linear process designed to support local change and wider systems learning.
Learning
Early learning suggests this approach effectively enables disadvantaged voices and their lived experience of health inequalities to be heard and valued by local authorities. Action Research Groups create more equal partnership spaces where community knowledge is treated as credible evidence to co-produce priorities and action.