More than just a chat: Bringing service user involvement to an online community practice

The Department of Health (DH) advocates communities of practice (CoPs) as a key vehicle for delivering service transformation (DH, 2011). In 2012, a health visitors' online community of practice (Kendall and Ikioda, 2014) extended the concept through a web-supported platform. A recent development involved a closed Facebook group to bring a group of health visitors and service users together through a series of online ‘chats’, aimed at learning more about the service user perspective of receiving an evidence-based service. This article explores the experience of service user involvement in the interpretation of research-based practice, drawing on the narratives of both groups, and considers the impact this could have on service delivery