Researcher in progress: A reflection on improving the inclusion of people with lived experience in research

This reflection paper explores the challenges, joys and learning gained from engaging people with lived experience in the research process of a pilot study exploring how people with learning disabilities are involved in safeguarding enquiries. The researcher will reflect on attempting to centre the voices of people with lived experience in the project, from establishing advisory groups to the challenges of participant recruitment when researching sensitive topics. The researcher will critically reflect on the complexities of this work, including exploring the shortcomings of her approach, such as underestimating the time needed for meaningful engagement and not fully appreciating at the start of the project the role gatekeepers play in facilitating or restricting inclusion. She will highlight the improvements to the project made by people with lived experience. She will ultimately argue that she did not fully succeed in centring the voice of people with lived experience. However, she will reflect that her learning from the process has been invaluable, contributing as much to the learning from the study as the primary data collection. She will conclude by exploring how she will apply this learning to the next stage of writing a large scale bid for funding and provide a road map for improved involvement of people with lived experience in future projects.