This inquiry focused on my practice which required me to increasingly engage patients and the public in developing health and social care provision. Both retrospectively and in real time, I sought to, review and understand my own\ud
learning processes and their application into a number of successive community based projects.\ud
Through these successive projects I have observed how local knowledge can provide value to personal and collective knowing through learning to work with patients and the public at three levels, at an individual level to improve personal care, with current service users to examine and improve existing services, and with the public developing new services that are creative and innovative.\ud
This qualitative inquiry had an epistemology where the findings are specific to the particular context at particular points in time. This was important as there\ud
was no way of knowing how the participants of the projects and myself as practitioner and researcher would develop. Not one discreet event was researched, but a process of phases with different types of activities that were\ud
recorded and examined. The inquiry was underpinned by an Action Learning methodology that enabled, rather than constrained, the emergence of appropriate and varied practice methods and techniques and facilitated their\ud
integration.\ud
The theory generated from this inquiry resulted in the development of a framework for patient and public  involvement. This framework provides a context for engagement at different levels of involvement through adopting critical factors for empowerment which are guided by the process and ethos of Action Learning.\ud
Consequently Action Learning is positioned as the process for facilitating transformational change in practice and practitioner development. It reinforces how appropriate the character of Action Learning can be at increasing learning\ud
at both an individual and societal level and specifically for the changing contexts of involvement, inclusion and citizenship