Training and co-learning are described in detail in the GIN Public Toolkit chapter on recruitment and support. Briefly, training can be viewed as formal or informal training workshops, seminars or courses that can be delivered as in-person, virtual or hybrid activities. Ideally, training is given by public involvement specialists and experienced patient and public guideline members. Co-learning is considered as ‘on the job learning’, in which presentations on important aspects of the guideline development process are delivered to all guideline development group members. Peer-support and mentoring are forms of co-learning.

In living guideline development, the pace of developing some living guidelines can occasionally prevent adequate opportunities for training or co-learning. For example, when producing living guidelines in an emergency, there might not be time during meetings to give a presentation on guideline development methods, so a co-learning opportunity is lost. This means that guideline developers will need to develop specific training or resources about patient and public involvement in the living guideline development. Patient and public members can use these resources and training outside of development meetings, in their own time. But, NICE and ALEC found that the living guideline development process can offer some opportunities for ongoing learning and allow new or less experienced patient and public members to be matched with those who are more experienced. This can promote peer-support, co-learning, relationship building and psychological safety, which can speed up the learning process and increase an individual’s confidence that they can make meaningful contributions, shape discussions, or influence recommendations.

When specific training resources or courses were not available, NICE found that implementing pre-meets and debrief meetings before and after most meetings, when possible, supported co-learning. This is described in the model of support in the case study on implementing and testing a tailored toolkit of support. Such meetings helped patient and public members to develop in their role, understand when they could contribute the most, ask questions about the guideline development process, or clarify any medical jargon.