April 16, 2024
As the days are getting longer, we have been reflecting on what we got up to in 2023 and looking forward to seeing how the co-production projects we have been nurturing develop of the next few months.
As many of you would have seen we launched our 2023 Impact Report just before the Easter weekend showcasing what we got up to last year. You can read a summary of the Impact Report as well as access the PDF of the report and accessible versions on our blog.
Vanessa and Lynn presented and participated in a discussion session on public involvement and ethics with the Public Involvement Group (PIER) from the Health and Social Care Research and Development Division in Northern Ireland. They shared some of the findings of the Ethics Project we worked in partnership with the UCL Engagement team, on Research ethics when working in partnership with people outside of the University system. It reflects on implications and practical application using a case study approach to highlight some of the issues and tensions around ethical process vs ethical applications, responsibility, inconsistency, power and the value/benefits of involving public members early in the process.
As part of our role as co-production lead within the newly formed Reproductive Health Policy Research Unit we created an online training course about co-production in the context of participatory research for all the researchers involved. We have also been recruiting people to the co-producer roles within the team.
We delivered our two final workshops to a group of staff and volunteers at the Royal Free Charity which aimed to embed
co-production in the way that they work as an organisation. It was great to see how enthused everyone was by the end of the workshops and the ideas they had come up with to embed it what they do. One participant said in their feedback:
“Feel more inspired about co-production and how useful it can be- also (have a) fuller understanding of what it is and its value.”
We look forward to sharing more about this in the future.
We held a Co-Pro cuppa event for the project teams who are taking part in the Measuring Success in Co-production programme. We were pleased to see representatives from most of the projects attended, with a good balance of lived experience contributors, academics, and people who work for partner organisations from around the country.
It was great for our team to meet many of the people they are supporting until October 2024 in this informal way, that provided the time and space for us all to share our experiences of co-production.
Here is some of the feedback we received from people who attended our event:
“I truly thought the co-production cuppa was great! Listening to others made me feel more at ease with our project.” (Jeremiah, The symptoms of diagnostic labelling)
“A great little burst of encouragement!” (Ellie, Exploring how neurodivergence interacts with maintaining eco-hope)
“Once we get together, hearing that people have the same problems (…) brings togetherness.” (Derrick, Co-production from the Inside Out)
More information about all of the projects and the funding programme is available on our webpage.
We are still looking for video clips on a variety of topics including:
These video clips are for our new website. If you are happy to help us out with this, please get in touch by emailing us on coproduction@ucl.ac.uk.
Thank you for coming to our March Co-Pro Cuppa! It was great to see many of you there and discuss the importance of using plain English language, being transparent and realistic about what co-production can deliver, and avoiding faux-production (you can read more about faux production in our blog).
Our next Co-Pro Cuppas will take place on:
You can find out more about the Cuppas and sign up via the events page.
If you have any questions or would like to know more about our work, please get in contact by emailing us on coproduction@ucl.ac.uk.
Photo Credit Bernd Dittrich from Unsplash
Interested in finding out more or exploring how we could work together?
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