Embracing Change: ’Our Direction 2023-2028’ Unveiled

As we move into a new phase of our journey, we are thrilled to present our vision for the future and our approach to achieving this vision. This document, our new strategy, is the result of months of collaborative effort and deep reflection. 'Our Direction 2023-2028', is not just a document but a guiding light that will shape our activities in the years to come.  

• Read ‘Our Direction 2023-2028’ – available as a PDF.
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Also available as a screen reader friendly Word document version or audio version (as an mp3 file). Or feel free to make use of our accessible versions Google Drive folder which contains other formats such as Braille, Daisy and EPUB.
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In this blog we’ll tell you more about how it was created and what it means for our community.

Why Did We Need a New Strategy?

Since our inception in 2020, the landscape around us has been continuously evolving. To keep the Collective relevant and impactful, it was important to think about our goals for the future and revise our approach. With a world that's constantly changing, our new strategy had to reflect the evolution of our community, the challenges we face, and the goals we want to achieve.

Developing ’Our Direction 2023-2028’

The development of ’Our Direction 2023-2028’ was a collaborative effort, involving input from our community at every stage. Through multiple workshops and conversations, we dove deep into our ambitions, values, challenges, and the ever-evolving nature of co-production in across various sectors.

It began with three workshops between April 2022 – February 2023 to co-create our Journey of Change. This is a roadmap that outlines where, as a community, we think we are headed and how we can get there. It shows us the challenges we face, how we can overcome them and what we want to create as a result. The initial co-creation session aimed to reveal the underlying problems and barriers holding back co-production from being a widely used way of working. You can read more about these workshops in our previous blog.  

In looking at the bigger picture, we were thinking about ourselves as Co-Production Collective, and the reason we exist. Some of the questions we examined were:

• What is the issue we’re trying to solve – and what are the causes of that issue?
• What would be different if the issue was solved?
• What changes will move us in the right direction towards solving the issue?
• How will we contribute to making those changes?

Once we had agreed the Journey of Change as the foundation for developing our vision for the future and our approach to achieving this vision, we began a series of four workshops to reflect on our previous strategy 'Our Direction 2020-2022'. We did this by:

• ‍Session one - reflecting whether the ambitions from 2020-2022 were still relevant and by thinking about any ambitions that were missing that should be included in our new strategy. You can read about what happened at this session in more detail in this blog.

• Session two - brainstorming new ideas and identifying potential areas that were missing from the current strategy but were essential for future growth. Community members advocated for sustaining and strengthening the community, focusing on technology, practicing transparent leadership, and prioritizing measures to ensure our community’s inclusivity.

• Session three - revisiting our core values and what they mean to us as a community, what was missing as well as what needed changing. The discussions focused on redefining our core values, making them more reflective of the evolving ethos of the community The need for compassion, flexibility, and ambitious action emerged as key themes, reflecting the collective's commitment to fostering an environment of empathy, growth, and resilience.  

• Session four - reviewing the structure of the strategy and what the focus of the Collective should be on achieving its ambitions, as well as if anything was missing from them.  

Throughout this process, the invaluable insights and feedback from our community members played a significant role in shaping the content and direction of the new strategy, our vision for the future and our approach to achieving this vision. By integrating a diverse range of perspectives and experiences, we were practicing our commitment to co-creating a forward-looking, inclusive, and impactful roadmap for the years ahead.

How is the ‘Our Direction 2023-2028’ different from our old strategy?

There are three main differences between Our Direction 2020-2022 and Our Direction 2023-2028, which you can read about in more detail below.  

1. The new values

As already outlined, the evolution of our core values reflects a shift from challenging the status quo, continuous reflection, and improvement in the old strategy to a more overarching and active approach in the new strategy. The new strategy places greater emphasis on inclusivity, transparency, kindness, embracing change, and reflective practices, showcasing a more proactive and empathetic approach to community engagement and organizational development. Find out more by having a read of our summary document (available as a PDF and as a Word document) about how and why our values have evolved.

2. Our steps to change

The old strategy focused primarily on co-production within the health context, with an emphasis on influencing culture change, securing sustainability, learning and development, and growing the existing community. In contrast, the new strategy extends beyond the health context, emphasising the promotion of co-production as a force for positive change across all sectors. It highlights leading culture change, promoting and embedding learning, planning for the future, and growing the community as our main strategic objectives.

3. Our approach to change

The new strategy places an emphasis on strategic planning, continuous evaluation, and adaptation based on our learnings and assumptions. It sets out a proactive approach to understanding challenges, addressing them through planned steps to change, and constantly monitoring progress and impact. This represents a change from our ’Our Direction 2020-2022’, which primarily focused on responding to challenges as they arose without a structured framework for strategic planning and evaluation to one that is more proactive. This change reflects not only the growth and development of skills within our community but also how the research, services and policy sectors are changing and how co-production is becoming more established as a way of working.  

The changes in the Collective’s values, goals, and approach to change represent a shift in how we want to work and inspire others to adapt co-production as a way of working. These differences focus on our dedication to making sure everyone is included and treated fairly, as well as our commitment to making co-production a powerful tool for positive change across sectors.

Thank you

Thank you for our community members who contributed to the development of ’Our Direction 2023-2028’, provided feedback, challenged each other, and offered their insight on the process.  

We welcome any feedback or reflections on the new strategy, ‘Our Direction 2023-2028’, as we are committed to the continuous improvement and revisiting of the strategy. If you have any feedback, please or questions about anything in this blog or the strategy itself please get in touch by emailing us at coproduction@ucl.ac.uk We’d love to hear from you.

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