Getting into the flow of 2023 – February Team Update

January has been a time laying the groundwork for 2023 in terms of what we do to develop (co-create) ourselves as a community as well as preparing for our upcoming project work. This is what we have been up to, what we have planned as well as what you can get involved in this month. We’d love you to join us!

Our work with organisations

We are currently working with co-producers, Sarah, David and Emma along with staff from NHS England to run a series of three events that will enable us to set up a network of people interested in this area of hearing and ear care for children and young people with supportive needs. The events are aimed at people from across the sector including; audiologists; residential special school staff; adults and young people who are autistic and/or have a learning disability and/or have a hearing impairment; parents and carers; people who work in healthcare and public health roles. The first event took place in January, the second one will be this month and final one will be in March.

In early January, Yesmin, Cecily and Niccola went to Birmingham to facilitate a workshop at for Macmillan and Green Lane Masjid with the aim to co-produce improvements in cancer treatment and care services in Birmingham. We are currently working on theming the discussions that came out of this workshop and planning another workshop based on learnings from this on 14 March.

We are currently involved in developing a ‘Peer Worker Community of Excellence ‘, partnering with organisations across North London NHS Foundation Trusts. (Peer workers are people with lived experience who are employed to support other people facing similar issues, in this case in relation to mental health and wellbeing). Building on the work we did in 2022 we are currently planning our next in-person session in April to co-produce a working group approach to develop the community, focussing on the areas of interest that have so far been identified to support and develop Peer Workers across three NHS Partners in North Central London. If you live in North Central London, are a peer worker and are interested in taking part in the discussion please let us know by emailing us at coproduction@ucl.ac.uk.

Our work as part of research projects

We are working with UCL Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre in February, Niccola and co-producer Meera will be supporting a group of clinicians and patients to explore research dialogues (the conversations that take place between patients and clinicians in a hospital or GP surgery) and how to improve and embed these within the system in a co-produced way. If you live in Camden and Islington or Westminster and are interested in attending this online event, please email us at coproduction@ucl.ac.uk.  

Co-Creating ourselves

For our Co-Producer/Associates Programme work we developed our thinking from the December Working Group sessions and convened a session with 17 co-producers and Vanessa to bring the knowledge from the groups together. We are currently planning and developing various materials to describe the Co-producer/Associates model and possible ways of working in the future. We will keep you updated on our progress over the next two months.

We are in the process of pulling together an impact report to showcase the amazing work we have all done in 2022 and the impact it has had to help us secure funding for our future. Thanks to those who have helped shape this so far. We hope to launch this at the beginning of March and are still have space for a few more people to help work out how to best showcase this on the website. So, if can spare a couple of hours and fancy joining a small group to review; learning from the End of Year Survey, the impact report findings, and to explore options then email please George on g.halfin@ac.ucl.uk by end of the day on Sunday 12 February.

How else you can get involved

• Join us at the ‘Our Direction 2.0 strategy development session 1’, Wednesday 22 March09:30-11:30 UK time. We would love your input into this - sign up via Eventbrite
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• Join our next Co-Pro Cuppa on Thursday 2 March sign up via Eventbrite – further dates for April and May coming soon!
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• If you live in the Borough of Barnet or Croydon and would like to get involved in projects we have coming up in those areas please get in touch on coproduction@ucl.ac.uk We would love to hear from you.
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Join us at Social Work Week

• On Friday 24 March 2.30pm to 3.30pm Niccola and Isaac will be talking about ‘What is the value of co-production? Exploring the value of co-production through stories’ Book your place.

Congratulations to …

Chris Pavlakis, Josephine Ocloo, Rachel Buabeng, Vita Moltedo (pictured), Katherine Barrett (not pictured) and another eight Patient and Public Health Improvement champions from across South London who all received an Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) South London Award for their work as part of the COVID-19 public research panel.