July 1, 2021
As the second half of the year commences, there’s lots to look forward to!
July kicks off with our usual CoPro Cuppa (on Friday 2 July) but will be quickly followed by another one on Tuesday 6 July: a special edition hosted by co-producers Isaac and Mark. This is to celebrate the sixth annual National Co-Production Week (5-9 July 2021), but also ask ourselves – how can awareness events like these really make a difference? There’s still spaces left, so if you’re reading this before Tuesday, why not register to come along and join ‘ Not Another Co-Pro Week Conversation?!’
Of course we’ll also be marking Co-production Week on social media, as well as following all the discussions, so please tweet us @UCL_CoPro if there’s something you’d like us to share.
Another reason to celebrate this month is that our partnership with NHS England is now properly getting going! We’re in the process of bringing two new team members on board to deliver this work and can’t wait for you to meet them! One role (Co-production Manager) has already been filled and they will join us later this month, while interviews for the second role (Project Coordinator) have just taken place.
Any recruitment at UCL starts with an internal redeployment process, whereby UCL fulfils its legal obligation to try and identify suitable alternative employment for employees at risk of redundancy (this is a legal requirement of any organisation who makes people redundant). These candidates are part of the same interview process anyone else would be (whether they are an internal or external candidate). We were really pleased to find a great candidate with bags of varied experience relevant to the Co-Production Manager role through this process.
We also followed the internal process for the Project Coordinator role, but didn’t find anyone suitable. This meant that we moved on to the next stage in the recruitment process and advertised externally last month, as you may have seen. We had a lot of great candidates so it was a tough decision, but the interview panel (which included a co-producer, as always) managed to narrow it down and now we have our fingers crossed to see if the candidate accept the role…
We’ll introduce you to the new team members once they’re in post!
We’ve got another busy month of workshops and project delivery with our partners. This includes a project with UCL researchers to improve the interpretation and use of research evidence to support policy and services aimed at improving child health outcomes, especially around weight. We’re facilitating two co-production workshops and an advisory group, bringing together a mixed team to make sure that a real range of perspectives are heard, gaps in the existing research identified, and lived experiences represented.
Nicc is very excited to be working with co-producer Scott BR and Liddie from Disability Rights UK (as part of the Get Yourself Active programme) to support Sport England staff to embed co-production into their organisational activity and the implementation of their 10 year strategy, Uniting the Movement.
We’re also continuing to support UCL initiatives, including Grand Challenges (read Nicc’s contribution to their Disruptive Voices blog here) and CAPE (Capabilities in Academic Engagement). This project aims to support researchers and policymakers to work better together, and Lizzie will be chatting to one of their local government fellows about the importance of co-producing with citizens to tackle local challenges. Check out CAPE’S podcast to hear about Waltham Forest’s work in this area.
As ever, please get in touch to tell us what you’d like to see in our newsletter, any ideas you’d like to share, or questions we might be able to help with!
Email us at coproduction@ucl.ac.uk and one of the team will get back to you as soon as we can.
Interested in finding out more or exploring how we could work together?
Co-Produce with us