May Team Update: Making connections and developing relationships

April was about making connections and developing relationships, whether it be within our existing programmes like Measuring Success, new projects like the Reproductive Health Policy Unit or in the contexts of attending and speaking at conferences and events. In this month’s update we share what we have been up to and what opportunities there are for you to make connections with us and others involved in co-production.

Measuring Success programme

We had a great day supporting the Measuring Success in Co-production programme. Our co-production team hosted the eight project teams and delivered two back-to-back sessions. The first was about Deepening Practice around evaluation and the second focused on Sharing and Learning around evaluation and co-production. Working with our partners from the UCL Evaluation Exchange, we were able to strengthen our capabilities to support and develop new insights around evaluation in this area, complementing existing co-production expertise. We continued to develop our relationships by learning from each other about how co-production can best be evaluated. We also appreciated everyone’s input into what the collective “output” from the entire programme might be.

Our co-production team were pleased with the feedback they received about the day. Participants felt that our sessions have added value to their work, and they have appreciated the personal connections that we have made. In contrast with other funding programmes, they continue to experience the whole programme as a collaborative process. We look forward to offering another session for the project teams in June.

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Kick off meeting for the Reproductive Health Policy Research Unit

Nicc and George took part in the Team Kick off meeting for the Reproductive Health Policy Research Unit, along with lived experience team members Priya and Rachel who we recently recruited. We have also recruited Advisory Group co-chairs, Isaac who was appointed lived experience co-chair Isaac and Alison who was appointed learnt experience co-chair.

The purpose of the unit is to produce high quality research evidence to inform policy about health, care and public health systems for reproductive health in England and is a partnership between University College London, Warwick University, Oxford University, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Birmingham University. The team is made up of range of people with expertise in this area including people with lived experience, academics, and clinicians.

The day was the first chance for people involved to meet in person to start to talk about values for the unit, ways of working as well as increase their understanding of co-production and the importance addressing power imbalances in how they work. It was also an opportunity to learn more about the projects that different teams are working on within the unit.

What else did we get up to in April?

• George and Krisztina joined Royal Free Charity’s first Patient Involvement Group meeting to help facilitate their workshop on co-producing grant application processes
• The Commissioning with Communities training started again with a new cohort this month. This is a programme for commissioners to develop their practice including learning more about what co-production is and how to go about it.

Coming up in May

• Stuart, Ashleigh and Nicc will be delivering Session 2 for the Commissioning with Communities Programme, this session will be a practical workshop focusing on co-production.
• Nicc will be attending the Community Reporting Hackathon: The 6th Annual Community Reporter Conference.

Get involved

The third Not Another Co-production Festival is coming up on Monday 15 July! This is a welcoming and celebratory event to showcase what co-production is and what great co-production practice looks like, in Greater London and beyond. We have the opportunity to invite two community members whose travel and time will be compensated for. Please let us know if you would like to join us by Thursday 6 June, by emailing coproduction@ucl.ac.uk and we will draw names out of a hat and let you know by Monday 1 July. Please hold the date in your diary in case you are successful.

Co-Pro Cuppas

Thanks to those who joined us at the May Cuppa, we had a great and wide-ranging discussion that covered topic such as what benefits people gain from being involved in co-production other than money, how to start the co-production process, getting comfortable in the unknown, learning as you go.  Those that took part also shared their ideas for good ice breakers and how to deal with very vocal participants.

Our next Co-Pro Cuppas will take place on:

- Tuesday 4 June at 15:30 (UK time).

- Monday 1 July at 12:00 (UK time).

- Tuesday 6 August 15:00 (UK time).

You can sign up to our upcoming Co-Pro Cuppas on our website or on our Eventbrite 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.

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Photo credit: Canva

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