Improving our Co-Pro Cuppas to better meet the needs of our community

Introduction

In our recent Community Survey blog we shared some of the feedback that we received about our Co-Pro Cuppas. In this blog we go into more detail about feedback from our Cuppas and let you know what we've done as a result. We also share our plans for a programme of Cuppa-style events to better meet the needs of the different audiences and motivations for coming to our Co-Pro Cuppas.

Feedback from our Community Survey

When asked people in our Community Survey how we could improve Co-Pro Cuppas, 9 people (28%) said they would benefit from having a theme:

“Sometimes it would be good to have a topic but other times it’s actually good to have the freedom to discuss any aspect of co-production" - A member of our community who has been involved 3-5 years, and has been to 5-10 Cuppas

2 people (6%) said they had experienced issues with other participants

“Having an anonymous feedback box at the end of each Cuppa - sometimes attendees can be offensive/rude/problematic towards others, and whilst this often does not constitute safeguarding escalation, it would be good to have a lowkey way to flag this up which feels safer than directly speaking to a staff member.” Been involved 1-3 years and have attended 20+ Cuppas

We also received feedback in another part of survey from one participant who was unable to attend because every time they had tried to book, tickets had sold out.

When asked directly if people would be interested in coming to a quarterly themed Co-Pro Cuppa 91% of the 41 people who answered this question said yes.

42 people gave ideas for what topics they wanted to discuss in a themed Co-Pro Cuppa. These were the most popular ideas for themed cuppas in order of popularity:

1. Creating equity and reducing power imbalances
2. Payment and recruitment
3. Reflection and evaluation

In addition to the feedback from the Community Survey people who provided feedback after a Cuppa felt that the information about what happens at Co-Pro Cuppas needs to be a lot clearer, and include guidance given about what to do in breakout rooms.

How this feedback has been addressed

Addressing concerns around issues with other participants

In response to feedback from:

• the 2024 Community survey
• the Community Journey project (that we began as a result of needs identified in the Community survey)
• the September 2025 Cuppa

We have begun sharing an updated version of the Co-Pro Cuppa survey and made changes to how it is shared. The updated survey now includes safeguarding information, and we share the link at the end of each Cuppa so people can fill it out on the spot — not just through the follow-up email.

Addressing concerns around capacity

On average, around 50% of the people who register attend on the day, so for the majority of Co-Pro Cuppas, we have upped the capacity from 50 to 70 places.

We can only do this when we have enough staff available to facilitate the breakout rooms. This helps us to ensure that Cuppas remain an inclusive and as safe a space as possible for everyone.

Addressing questions around what happens at Co-Pro Cuppas in the main room and breakout room

We have updated the information on our Co-Pro Cuppa website page and in our registration emails to make it even clearer what happens at Co-Pro Cuppas and what to do in break out rooms.  If you have any further feedback about this, please email coproduction@ucl.ac.uk

Themed Cuppas

We hosted our first ever themed Co-Pro Cuppa in December 2025 on the subject of “How do we get others to understand what co-production really means?”. This theme was chosen by a poll of community members from the most popular ideas put forward in the 2024 Community Survey and Co-Pro Cuppa surveys. The event was then co-produced by a team of community and staff members.

This is some of the positive feedback we received:

“It was good to be in a group with others with similar levels of experience, it meant we could get deeper into things and I felt I learnt more from nuanced contributions” Cuppa participant who comes to 4-6 Co-Pro Cuppas a year

“Really well thought through. Open and inviting for those who have never been before.”  Cuppa participant who had not been to a Co-Pro Cuppa before.

Our plans for the future

When we were co-producing the December Themed Co-Pro Cuppa, we reflected on how the audience for Co-Pro Cuppas has evolved since they started in 2020. We identified that people who come have different motivations for attending which could be identified as follows.

People:

• who attend from a purely lived experience perspective
• who attend who may have lived experience but now are in paid co-production jobs
• who attend with other members of their team who have a project in mind and are coming to learn how to integrate co-production into their project
• who are PhD students and researchers and are coming to find out how to make a start with their research projects
• who are really experienced in co-production who just want to come to network.

To meet the needs of these different audiences and motivations - and in response to feedback we received from the 2024 Community Survey and Co-Pro Cuppa surveys - we are planning a range of Co-Pro Cuppa activities for 2026:

Three themed cuppas

We are planning to offer one co-produced themed Co-Pro Cuppa every three months.  The topics we have decided to cover in are 2026 themed Co-Pro Cuppas are:

• Payment and alternatives to payment
• Recruiting people and reducing barriers to involvement
• Creating equity and reducing power imbalances

These themes have been chosen based on a combination of feedback we have received from the 2024 Community Survey, the Co-Pro Cuppa surveys (which we have been asking people to complete since July 2024) and the most popular questions that get asked at Co-Pro Cuppas.

Audience-specific Cuppas

We also planned to run three audience-specific Co-Pro Cuppas. These are aimed at meeting the needs of specific groups that come to our Co-Pro Cuppas and will be for the following groups of people:

• A special Co-Pro Cuppa for PhD students and Early Career researchers on how to set up a co-production project.
• A special Co-Pro Cuppa for people who want to talk from a purely lived experience perspective about what it like to be a public contributor to a project and what good practice and support looks like for them.
• A networking style Cuppa for people to network with each other.

In addition to this we are also planning some special events to share learning from some of the projects we have been involved in.

Your feedback matters

If you have any questions about the change over from Zoom to Eventbrite or other feedback about the plans for future Cuppa events put forward in the is blog, please contact coproduction@ucl.ac.uk and we will do our best to help you.

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