Join our Safeguarding and Safe Spaces for Co-Production Oversight Group

We are a community who are about creating spaces where people thrive and don’t just survive. In March, we launched our new 'Safeguarding and Safe Spaces for Co-Production Statement' which shares our approach to safety and safeguarding. This approach is very important to us, and we committed to setting up up a governance group in Appendix E of our 'Safeguarding and Safe Spaces for Co-Production Statement'. We are now at the stage where we are about to launch our Safeguarding and Safe Spaces for Co-production Oversight Group and are recruiting people to get involved.

How to get involved

If you have an interest in joining our Co-Production Collective Safeguarding and Safe Spaces Oversight Group, please complete the following steps:

• Have a read of the further information below and our ‘Safeguarding and Safe Spaces for Co-production Statement’ as a whole checking that you have the skills and experience required for the role
• Optional: email Niccola on n.pascal@ucl.ac.uk to organise a time to chat about the role
• Submit an expression of interest via our online application form – we use this form to ensure you information is secure but if you would like to submit in a different way please email us on coproduction@ucl.ac.uk and we will be happy to assist you

Deadline for expressing an interest is Friday 18 September 17:00 UK time.

Who are we looking for to set up the group?

Our statement outlined that the Oversight Group for the ‘Safeguarding and Safe Spaces for Co-Production Statement’ should be made up of at least six and no more than 12 members. These members can be drawn from:

• Co-Production Collective Allies Group members
• Co-Production Collective Anti-racism working Group members
• People working in Research Ethics from University College London
• Other University College London staff members
• Service or Operational Manager(s) in a Local Authority or NHS Trust
• People working in policy development
• People working in community regeneration
• People involved in co-production activity with Co-Production Collective

Below you can find further information about this role and our approach to safeguarding at Co-Production Collective.

What will our Oversight Group do?

The Oversight Group will check how safeguarding reports are managed, addressed and reported including how the person reporting was protected and outcomes for individuals and organisations responsible for the safeguarding concern.

If you are participating in this group and it is not part of your paid role, we will provide payment in line with our payment policy of £30 per hour for your time.

What is our governance process for?

Our governance process is to support the ‘Safeguarding and Safe Spaces for Co-Production Statement’, Co-Production Collective has a governance/oversight system that provides:

• Scrutiny of safeguarding decisions by receiving and acting on reports of safeguarding, ‘near misses’ and being curious about any indication that safeguarding concerns are not being raised.
• Support to staff and members of Co-Production Collective using the ‘Safeguarding and Safe Spaces for Co-Production Statement’.
• Advice on safeguarding arrangements with other organisations or when working in partnership.
• Support to escalate any issues that are not being dealt with in a timely and proper way by other parts of University College London or partner organsations.
• Ambition for improvement in the way the ‘Safeguarding and Safe Spaces for Co-production Statement’ supports the development of co-production.

What skills and experience are required for an Oversight Group role?

People looking to take on the role should have:

• An understanding of adult safeguarding including knowledge of safeguarding adults principles and relevant legislation.
• Experience of working collaboratively or in a co-produced way, a willingness to listen to different perspectives, share power and reach decisions collectively. People with lived experience working alongside those with learnt experience, with a commitment to ensuring lived experience voices influence safeguarding decisions.
• Ability to understand safeguarding risks, scrutinise information, identify gaps and seek assurance that safeguarding arrangements are effective.
• Confidence to ask questions, challenge assumptions and raise concerns respectfully, regardless of professional role or status.
• Understanding of equity, equality, diversity and inclusion – awareness of how discrimination, inequality, communication methods or approaches, culture and barriers to services can affect safeguarding.
• Ability to identify learning from safeguarding concerns, reviews, complaints and people's experiences and help turn this into meaningful improvement.
• Understanding how to handle sensitive information appropriately and maintain confidentiality, while recognising when concerns need to be escalated.
• Being prepared to look beyond policies and performance figures and ask what safeguarding actually feels like for people.

We actively encourage applications from global majority candidates who are underrepresented in our community and at UCL including but not exclusive to non-graduates, disabled, D/deaf and neurodivergent people, LGBTQ+ people, people from Black, Asian and racially minoritised communities. We also welcome applicants from a range of educational backgrounds and do not require a minimum formal qualification for this role. We embrace and value all forms of knowledge including lived experience knowledge.

How will we be scoring applications received?

Applications will be matched against the following three areas:

• Relevant examples of experience and skills: do you have the experience and skills outlined and are you able to provide examples that demonstrate that you do?
• Understanding of co-production and how it relates to safety and safeguarding: can you outline the principles that underpin this way of working? Do you understand the value of co-production and why it has the potential to improve and change things in an inclusive way?
• Ways of working: do you embrace working together in a co-produced way? Can you demonstrate that you have either worked this way (in a formal or informal setting) in the past and or that you embrace doing so as part of this group?

Thank you

Thank you, we look forward to hearing from you. Please feel free to get in touch with us on coproduction@ucl.ac.uk if you have any questions.

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Photo by Paulius Dragunas on Unsplash