July team update: Progress, highlights and what’s coming next

We hope you’re enjoying some downtime and finding moments to rest and recharge this summer. Things are a little quieter for us too over the summer months, so we’re keeping this update short, but there is still exciting progress to share!

What we’ve been up to

Sarah has been working with co-producers Asher, Julie, Sharon, Stuart and Vas to finalise the content for a new online training course we have been developing for UCL staff and students. We have decided on the content for the training course, and in the next few weeks we will be recording short videos that will be added to the e-learning site.

As part of our Anti-Racism Work, Cecily and Rosie took part in a two-day Community Reporting Training hosted by People's Voice Media. The sessions brought together 16 participants from global majority backgrounds to explore this approach to storytelling rooted in lived experience. We developed skills in story collection and curation, preparing us to gather and share peer-to-peer stories that reflect our communities

We’re pleased to share the latest version of our Payment Policy, version 3.0. We have been piloting a new version of the policy since September 2024 and, after listening to your feedback, have decided to adopt this. This version sees the new payment rates from the pilot version become standard, as well as making some further changes to options of how to get paid.

Since 2021, we’ve been working with NHS England on the Ear Checks Programme, making ear checks more accessible for children and young people in residential special schools. As our involvement wraps up at the end of July, we’re excited to reflect on the journey and share more in an upcoming blog post. One highlight of this work is an animation we have co-produced with a mix of stakeholders, including parents and carers, school staff, healthcare professionals, adults with lived experience, and with feedback from some students themselves. It’s nearly ready, and we can’t wait to share it with you!

Coming up

Thanks to everyone who came along to our Co-Pro Cuppa yesterday, it was great to chat to you all! Our next Cuppa will take place on 3 September at 11am, and we’d love to see you there!

We are working with a team of co-producers to develop our Safeguarding Statement, recognising that creating as safe as space as possible everyone involved in our work is essential for effective co-production. This planned update is driven by feedback received on the original 2023 statement, evolving interpretations of relevant legislation and our wish as a community to incorporate recent work on anti-racism in co-production.

Get involved

Coming soon are some more opportunities to get involved in the Policy Research Unit in Reproductive Health and a new research project that we are a part of called RECENTRE – watch this space and the current opportunities section of our website.

Photo credit: Canva