October team update: growing connections and shaping change

Last month was full of opportunities to learn, connect and work alongside partners and communities to support meaningful change. We've been strengthening existing collaborations and helping to shape new projects that centre equity, inclusion and co-production. Looking forwards, we're excited to build on this momentum through new partnerships, learning opportunities and the launch of our Safeguarding and Safe Spaces in Co-Production Oversight Group.

What have we been up to?

Hania, Isaac, and partners at Race Equality Foundation and National Voices have facilitated three co-design workshops, with the five workshops now completed. This is part of a project funded by the NHS Race & Health Observatory to create a digital living resource that supports health and care organisations to embed anti-racist community participation and co-production throughout their work and services.

Hania and Nicc facilitated the fourth meeting of our Anti-Racism Working Group, which brings together co-producers and academics to support embedding anti-racist practices across all areas of our work. They discussed plans for the year ahead.  

Asma officially joined the Policy Research Unit in Reproductive Health, a multi-year collaboration that aims to inform policy decisions about reproductive health in England. Going forward, Asma will be supporting co-production across three ongoing projects: Understanding Contraceptive Attitudes and Decisions, Data for Reproductive Health Across the Life Course, and Integrating Reproductive Health Questions into Routine Care.  

Asma and Nicc hosted a reflective session for the Green Horizons team to discuss how partners have been embodying the project’s shared values and ways of working. Green Horizons is a collaboration funded by the National Lottery Climate Action Fund that aims to develop and test a scalable model of disability-inclusive climate action, with Disabled people recognised as leaders in climate action at local, city and national level.

Rosie attended a two-day research ‘sandpit’ with RECENTRE. RECENTRE is a research project focusing on understanding what it is like to go through an infectious outbreak when you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or caring for babies. The sandpit was an intensive workshop bringing together a range of expertise and experiences with the aim of forming potential research proposals. After a lot of discussion and collaboration, the team are now working to form a research question to take forward.

In September we held our latest Allies Group meeting. We discussed racism in academia following the death of Professor Jason Arday and planned how we can respond as Co-Production Collective. Our next meeting is coming up in December.  

Julie W, who is part of the VIVALDI project, attended a meeting of care home managers in Brighton and Hove. She shared our work as part of the project to co-develop hydration guidance for care homes and collected feedback into the design of flyers and leaflets.  

We have been working with a panel to review the expressions of interest to join our Safeguarding and Safe Spaces in Coproduction Oversight Group. Thank you to everyone who applied!  

Coming up

Nicc and Asma will be attending a Green Horizons quarterly planning meeting, during which they will be discussing plans to measure programme successes and areas for improvement, particularly for co-production activities.

We will be setting up our Safeguarding and Safe Spaces in Co-Production Oversight Group. 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.

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash