As our first month as Co-Production Collective draws to a close, the giddy excitement of the launch is a happy memory, and we’re no longer tripping over our new name quite so much, our thoughts are turning to a big question – what next? Good job we’ve got a brand new strategy to point us in the right direction…

If you cast your mind back earlier this summer, you may remember that we started the process of co-creating our first ever strategy – a statement of who we are, why we exist, and what we’re working towards. We brought together all the co-creation work we’ve done over the last three years to run three virtual co-creation sessions, as well as using some snazzy online tools and good old-fashioned word documents. You can find out more about this process in our blogs from June and August.

More than 50 of you got involved at various stages, and over three months we gradually put together the building blocks of what is now Our Direction for 2020-2022. A huge thank you to each and every one of you, and to everyone who has been part of our community since 2017 – we have co-created this together.

Our direction for 2020-2022

This strategy tells the world who we are and what we’re working towards and is intended to see us through the first two years of our new existence as Co-Production Collective. In true co-production style, it will grow and evolve as we do! We’ve shared some of the content already – at the launch, in other blogs, on our website – but are thrilled to be able officially share the full and final version with you: please have a read of Our Direction 2020-2022.

Inside, you can find our co-created vision – how we want the world to be in future – and what we’re doing to help make that a reality – our mission. You can also read about the four values we identified together – Human, Inclusive, Transparent and Challenging – and that, for us, co-production means living those values in practice. Together, our values and approach to co-production  form an update to our Principles to Live By, which were the product of one of our very first co-creation sessions at the start of this journey.

Finally, we have set out our ambitions for our work in 2021-2022, organised into four broad categories:

• Leading culture change – leading by example to influence individuals, organisations and systems, especially in health research, to embrace co-production and put people at the heart of everything they do.
• Planning for the future – securing our sustainability and providing ongoing support to co-production projects so that they can generate meaningful impact.
• Learning and developing – evaluating and evidencing the benefits of co-production, contributing to research and sharing our learning.
• Growing our community – strengthening and diversifying our community, focusing especially on those who are often ignored or excluded.

There’s more detail about what we want to achieve under each of these in the full document. This isn’t everything we plan to do next year (and we’re actually doing a lot of it already), but represents our priorities and where we want to concentrate our efforts.

So, what actually is next then?

Well, we’re in the middle of co-creating our website (which will feature Our Direction in pride of place, of course!) – the next co-production session is Thursday 7 January 2021 14:00-16:00, have a Co-Pro Cuppa (informal get together to chat all things co-production) coming up on 14 December 11:00-12:30, and will start the process of co-creating our payment policy in the next couple of weeks. And that’s all before the end of the year!

If you’d like more information about any of these, have feedback and questions about Our Direction, or any ideas you’d like to share with us, then please do! You can email us at coproduction@ucl.ac.uk, follow us on Twitter @UCL_CoPro and sign up to our newsletter, so you don’t miss out on the opportunities to turn these ambitions into a reality in 2021.

We hope you are as proud of Our Direction for 2020-2022 as we are – please share it, get in touch if you’re keen to collaborate, and join our collective work. As our mission says:

We are a co-production community where everyone is welcome. Together we learn, connect and champion co-production to create lasting change.