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Shared agreements: eyeYPAG’s ways of working by Jacq Miller

By Jacq Miller,

A Research Advisory Group with a ‘Co-Production’ vibe

From the beginning, we wanted our YPAG (Young People’s Advisory Group) at Moorfields Eye Hospital to have a ‘co-production’ feel; we aspired to work together with a sense of everyone being equal, with every member’s views heard and valued.

To help us, we were lucky to partner with the “UCL Centre for co-production” (now named the “Co-Production Collective”) and Moorfields Biomedical Research Centre, who were also working with 4 other projects to learn about ‘co-production’.

Over the last year we all worked together to develop our Shared Agreements; our commitment to the way we work. We decided to make our own video about our Shared Agreements and are thrilled to share it here:

Eye-YPAG Shared Agreements

  1. In eyeYPAG we are safe, we trust each other, we are friendly and welcoming
  2. We share ideas, listen to each other without judgement, treat each other equally and work as a team
  3. We celebrate different opinions – everyone’s opinions are important
  4. We are all eager to learn – we help and encourage each other, but no-one has to speak if they don’t want to, we give each other space when needed
  5. We think before we speak – we are sensitive to each other
  6. Everything we discuss stays between us, unless we agree otherwise

 

Click here to find out more about our: Route to the six shared agreements

Reflections 

As group facilitators, we are immensely proud of how the Eye-YPAG members have spent time thinking through, reflecting on and fostering these great attitudes to their working relationships. We believe that these Shared Agreements truly reflect the ‘Co-Production’ feel we hoped to achieve; there is no doubt that working together in this way will enhance all of the eye and vision research projects Eye-YPAG engage with. We plan to remind ourselves of our ‘Shared Agreements’ at our meetings, for the benefit of all those attending. We are also thrilled to share them here, with the wider community who are interested in co-production and involving children and young people in research.

Eye YPAG group photo