From May – Oct 2024 we worked in partnership with MacMillan and NHS
Herefordshire and Worcestershire ICB training health workers and volunteers in how
to use Community Reporting to capture the patient voice. With the aim to help
improve access to cancer care services for local people, specifically the South Asian
and Roma/Traveller communities.

Oct 31st was the last day of the training at the Co Lab in Kidderminster hospital. We
ran a curation session with the stories, looking across them to find learning and
insight. Key points that were identified was a need to improve communication about
cancer care services by using different languages and different methods of
communication, as well as busting myths about cancer.
This was the last day of the Community Reporting training but not the end of the
project. MacMillan and NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire ICB will take the
learning and implement specific changes to how they promote their services. They
are looking to set up community champion advocates schemes, as well as continue
to use Community Reporting to gather stories from the local people.
One participant said

“I’ve learned to zip this (pointing to her mouth) and open these.” (pointing to her ears).

This is one of many projects that are powering us forward to achieving one of our
strategic goals ‘to embed Community Reporting and lived experience into service
development and improvement’.
We have done this by –
 supporting MacMillan and NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire ICB to
develop the capacity to gather lived experience stories to help improve
access to cancer care services.
 giving local people/patients a new function/approach in which their voices and
expertise can be heard and utilised for positive change by MacMillan and
NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire ICB.
 enhancing the use of lived experience in the work of MacMillan staff and
volunteers and NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire ICB workers.

The social change that we have achieved from this project is a change in approach
from the health care professionals involved. By prioritising listening to the lived
experiences around cancer and accessing cancer care services, in these specific communities, and having the time to learn the CR methodology with the time set aside to collect stories. They have
recognised what a useful tool it is and are keen to utilise it further. The project is
continuing, and MacMillan and the NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire ICB have
plans for future impact. This Community Reporting project has started it off in the
right direction by putting the patient voice right at the centre of all future activity.

Kath Peters – Project manager

What a warm welcome the team had in the wonderful Black Country. Last summer People’s Voice Media partnered with the Black Country Integrated Care System (ICS), the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) network and Wolverhampton Voluntary and Community Action (WCVA) to start the Black Country Integrated Care System REND Project. The project took 18 months to complete and trained 51 reporters and collected 38 stories. 

The aims of the project were to 

1.Build capacity: Enhancing the capacity of the VCSE Engagement and Partnership Team and Involvement Team to support a three-year programme focused on research within the VCSE. 

2.Gather qualitative insights: Increasing qualitative insight informal research to capture the diverse views within the community, specifically regarding access to healthcare services in the Black Country. 

3. Build community-led intelligence: Supporting the creation of a library/databank of community-led intelligence that can inform strategic decision-making. 

A key aspect of the project was to implement the Community Reporting method as a tool in targeted areas to undertake research into health inequalities. The project looked specifically at how people access health services (GP’s, hospitals, mental health services) across the Black Country. 

“Every time you go into a GP surgery you are seeing someone different. Which is never great for anyone, but for an autistic individual to actually open-up and talk about

what’s wrong, you know, it’s clear that you have to have a relationship with your doctor, that’s the whole point of the GP, and it’s not like its rocket science is it?”

Black Country Resident

This project started off in the summer of 2023 when we ran some taster sessions as part of a ‘Proof of Concept’ programme to test the water in Wolverhampton, Sandwell and Dudley. At the beginning of the year, we went to deliver 2 Community Reporter training programmes in Dudley and Wolverhampton. I had never been to Wolverhampton before, and I was very impressed with it. Especially the venue in which we delivered the second programme. The Bob Jones Community Hub is a great community space and was the perfect place to run the training. We trained people from vital voluntary organisations, such as BME United, Aspire4U, Dudley Voices for Choices and Smethwick Foodbank. 

The stories were shared at a ‘Conversation of Change Event’ in Wolverhampton in July 2024. This event brought together members of the BCICS, wider stakeholders and local people to explore the findings from the stories and identify practical ways in which the learning can be put into practice and shared within the system. The results of which have helped to inform these key recommendations. 

Improve communication and training: There is a need for better, specialised training and development for healthcare professionals on communication skills and cultural competences to ensure all residents are heard and understood within health settings. One person said that having English as a second language with no translators on hand and needing to fill out forms written in English created barriers for his family and community members. Moreover, opening conversations with residents with the question – What reasonable adjustment will help you access relevant support? – would support the creation and implementation of more inclusive and equitable health services. 

Address digital Inequities: Healthcare providers need to focus on bridging the digital divide by providing support for those with limited internet access or digital literacy. This could include simplifying the appointment booking process or involve offering alternative ways to book appointments. In-person assistance in navigating online systems should also be considered. 

Champion a person-centred approach: Encourage continuous community engagement through initiatives like Community Reporting that can help capture ongoing feedback from diverse populations. This will ensure that healthcare services evolve based on the community’s needs. This type of work should not be ‘ad-hoc’ or ‘one-off’ projects, but instead mainstreamed and embedded into the system as a continuous approach in the Black Country,  The people’s stories have informed this insight report, and the stories will be added to an insight library that the Black Country ICS are developing. It was such a privilege for us to listen to the stories that people took the time to share with us and others.  

Kath Peters – Project manager

In May this year we held our 6th Annual Community Reporter Conference in the form of a ‘hackathon’. A hackathon is a space were people can come together to explore a problem and co-create solutions. The event brought together a group of 56 experts to explore the question “How can we make lived experience storytelling practice more accessible and inclusive?”. Experts included people with lived experience of some of the issues being discussed, researchers, creative practitioners and storytellers, public engagement professionals, evaluators and workers in the third and public sectors.

The event focused specifically on how storytelling could be:

• accessible for people who do not use spoken word
• inclusive for people who are neurodivergent
• actively anti-racist

Through a series of creative and participatory activities, the attendees worked together to explore the barriers and identify solutions. The event was funded and support by NCRM.

From the event we’ve produced a learning report, which you can download here and this video report that documents the day. You can also listen to an audio executive summary of the learning report here.

People’s Voice Media and Think Local Act Personal (TLAP), in partnership with Halton Borough Council, launched a Community Reporting project to gather stories from people with learning disabilities and Autistic individuals in Halton. The project aimed to explore how these individuals experience local services, highlighting what works, what doesn’t, and what can be improved. By listening to their lived experiences, the initiative sought to understand the elements that contribute to a meaningful life and identify ways local services can better support people. 

Central to the project was a commitment to accessibility and inclusivity. People’s Voice Media was supported by members of the National Co-production Advisory Group (NCAG) to facilitated storytelling sessions focusing on people’s experience of services. Over several months, we gathered stories from a range of people and ran some online workshops to explore the key insights in the stories with the storytellers. At these sessions we developed some recommendations based on the lived experiences gathered and explore how this learning could support the implementation of the One Halton Co-Production Charter. 

The results of this work can be viewed in this short video:

Funded by a National Lottery award from the National Lottery Community Fund.
 

This Black History Month, we are thrilled to announce that we have been awarded funding from the National Lottery Community Fund’ to run a 18 month Global Majority Community Reporter project. The project is set to start in November 2024 and builds on our existing work in this area. 

This funding will allow us to continue strengthening our Community Reporting network, with a dedicated focus on training and supporting Global Majority Community Reporters. Through our work in Community Reporting, we strive to broaden the narrative, making sure that storytelling is a powerful movement for change and becomes increasingly inclusive of underrepresented voices.

Changing the World, One Story at a Time

At People’s Voice Media, we believe that stories are a powerful tool for creating change and we are committed to amplifying the voices of those from Global Majority backgrounds in our work. They are not only reflections of our experiences but also agents of transformation. However, we recognise that this journey will look and feel different for Global Majority individuals, and therefore this project will recruit, train and mentor people from Global Majority communities to use lived experience storytelling to support racial justice.

The aims of the project are to build the capacity of people from Global Majority communities to be leaders in co-production and social change fields. Through a mixture of training, peer support and mini-social action projects we want to create a space where the experiences of global majority individuals are not only amplified but also central to the change we aim to achieve. Also establishing an England-wide Global Majority peer support network for people from Global Majority communities working in co-production and social change arenas. We know this work is essential to addressing the deep societal inequalities that persist, and storytelling can be the key to unlocking new possibilities for justice and equity.

A New Chapter for Inclusive Storytelling

Through this initiative, we want to further embed anti-racist practice across our Community Reporter network and create spaces for people with experiences of racism to talk about this safely. We hope that this will contribute to transformational change in our own work and the boarder co-production sphere, creating racial justice in these settings. 

The work will be led by Isaac Samuels – the Community Reporting lead at People’s Voice Media. It builds on their current work with the Co-Production Collective that has been researching the lived experiences of racialised communities in co-production and research and working with organisations in this arena to turn the insights from people’s stories into applied action. 

In the coming weeks, we will be sharing more about this exciting project, including how people can get involved. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue this vital work!