Imroc and Nottingham Trent University – Developing a Peer/Lived Experience Leadership MSc Programme

As the employment of peer support workers and people in lived experience roles has increased, so has the need for leadership. Having people in leadership roles who draw on their own lived experience, as well as the values associated with peer support are essential in ensuring the meaningful contribution of people with lived experience to the workforce which brings about culture change.

We know that leaders with lived experience face a particular set of challenges:

• Struggles to feel credible 

• Difficulty retaining the values of peer support in a position of authority 

• Serving a system that isn’t aligned to the values of the survivor movement 

• Facing unrealistic expectations

• Striving to be credible

• Not feeling valued

• Not knowing how to influence large systems to bring about wider culture change 

Imroc are co-producing a leadership programme in partnership with an international advisory board, and Nottingham Trent University (NTU) to support the needs of peer and lived experience leaders. This programme will offer the opportunity for people with lived experience and their allies to develop the authority and skills to occupy leadership positions within Health and Social Care organisations. We want the programme to respond to the needs of peer leaders across the world work across different settings, who may have preferences for both the philosophical and practical elements of peer/lived experience leadership. The advisory board envisage that the programme will offer an inclusive community for peer/lived experience leaders which will support them in their work. We want the learning environment to be one where everyone’s wisdom is respected, and where we can explore ideas relating to leadership and culture change in a spirit of collective curiosity. We are currently developing the curriculum for the programme, and we plan to pilot this as an England based course for the first year, before looking to other universities to act as international partners so that the curriculum can be shared, and the learning community can become even more diverse  

We are hoping for first cohorts to open Autumn 2025.