PURPOSE:
This presentation explores strategies for meaningfully engaging underserved groups—specifically migrant women who have experienced UK maternity care—in shaping maternity research, policy, and practice. As PPIE Lead for the No Recourse to Public Funds (NoRePF) Project at King’s College London, I will share insights from our collaboration with migrant women who are Experts by Experience (EbE).

BACKGROUND:
Globally, migrant women face multiple barriers to maternity care, including restrictive healthcare access, legal precarity, poverty, and social isolation. These overlapping challenges often lead to exclusion from research, service design and the policy debate, worsening health inequities. Addressing these issues requires intentional, inclusive, and flexible approaches. Approach: We have built a sustained partnership with women affected by immigration control and restricted healthcare access. Recognizing language barriers and fears of identification, we are exploring creative and safe story-sharing methods to ensure all voices can be heard without risk. Our co-designed activities and policy roundtables prioritize trust, transparency, safeguarding, and shared decision-making, supporting women with complex lives to participate meaningfully. Learning and Impact: This presentation will reflect on our learning about creating empowering, flexible spaces for engagement and the value of creative storytelling in overcoming barriers. We will also discuss how these stories are helping to reshape public perceptions of migration by humanising the experiences behind the headlines. These efforts are informing a research agenda and policymaking that centres lived experience for greater real-world impact.

EVIDENCE WHERE RELEVANT:
A reflective analysis of the impact of our collaboration with EbE will be incorporated into the presentation. Evidence pertaining to key research findings will be shared by the Programme Lead (Dr Hannah Rayment-Jones) during her presentation.

KEY MESSAGE:
Engagement with underserved groups demands rethinking power, process, and purpose. Creative story-sharing amplifies voices often unheard, ensuring research and policy are grounded in justice, responsiveness, and empathy. Marginalized - migrants