Colab enquiry — Exploring coproduction in public services in Dudley borough

On 24th February 2014, people came together from a range of statutory and voluntary sector organisations to discuss the findings from our coproduction report. I wanted to share what came out from the discussions and add some of my own personal reflections from the session.

Firstly, we started the session by asking people to describe one of their greatest assets to everyone in the room. An asset perspective is described by Edgar Cahn in his book, ‘No-More Throw Away People’ as one of four core values of coproduction. He describes in his book that “the real wealth of this society is its people. People are assets and that it’s about time we valued them for what they can do”.

As I threw open this question to the group, I too, tried to answer it and was struck by how hard I found it to answer. Thinking positively about my own attributes is not something I find easy to do. Once people got warned up many great assets emerged from the group ranging from grit and determination, baking skills, organisational skills, compassion, imagination, fantastic people skills, great connectors etc. I then wondered how many organisations ask this question amongst their own staff and volunteers. How many different skills and experiences go unnoticed or not even shared in organisations? Do we miss opportunities to value people for what they can do within organisations and communities? If public services want to embrace coproduction should we be asking ‘what assets do we have within our own organisations?

What coproduction means to us?

The session then moved onto exploring what coproduction means to people. We watched a video of Ruth Dineen, Director of Coproduction Wales describing coproduction in a really succinct way. Here is a link to the video: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bo4r1XU-BZw]

Moving on through the session we put forward the following questions:

• Is engagement different to coproduction?
• Is collaboration different to coproduction?

These questions were harder to answer but participants at the session agreed that they felt there was a difference. The group came up with the following statement:

‘Engagement is a connection which may or may not necessarily lead to the production of something. Coproduction is the production of something which can’t happen without engagement’.

Most of the individuals interviewed for the coproduction report also felt that there are differences between co-production and engagement. There was a sense that engagement can have limitations and that the balance of power is predominantly with services. There was a common perception that engagement is about finding out people’s views but it doesn’t move into a sphere of people who use services making things happen for themselves or being involved in change as an equal partner. Co-production seeks to readdress the balance and share ownership.

In relation to collaboration, coproduction was described as a deeper process. Coproduction encompasses some elements of collaboration. In our coproduction report, Karen Jackson from Public Health felt that, “co-production is more defined, more structured with end results” whereas “collaboration feels more general and may link more to engagement.”

Using a coproduction self-reflection tool

Towards the end of the session we used a coproduction self-reflection tool produced by Tricia Nicoll consulting. Many found the tool a useful one to use in a team or for a whole organisation as it gives examples of ways to benchmark. People also liked the way the tool focused on behaviours rather than processes.

Final thoughts and reflections

From the session some things stuck out for me. Perhaps we shouldn’t get too hung up about the term ‘coproduction’ or how to do coproduction. It’s not a one size fits all but most importantly it’s about values, treating people with respect, being clear about what it is you are trying to coproduce and being inclusive. During our coproduction research common tactics or elements that would be present when working in co-productive ways were identified and these for me are key to coproduction.

• High levels of involvement by people who access services
• Identifying key people to be involved at the start of a co-productive journey
• Clearly defined and agreed processes for consensus
• Jointly agreed values at the start of the journey and a clear understanding about what people expect to get out of being involved
• Identifying the motivators for people being involved in a co-productive process

You can read our full coproduction report by clicking here: Exploring Co-production in public services in Dudley borough