There is no single formula for co-production

As we prepare to share the findings of interviews about co-production with a range of people who work and volunteer in Dudley borough, this feels a good time to add more to this blog about what co-production is. We published a series of posts in September with extracts from Edgar Cahn’s book No More Throw Away People: The Co-production Imperative, and some useful videos.

There is some great information about co-production on the SCIE website (SCIE stands for Social Care Institute for Excellence. Below is an extract from their page on defining co-production (please visit the page to see references for their quotes etc.)

There is no single formula for co-production but there are some key features that are present in co-production initiatives. They:

• define people who use services as assets with skills
• break down the barriers between people who use services and professionals
• build on people’s existing capabilities
• include reciprocity (where people get something back for having done something for others) and mutuality (people working together to achieve their shared interests)
• work with peer and personal support networks alongside professional networks
• facilitate services by helping organisations to become agents for change rather than just being service providers.

Some definitions of co-production include:

Co-production is not just a word, it’s not just a concept, it is a meeting of minds coming together to find a shared solution. In practice, it involves people who use services being consulted, included and working together from the start to the end of any project that affects them.

A way of working whereby citizens and decision makers, or people who use services, family carers and service providers work together to create a decision or service which works for them all. The approach is value driven and built on the principle that those who use a service are best placed to help design it.

A relationship where professionals and citizens share power to plan and deliver support together, recognising that both have vital contributions to make in order to improve quality of life for people and communities.

Definitions and language are important. But the move toward co-production needs to be more than just a change in words because there is a danger of assuming that the right words will be followed by the right actions. Real change is accompanied by a movement of resources to people who use services and to frontline staff.

There is a difference between co-production and participation: participation means being consulted while co-production means being equal partners and co-creators.

A distinction has also been made between co-production and co-creation. In co-production, people who use services take over some of the work done by practitioners. In co-creation, on the other hand, people who use services work with professionals to design, create and deliver services.

Co-production has been broken down into the following:

• co-design, including planning of services
• co-decision making in the allocation of resources
• co-delivery of services, including the role of volunteers in providing the service
• co-evaluation of the service.

Some people argue that co-designing services (managers and citizens working together in the planning stages of projects), while important, must be accompanied by co-delivery (involving people in actual service provision).

It can also be useful to think about there being different levels of co-production. For example:

Descriptive — where co-production already takes place in the delivery of services as people who use services and carers work together to achieve individual outcomes, but activities cannot challenge the way services are delivered, and co-production is not really recognised.

Intermediate — where there is more recognition and mutual respect, for example where people who use services are involved in the recruitment and training of professionals.

Transformative — where new relationships between staff and people who use services are created where people who use services are recognised as experts in their own right. There is respect for the assets that everyone brings to the process and an emphasis on all the outcomes that people value, rather than just those — such as clinical outcomes — that the organisation values.

Illustration above by Laura Brodrick (@laurabrodrick think big picture) from 21st Century Public Servant work shared with permission.