Intro Series No.1: What is Coproduction?
Sophie Chester-Glyn • 27 September 2019
Let's #CoproduceCare
- Democratising the care debate & uncovering the hidden opportunities for people-led care.
This series of blogs will explain what coproduction is, what Coproduce Care plans to do and will explore some good examples of coproduction. This first blog will explore coproduction and what Coproduce Care aims to do to promote it.
Coproduce Care is a not-for profit, community interested company (CIC) which aims to embed coproduction into the core of health and social care. We want to see the voices of those living, working, supporting and experiencing care leading the agenda on care law and policy not just being subjected to it.
Why care about coproduction?
Coproduction is a great way of identifying issues, respecting the view of those affected by care and providing support to ensure that those individuals can shape the systems designed to support them. This may appear as an obvious way to work. However, poor systems, processes and cultures can become deep-rooted and prevent change. This requires engaged citizens and informed professionals to put coproduction firmly on the health and social care agenda. Coproduce Care aims to kick start this process from a grassroots, bottom up ethos and with a wider audience than normal. Our aim is to democratise the care debate. But we need everyone’s help! Please follow us and spread the word on Twitter
and Facebook.
We believe that too many decisions in health and social care are conducted without true coproduction and usually with the same organisations and professionals (and more recently politicians), behind closed doors or at exclusive or inaccessible conferences (in terms of time and travel to attend).
In fact, we believe everyone involved in care should have a say – a son or daughter caring for their parent, a care worker working night shifts, a registered manager dealing with staffing issues....... We will be sharing care policy and news to support everyone’s awareness of the care debates which are set to change the industry and support people to influence the debate in a meaningful way.
We will bring social care policy and law to the people affected by it (which is basically everyone in some way).
We will bring social care policy and law to the people affected by it (which is basically everyone in some way).
Our focus is on the barely represented area of social care, but we will also be discussing health issues as they increasingly intersect
with social care.
So, what even is ‘coproduction’?
Warning – this bit gets a bit techy...Sorry!
There are many definitions of the word ‘coproduction’. Back in 2013, the thinktank NEF (the New Economics Foundation), commissioned by the mental health charity MIND, wrote a report defining coproduction as:
“A relationship where professionals and citizens share power to plan and deliver support together, recognising that both partners have vital contributions to make in order to improve quality of life for people and communities.”
A leading organisation in promoting coproduction in care is the Social Care Institute of Excellence (SCIE). SCIE defines coproduction as:
“a key concept in the development of public services. It has the potential to make an important contribution to all of the big challenges that face social care services”.
(SCIE)
The Care Act 2014 statutory guidance defines coproduction as:
“when an individual influences the support and services received, or when groups of people get together to influence the way that services are designed, commissioned and delivered. Such interventions can contribute to developing individual resilience and help promote self-reliance and independence, as well as ensuring that services reflect what the people who use them want.”
(The Care Act 2014 statutory guidance)
Our favourite definition however, is by NHS England:
“co-production is a way of working that involves people who use health and care services, carers and communities in equal partnership; and which engages groups of people at the earliest stages of service design, development and evaluation”
and that coproduction:
“…acknowledges that people with ‘lived experience’ of a particular condition are often best placed to advise on what support and services will make a positive difference to their lives. Done well, co-production helps to ground discussions in reality, and to maintain a person-centred perspective. Co-production is part of a range of approaches that includes citizen involvement, participation, engagement and consultation. It is a cornerstone of self-care, of person-centred care and of health-coaching approaches.”
This definition from NHS England we feel really encompasses a good definition.
We hope that if we can reach a point where the idea of coproduction as a concept is fully understood by people at all levels, it then has the capacity to:
- become part of a recognised public vocabulary around care
- part of the agenda for health and care training and development and
- to democratise the provision and discussions around care
- part of the agenda for health and care training and development and
- to democratise the provision and discussions around care
Where does the term originate from?
Coproduction aims to create better autonomy for people using services. It requires people in senior positions and positions of power to respect and act on the diversity of experiences, views and knowledges within care. Creating an equal playing field between those in positions of health and social care policy power and those experiencing, working, using or living in care.
What does it mean to us?
We would describe ‘coproduction in care’ as a values-based cultural change to care, where decisions are driven by people not process. This is a big ask, especially for institutions steeped in bureaucracy. In fact, coproduction in care has been driven by organisations working in social care, such as
SCIE,
Skills for Care and
TLAP. SCIE has promoted coproduction through their annual coproduction week. TLAP have done some fantastic work around coproduction, not least promoting its Making It Real initiative which organisations can use as a person-centred quality mark to improve their services.
Coproduction Principles:
It is important to remember that definitions of coproduction should ideally not be used by organisations as a simple rulebook or coproduction tick box.
Coproduction means each organisation needs to internalise the processes and develop their own working models and charters to embed into their workplaces.
Let's #CoproduceCare
Coproduce Care has been created to open up the debates, support and discussions around social care.
Coproduce Care started out of frustration that a lot of decisions and plans around social care are carried out behind closed doors and from the top down, with very little effective involvement from the majority of people affected by social care – health and social care staff, families, people using services, registered managers, directors, carers, volunteers…..
What we'll do:
We aim to put the unheard voices of health and social care at the heart of care improvement and change. Initially, launching in the late Summer, we hope to create an interactive site and hub which will:
1. Connect Organisations
So that more integrated, financially supported and effective services will emerge
2. Connect volunteers and people with support needs
So more informal ways of helping people support each other within their community can develop
3. Knowledge Share
Where funding, blogs on social care rights and services will help spread positive and helpful knowledge about social care for everyone to access freely
4. respond to government and policy consultations
Provide a service that will help anyone involved in care or caring, to
respond to government and policy consultations on social care
- so that policies will be better informed and to encourage a coproductive approach to making effective social care laws and policies which people of all abilities can influence and engage with.
Coproduce Care will spread social care insights and information through
- Regular blogs and information sharing through social media – twitter and Facebook and Webchats
- A YouTube channel to discuss current social care issues and interview key decision-make
- A dedicated grants and funding page where people and organisations can keep up-to-date with opportunities for them to apply for funding to co-create their own community initiatives.
Join us
We will be relying on a small but dedicated team and volunteers.
So, if you would like to be involved, please get in touch at hi@coproducecare.com
and help us open up the care debate, properly democratise care and please do join and share Coproduce Care:
Spread the word and uncover the hidden opportunities for people-led coproduced care
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We are pleased to provide an update our involvement in new projects currently being undertaken by Coproduce Care (CIC) in collaboration with Care and Support West. We will be contributing to local initiatives in Social Care Workforce Redesign, and we are excited to share the project with you. This project is running from June 2023 to June 2024. We will be working on three areas for the next 10 months all in the BNSSG region which are as follows: 1: Investigation of the Trusted Assessor Approach in Health and Social Care Systems In this project, we are investigating the Trusted Assessor Approach in health and social care systems. The objective is to demonstrate the value of Trusted Assessors in streamlining care needs assessment, while also addressing data protection and consent concerns. Case studies will be created from local regions that have implemented this approach, to provide insights into the benefits of Trusted Assessors of reducing delays in accessing required care. 2: BNSSG Opportunities for Levy Sharing and Increasing Apprenticeships in Social Care This project aims to identify opportunities for levy sharing in social care and increase the use of apprenticeships. The project will engage social care providers, training organizations, authorities, and other stakeholders to develop strategies, guidelines, and an implementation plan for utilizing the levy effectively and increasing the use of apprenticeships. 3: Integrated Health and Social Care: Enhancing Collaboration, Improving Quality, Shaping Models of Care, and the Future Social Care Workforce In this project, we are evidencing the enhanced collaboration between social care providers, health services, and local authorities. By mapping existing interfaces and collaborations, we seek to identify opportunities for cross-system benefits and improved outcomes, creating recommendations for integration for BNSSG. Our research will provide valuable insights to integration and collaboration between social care and health. At Coproduce Care (CIC), we believe that collaboration and innovation are vital for transforming social care. Through these projects, we aim to contribute to a more efficient and compassionate system. We extend our gratitude to all stakeholders, providers, commissioners, and policymakers for their invaluable support. Thank you for your continued interest in our endeavours. We will keep you updated as the projects progresses! In the meantime, if you are doing any work in any of these key areas, please get in touch with us using the below form. Thank you!