Co-productionSarah Lyall, ResearcherNew Economics Foundation

Aims for this presentation

• Describe co-production in theory and practice• Explain why it matters• Discuss benefits and challenges• Think about how it could apply to you• Pose a question for debate

About NEF… and me

• Independent think-and-do tank

• Economics as if people and the planet matter

• Banking reform, community currencies, beyond GDP, well-being, public services, tackling inequalities

• NEF social policy: time, prevention, co-production, local government

What is NEF’s take on the world?

A prosperous future needs three economies working together• People: the human or ‘core’ economy• Planet : the natural economy• Market: a regulated financial economy

(Green Well Fair, NEF 2009)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77IdKFqXbUY

What is co-production?

Definitions

Produce: means - to make something or bring something into existence

Co: means - together; with in relation to servicesactive relationship between staff and people as co-workers

in relation to communitiesengaging the assets that exist within communities to grow the core economy

Definitions

“Co-production is 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.” – National Co-production Critical Friends

Co-design + Co-delivery

Professionals DESIGN

People & professionalsCO-DESIGN

PeopleDESIGN

Professionals DELIVER

Traditional professional service provision

People work together to design services delivered by professionals

People and communities design services for professionals to deliver

Professionals & people & CO-DELIVER

Professionals design services that people co-deliver

People, professionals & community co-production

People & community deliver services with little formal/ professional design

PeopleDELIVER

People & community deliver professionally planned services

People & community deliver co-designed services

Self-organised community provision

Examples

• Ostrom – Chicago police force, insider info• The Skills Network – mothers in Brixton,

supporting education and social change• Holy Cross Centre Trust – timebanking in

Camden• Any others you know?

Principles

1. Assets: transforming the perception of people from passive recipients of services and burdens on the system into one where they are equal partners in designing and delivering services.

2. Capacity: altering the delivery model of public services from a deficit approach to one that recognises and grows people’s capabilities and actively supports them to put them to use at an individual and community level.

3. Mutuality:offering people a range of incentives to engage which enable them to work in reciprocal relationships with professionals, and with each other, where there are mutual responsibilities and expectations of each other.

Principles

4. Networks: engaging peer and personal networks alongside professionals as the best way of transferring knowledge.

5. Blur roles: removing tightly defined boundaries between professionals and recipients, and between producers and consumers of services, by reconfiguring the ways in which services are developed and delivered.

6. Catalysts: enabling public service agencies to become facilitators rather than central providers themselves.

Activity: Assets and deficits

• 50 year old women, history of domestic abuse, depression and anxiety, two grown up children, unemployed• 21 year old man, low-income family, ‘Prince of thieves’, regular drug-user

Ladder of participation

Why it matters

• Has the capacity to transform services by rebuilding traditions of mutuality

• Essential to building sustainable public services by introducing new resources

• Has equal participation at its heart • Delivers better outcomes

Well-being and co-production

Challenges

• Shifting power and claiming power

• Time and energy• Going against the

grain

Making it happen

Co-production methods

• Peer research• Participatory appraisal• Participatory budgeting• Appreciative enquiry • Asset mapping• Storytelling• Photojournalism• Hack/design days• Coaching • Self reflection tools• Ideas stations • User journey mapping

Reflecting on your own work

• Can you think of a time when you’ve used co-production, or co-production methods?

• Who are you Doing To/For, where you could be Doing With?

Question for us all: Why do charities do co-design or co-delivery, but not both?

Questions and discussion

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