April 2011 Blog Posts (7)

The London co-production roadshow was the culmination of the five UK wide events that nef, NESTA, the co-production practitioners’ network and a range of partners, have been facilitating.

The day got off to a great start with a keynote from Philip Colligan, the executive director of NESTA’s public services lab. He talked about the imperative of co-production, and how it responded to a real need for a different approach to public services, one which delivers services with…

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In 2007 Solihull Council created the Environment Champions scheme to tackle the community's problem with littering vandalism and other environmental crimes in a context of fiscal austerity. The project sought to instigate greater community involvement and ownership over these issues, and improve partnerships between the public, private and voluntary groups in Solihull.

The project has recruited over 270 'champions' and completed over 100 projects - increasing social cohesion and…

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The Manchester roadshow was introduced by inspiring keynotes from Anna Coote from nefand Paul Davies from Walsall Council

• Anna Coote's presentation (PDF 7.2Mb)…

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The personalisation of social care – the idea that everyone who is offered support should have maximum choice and control over their service and their life – is beset with some real problems. The biggest one being that making personalisation happen requires changes in services and budgets, at a time when councils are also cutting services and budgets. There have been articles in the trade press recently alleging that, surprise, surprise,…

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Another successful Coproduction Roadshow took place in Birmingham. A very big thank you to our colleagues at Governance International for co-hosting and to the speakers and delegates for making the event so rich, vibrant and interesting!

Tony Bovaird and Elke Loeffler, from Governance Internationalopened the day with a definition of co-production. They were followed by a brilliant thought-provoking address by Paul Sheehan, CEO of…

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Blackheath fireworks night has been a long standing tradition in Lewisham – with 80,000 people attending it in 2009. In past year it had received funding from both Lewisham and Greenwich councils with some private sponsorship. In October 2010 Greenwich council decided not commit its share of the funding leaving the event in doubt. Lewisham council remained committed by wasn’t able to meet the shortfall alone. Instead it launched a public appeal for donations. This is a…

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People often say that it is much harder to achieve genuine employment for people with learning disabilities in times of recession and high unemployment. One Shared Lives carer has turned the recession to his advantage in setting up a recession-proof business which aims to provide real employment opportunities.



Mitch Morgan is an experienced market trader and entrepreneur who became a Shared Lives carer, supporting adults with learning disabilities in Shropshire. Mitch says, “I… Continue