How to make co-production absolutely mainstream

[David Boyle]

What is holding back the development of co-production in the mainstream?

This Co-production Network has been growing so fast that you might feel it is unstoppable, and it probably is. But there are bound to be frustrations and three of these particularly stand out for me.

The first is the way that co-production tends to get categorised as part of the ‘empowerment’ agenda, rather than – as it should be, I believe – a critique of it.

As I have written elsewhere, co-production seems to me to be best understood as a response to the failure of the empowerment agenda over the past decade – that, despite all the rhetoric, power has not actually passed from service manager to service user in many, if not most, cases.

Quite the reverse, the spending cuts reveal that decisions are being made where they were always made. Co-production is an attempt to explain why and what to do about it.

It is critical of the idea that big systems actually give away power. But there are circumstances when you turn round and find, gosh, the power has actually shifted – when people are actively delivering services alongside professionals.

The second frustration is an aspect of this. It is the way government institutions find it easier to adopt the principles of co-production, and to announce their commitment on their website – the NHS springs to mind – without having much idea, or much interest, in what it actually means.

Finally, there is the issue of what to do about it politically, understanding that politicians grasp ideas only when they know what they are suppose to put into legislation.

I’ve made an attempt to address this one with a report from the CentreForum thinktank called Turbo-charging Volunteering.

It explains that co-production is a mechanism that can unleash people’s willingness to play an active role in the services they use, and that it is beginning to emerge, whether it is in community justice panels or time banks in health services or co-operative nurseries. Or in a slightly different way of approaching professional support, based on coaching and informal solutions, like those used so successfully the Local Area Co-ordination.

But those are happening on a tiny scale compared to what is necessary if we are going to humanise services and make them work more effectively. So here is the question: how can we roll out this kind of infrastructure in every public service on a huge scale?

Where do you start? My report suggests that all service contractors, public and private, need to be asked the following questions:

• How do you plan to rebuild social networks?
• How do you plan to encourage mutual support among users?
• How do you plan to reduce the level of need for your service year by year?

[Ruth Dineen]

Three absolutely key questions David, but unless/until organisations understand the significance of social networks and mutual support and reciprocity, they aren't going to be inclined to answer them.

So maybe we first need legislation and a commissioning approach which places an obligation on service contractors to deliver on these ambitions. And alongside that, we need to offer information, support, training and mentoring both to help them do so and to get the buy-in which is essential for sustainability.

We're taking the first baby steps in this direction in Wales, although funding is less abundant than ideas and enthusiasm at the moment!