South Notts ICP commits to co-production to support development of services
We are working towards developing our plans built on the foundations of co-production with our communities. Maria Ballantyne, Group Manager – Living Well South team, Nottinghamshire County Council, is supporting the partnership with this and explains what this actually means…
Co-Production is about us working together to shape and improve health and social care services by involving the people and their carers who need and use them. In practice, it means that we want to work with people who use the service so they can tell us about what works well, what doesn’t and, how can we make sure that we are all talking about it to make positive changes.
When co-production works best, people who use services and carers are valued by organisations as equal partners and have an influence over decisions made.
Why is it important?
Co-production of health and social care services is important because it enables the people who have ‘lived experience’ of receiving them to participate in the planning and decision making about their local health and social care service offer. Involving people who have lived experience leads to service improvement and more inclusive planning for the future.
Co-Production is based on the following 4 commitments:
- Equality: Everyone’s views and experience are valued, and all the people involved are equals- whether they are health and social care professionals, people or carers with lived experience.
- Diversity: Health and social care services should make sure that the group of people involved reflects the diversity of the local population.
- Access: Co-production meetings and discussions must be accessible for all to take part. There shouldn’t be anything that makes it difficult for any group of people to take part in co-production.
- Reciprocity: The people involved in co-production should get something for taking part, for example this could be support for someone with care and support needs so to enable their carer to take part, or the chance to meet new people and feel part of a co-production community. (Social Care Institute for Excellence 2015).
Example of Co-Production in practice:
Birmingham City Council’s Adult services Department has developed new ways of working to support co-production work including:
- two “quality boards” made up of people who use services, these boards co-produce the minimum standards for adult care services in the city.
- ensuring that people who use services have the “lived experience” and can get involved as early as possible in projects, at all stages of service development (Social Care Institute for Excellence 2015).
The County Council is supporting South Notts ICP to develop their co-production plans and the partnership is committed to co-producing plans for local services in the future. We look to updating you on our progress.
For further information about Co- Production please see: Co-production: Working together to make things better | Nottinghamshire County Council
‘Think Local, Act Personal’ https://www.thinklocalactpersonal.org.uk/
The South Notts ICP are working towards building on the work already in place and, we look to updating you regarding our progress.