Co-production through building and celebrating communities

Val De Souza writes about co-production, communities and the third sector.

When the Health and Social Care Academy asked me to prepare a blog for co-production week, the request was to focus on the theme of power.

‘How (asked the brief) can we address power imbalance through co-production? What are the barriers that inequality of power brings? How do we ensure power is shared equally?’

Well, this has been a timely request.

These are the type of big questions we’ve been asking ourselves, our staff, partners and, crucially, people in our communities in recent months.

By way of setting the scene, there’s a rich tradition of co-production in South Lanarkshire. To name but a few, our partners in the third sector provide a range of services that contribute toward the achievement of our ultimate goals, the nine National Health and Wellbeing outcomes. A recent special edition online newsletter (this link will take you away from our website) brings that into sharp focus. Our award-winning continence project  (this link will take you away from our website) is making a dramatic difference to the lives of people in care homes. We’re now seeing more people retaining their independence using Telehealth  (this link will take you away from our website) and we’re also working with The Red Cross to ensure the people in our care get home from hospital in a timely and safe way.

In short, our partnership is committed to co-production – and all of the above wouldn’t have been possible without a variety of agencies and people combining strength, expertise and working together.

As a wider reflection of this commitment we recently launched our Building and Celebrating Communities (BCC) programme  (this link will take you away from our website).

A key aim was to explore how we can generate more space for communities to create the things that matter to them – and how we can support these activities.

So, we opened up our BCC programme with a series of events in the summer.

To be specific, there were three main themes the conversations at those events were based on.  Firstly, identifying the things that only the public sector can do in relation to health, social care and wellbeing.  Secondly, the whole raft of things that the third sector, communities and public services can do together.  Then there is the important third element; the things communities can do for themselves.

We wanted to identify and unpick what was in the first, second and third categories.

This was about listening.

We’d issued an open invite to people from all walks of life. And I believe we created an environment where the 400 folk who came along could have open, honest and, sometimes, robust conversations.

Everyone, bar none, had a story to tell.

We heard the moving testimony from a group of male carers, for example, who, on the surface, seemed very tough and resilient. In contrast, they revealed how they’d each felt a sense of ‘drowning’ in their respective caring roles at one point – but having found the strength to go on through each other’s company and shared experience.

We heard from one man who wanted to spread the immense benefits of walking football in dealing with depression. With a little help from the partnership he’s now brought around 24 strangers together in a weekly fixture that’s forged lasting friendships and caught the imagination of an entire community.

We also heard from one young mum who had lived under a black cloud of labels and preconceptions virtually all her adult life – and was dedicating her spare time to breaking down prejudice in her local community by running an intergenerational activities group.

Like that mum, many people who I met were driven to do what they are doing to help others by their own personal experiences. Some of these experiences had had a profound impact on their outlook.

It can be easy to take a doom-laden view of modern living.

Whilst the social landscape has undoubtedly shifted, my colleagues and I witnessed a tremendous energy and willingness to connect and co-produce throughout communities across South Lanarkshire.

There is also a genuine commitment to improving the lives of people around us, no matter the sector or group people had come from.

The take home message for me from these events was that, despite the challenges, community cohesion is very much alive and well.

Having identified specific areas for action, we’re now continuing to build and nurture those strengths where possible and (crucially) where required.

Co-production is indeed about combining our mutual strengths and capacities so that we can work with one another on an equal basis to achieve positive change.

But sometimes all is required is a very light touch from big statutory agencies.

So, to answer the original question of power . . . .

What I know, and what I’ve witnessed through the early stages of BCC, is that if you create the environment where the real, honest conversations can take place, if you really listen to each other, then you begin to empower.

And what better place for co-production to take root and blossom.

End of page.