Co-production

What is Co-production?

Co-production describes the relationship between those who provide services and those who use them drawing on their combined knowledge, abilities and resources to develop joint solutions which achieve better health and wellbeing outcomes for people and improve service efficiency. Effective co-production rebalances the traditional scales of power between providers and users; with health and care institutions and professionals ceding power and citizens being empowered to fully engage and participate in decisions about their own care, including self management.

Co-production and the ALLIANCE

The principles of co-production as defined by the New Economics Foundation (this link will take you away from our website) underpin the philosophy of the ALLIANCE and its programmes i.e.

• Recognising people as assets.
• Building on people’s existing capabilities.
• Promoting mutuality and reciprocity.
• Developing peer support networks.
• Breaking down barriers between professionals and recipients.
• Facilitating rather than delivering.

The Self Management and Co-production Hub brings together the Integration Support Team, House of Care programme and Self Management programme and fund. These programmes contribute to the delivery of the vision for health and social care integration and primary care transformation by helping to align the assets of the Public, Third and Independent Sectors with those of individuals and communities through the processes of capacity building, education, evaluation and learning, networking and communication.

The Hub also aligns with a range of partners to support the understanding and practice of co-production, including the Scottish Co-production Network, SCDC IRISS, Governance International, Scottish Government, Healthcare Improvement Scotland, ihub (these links will take you away from our website) and others.

As part of this work the Hub will be building a range of resources with ALLIANCE members and partners to help spread the understanding and practice of co-production and give examples of the different ways in which co-production approaches can be used in transforming the way health and wellbeing is designed and provided.

Why Co-production? 

The Commission on the Future of Public Services (The Christie Report) (this link will take you away from our website) stated that unless Scotland embraced a radical new collaborative culture in its public services both budgets and provision would buckle under the strain. In achieving this services must be designed with and for Scotland’s people and communities.

The Scottish Government has embraced Christie’s recommendations for reform through four overarching areas:

• Prevention – improving outcomes and reducing demand for a range of acute hospital services by better utilising the talents and potential of Scotland people and communities.
• Partnership – harnessing the full spectrum of public bodies, Independent & Third Sector organisations and placing greater responsibility and control into the hands of citizens and communities where appropriate.
• Workforce Development – encouraging the public sector workforce and management to embrace new innovative ways of working which involve communities and service users in the design of public services.
• Performance Improvement – improving and measuring outcomes for services and their users

Co-production in Health and Social Care Integration 

In 2014 the Scottish Government introduced The Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act which requires the NHS and Local Authorities to integrate the planning and provision of health and social care in order to reduce the barriers and divisions within health care and between health and social care services. Central to these reforms is a requirement to involve the people who use services, their carers, and the full range of service providers – including the third sector, in strategic planning and commissioning processes. The Act identifies a set of integration delivery principles (this link will take you away from our website) which are consistent with the values and principles of co-production and will help encourage the involvement of people and communities in designing and delivering health and social services.