Co-production Week 2019

Co-production Week 2019

Tuesday 26 June 2018

Calling on evidence co-producers

By Pippa Coutts, Policy and development manager, Carnegie UK Trust


I am becoming a veteran of alliances, such as the Alliance for Action and the Alliance for Useful Evidence, as well as working in various third, statutory and academic collaborations. Not surprisingly, I believe in the value of working together to try to overcome complex problems: and perhaps co-production is the holy grail of collaborative activity, when power and roles are truly shared. However, preparing for a talk today on the co-production of evidence, I was struck again by the huge potential but degree of change that’s needed for co-production to happen.

An appetite for co-produced evidence

Carnegie UK Trust has a long standing interest in the use of evidence in the pursuit of improved societal wellbeing. It also believes that giving people more control enables wellbeing. These objectives have led us to think about the possibility of co-produced evidence. The appetite for this was demonstrated in a recent survey where over two thirds of respondents reported they participate in the co-production of evidence. This also hints at one of the issues that might be hindering co-production: lack of conceptual clarity. What do people mean when they say they participated in the co-production of evidence? If we were to measure that activity against the principles of co-production how far would it measure up?

We want to hear your ideas

One of the reasons that I ask this is because, looking around it is difficult to find many instances of co-produced evidence. In the discussion paper, the Scottish Approach to Evidence, we concluded that the Scottish policy context with a focus on partnership and people is ripe for the co-production of evidence, but the evidence base lags behind. This includes both examples of co-produced evidence and evidence for the impact of co-production on outcomes. Two different concepts, but ones that have sometimes been conflated, to the possible detriment of co-produced research. Last year, to encourage more co-produced evidence, at a Roundtable with Newcastle University’s Institute for Social Renewal, we called for more clarity on what is good quality co-produced evidence. Following this, The Trust is continuing to explore how to assess the rigor and value of co-produced evidence, and I’d be delighted to hear your ideas.

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