Co-production in Jersey

Paul Michel and Sophie Holmes are both physiotherapists from Jersey General Hospital, who work within a newly formed co-production group where service users and staff members have combined forces, to drive positive user-led changes. Here is their summary of how the process is going so far:

Why did we start co-production?

As physiotherapists we feel we know what our patients want and always have done. We are empathetic, good listeners and keen to implement change. On the other hand however, we value patient feedback, and so we were keen to embrace a new way of working in partnership. Although initially daunting, we wanted to see what feedback we would receive, and were excited about the direction that would take us, in terms of shaping our future service.

how did we start the process?

In November 2017, we invited service users to our first ever co-production workshop. The day was a great success, we received training from the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), completed a variety of team bonding exercises, and co-produced our core values (see picture).  Many improvement ideas were generated and we formed a steering group with service users, who were kind enough to give their time to help drive change.

Where are we now?

We’re in the infancy of our group, 6 months in, enjoying tackling some of the main issues head on. It’s really interesting listening to what our service users truly want compared to what we previously perceived they wanted! We were told that co-production is challenging at our training, and it is, but my word is it rewarding!

Our values ensure we don’t get upset by what we hear, we respect that we don’t know everything and that’s not a bad thing. It’s no longer a ‘them and us’ mentality, it’s us all working with equal power together. The great thing is that the work we are doing and recommendations we are making are being fully acknowledged and supported by the physiotherapy Senior Management Team. This breeds confidence that change can and will happen. And that is exciting!