Co-production Week 2019

Co-production Week 2019

Thursday 28 June 2018

Overcoming the barriers to co-production

By Deborah Ivanova – Deputy Chief Inspector Adult Social Care (London and South) Care Quality Commission

At the Care Quality Commission I have the pleasure of taking part in our bimonthly adult social care co-production events which are invaluable both to the organisation and to me personally.  The success of co-production lies in the impact it makes: at CQC we do things differently as a direct result of our sessions, but it’s not always easy.  We work to overcome the barriers to co-production by creating accessible, interesting, well attended and useful events. 

Making co-production events worthwhile is all about including a wide variety of people, which we do by inviting a mix of providers, experts by experience, public representatives, voluntary groups and more. The diversity is part of what makes them so special and we are always inviting new faces to make sure we have a mix of people who have unique ideas and points of view. 

When we have the right people around the table it’s important to make sure the discussions are focused. We look at topics which people are really passionate about and we have facilitators to draw everyone together to make sure we have a focused discussion.  I often take on the role of facilitator, which can be challenging when not everyone has the same opinion! As each table discussion draws to a close we present the key points visually and verbally, making sure we have agreement on what is important to take forward.

Making co-production events accessible to everyone is important and we try to structure the day to make sure everyone can get involved. If anyone has special requirements, such as where they sit or needing information in different formats we make sure this happens. We want everyone to feel they can contribute their views and have open conversations.

To make co-production real we need to recognise what the barriers are and create events which people want to attend and where they are listened to. I look forward to discussing this more on the panel at the upcoming SCIE co-production festival, and hope to see you there.

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