The advantages of sharing power - from a football referee

By James Anthony, Communications Coordinator, Social Care Institute for Excellence 

At age 16, I had my first taste of having ‘power’. I had qualified to be a football referee, putting myself at the centre of the game I loved. 

When I first stepped onto the pitch, I assumed that being strict on the rules and never letting my authority be questioned was the right approach. Put simply, I didn’t want to share any of my power.

When games got tough, and the players turned against me, I guessed the poor attitudes were because they didn’t like what I was telling them.

Over time, I learned instead that paying attention to how the players wanted to play the game made them much happier. Rather than dictating to them, I began to ask players if they were happy with the pitch conditions and check with goalkeepers that they were ready before kick-off. I started asking whether a fouled team wanted to have a quick free kick or wanted to stop for longer, and restart again later with the whistle. 

There’s also a fantastic rule in football known as the ‘advantage’ rule, which allows a team to keep playing if they’ve been fouled but feel it hasn’t affected them. I’d often shout “play on – advantage!” following a foul and let the players continue going forward, or call it back for the free kick if they weren’t happy. These ‘advantages’ are a great way of giving some decision-making power to the players, working together, and keeping them content.

When you experience sharing some of your power, and realise it makes the experience better for all involved, you begin to wonder ‘why can’t we deal with other situations like this?’

As I moved to working in the social care sector – I realised this approach could be applied there, too. Co-production, working in equal partnership with people who use services and carers in the development of their services, is based on that idea of sharing decision-making power. 

There ought to be more opportunities of empowerment in social care just as the ‘advantage’ rule in football helps keep things fair. Perhaps the sector could learn something from the footballing world and realise – like I had to – that sharing a little power can go a long way to improving things for everyone.

SCIE's Co-production Week 2019