Co-production - could it apply to other aspects of our lives?

By Eleanor Mould, SCIE project coordinator

As someone new in the social care sector, I had hardly heard of co-production until I started at SCIE and I was assigned to the co-production team as a project coordinator. When talking to SCIE's Pete Fleischmann and Kate Pieroudis about their work, which they are so clearly passionate about, it’s hard for that passion not to rub off on you.

I started to research co-production; reading articles, watching YouTube videos, and reading the SCIE and TLAP webpages and available literature. ‘The principle that those who use a service are best placed to design it’ doesn’t sound like a revolutionary concept, yet it is.

Attending the different co-production meetings at SCIE has opened my eyes to new ways of working together, power-sharing, and the development of services. The respect, passion, hunger for change, and lack of hierarchy present at these meetings is an inspirational change. These meetings are a place where everyone and every opinion can be heard. A place to be respected, relax, discuss serious topics with a renewed sense of energy, and constructively challenge topics. These meetings and all those who are involved are a breath of fresh air.

It made me think why the notion of ‘nothing about us without us’ doesn’t apply to more aspects of our lives. Coming from a politics and security studies background the idea of power-sharing is, as you can imagine, rarely discussed. Seldom do politicians or those involved in security want to relinquish the power they hold. If only politicians could see that by power sharing and co-producing more policy on different topics, they are not losing anything, rather that they could gain a wealth of knowledge and experience, ‘don’t shift power, share it’.

I believe co-production in the social care system and its progressive impact, can be a shining beacon for making co-production mainstream. We should use the example set by co-production to constructively challenge the status quo and make co-production a requirement by law.