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What is co-production in social care?
Co-production is when service users, care providers and communities come together as equals to make decisions or create services that work for them all. The goal is to design and deliver services that meet the needs of the people who use them. By valuing the lived experience of people accessing care, co-production creates more effective, person-centred and sustainable solutions.
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Co-production in action
A local authority has identified a growing need for specialist supported living services for adults with learning disabilities in their area. The lack of services has led to an increase in complaints from families and higher rates of hospital admissions and emergency callouts due to inadequate support for behaviours that challenge and unmanaged mental health conditions.
To reduce costly out-of-area placements and help people with learning disabilities stay connected with family and local communities, they decide to design a supported living service.
A traditional approach to designing a new service without co-production would engage managers, policymakers and commissioners. It would be developed on assumptions rather than direct input from the people using the service and could lead to:
- More complaints from families if services don’t meet people’s needs.
- Higher distress for the people accessing the service who feel unsupported.
- Higher staff turnover as carers feel undervalued and stressed.
- Inefficiencies and resources wasted on processes that don’t improve care quality.
If instead, the local authority took a co-produced approach to designing their supported living service, they would have engaged:
- People with learning disabilities - to share their lived experience of what makes them feel supported.
- Families - to share the challenges they face so the new service can support them.
- Care staff - to share insight into what works and where they need additional training or support.
- Supported living providers - to share expertise and identify gaps in care.
- NHS professionals - to ensure service aligns with wider health and social care needs.
- Local learning disability advocacy groups - to make sure policies help service users maintain independence.
Designing a service in this way means the people who use services and carers are valued by organisations as equal partners. This results in:
- Better quality of life for service users who feel in control of their care.
- Reduced stress for families as they have more confidence in the supported living team.
- Increased staff satisfaction as they know their input is valued and they’re empowered to deliver truly person-centred care.
- More efficient use of resources as the service was designed to meet the needs of the people using it.
Working with service users and families on co-production for proactive care
Think Local Act Personal (TLAP) has a range of resources for supporting good co-production with service users and families. Here are 10 of their top tips:
- Involve everyone who will be taking part in co-production from the start.
- Establish a shared vision - come to the table with a blank agenda and build it with people who use your service, their carers and families.
- Ensure appropriate and adequate resources are available to support co-production (participation fees, expenses, easy-read documents and access needs).
- Make sure no one group or person is more important than anyone else. Everyone can contribute given the right support.
- Acknowledge and respect what service users, their carers and families say.
- Put service users at the centre of their care by involving them in every aspect from planning to delivery.
- Learn to share power. Doing things differently means working across a range of issues that confront us.
- Don’t use jargon or acronyms, plain English is better for everybody.
- Create the expectation that people who use services, carers and families will be involved in every aspect of service planning, design and delivery at every level.
- Secure buy-in. For co-production to work, everyone must have the same vision from carers to commissioners.
The four principles of co-production
According to the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), there are four principles of co-production. Equality, diversity, accessibility and reciprocity.
- Equality - everyone is equal and everyone has assets they can bring to co-production. Assets refer to skills, abilities, time and other qualities that people have.
- Diversity - co-production should be as inclusive as possible, while it can be challenging, projects must be proactive about diversity.
- Accessibility - ensuring that everyone has the same opportunity to fully participate in co-production, in the way that suits them best.
- Reciprocity - ensuring that people receive something back for putting something in, building on their desire to feel needed and valued.
Funding for proactive care initiatives
The Better Care Fund (BCF) is an NHS programme supporting local systems to successfully deliver the integration of health and social care in a way that supports person-centred care, sustainability and better outcomes for people and carers. While care providers can’t directly apply for the BCF, they can influence projects by engaging in co-production and service design with local authorities.
Local Authority public health grant
The government provides public health allocations for local authorities to improve health in local populations, from 2025 to 2026 this will amount to £3.858 billion. Care providers can apply for contracts, tenders or community grants to support proactive care initiatives. To apply, visit your local Integrated Care Board’s website to see what funding is available.
Co-produced proactive care leads to better continuity of care across services. Helping everyone from service users to families feel fully involved in their care and bridging the gap between multidisciplinary teams.
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