Co-ProStories

Exploring lived experiencesof co-production

November 2020

About Co-Pro Stories The Co-Production Collective wanted to explorepeople's lived experiences of co-production. Workingwith People’s Voice Media, they used CommunityReporting - a pan-European storytelling movementthat supports people to use digital technologies to telltheir own stories - to capture a series of dialogueinterviews with people who identified as 'co-producers'.These co-producers come from different sectors, workon different projects, and participate in different waysin co-production.

The stories they told shone light on what co-productionis, what it feels like, and what it can achieve. As part ofthis piece of work, the co-producers participated in asense-making session in which they analysed theirstories and identified a key set of insights from them.This short report summarises the learnings from thestories.

Key Findings

Co-production should be approached as a practicegoverned by a set of values, rather than an exactscience or process.

Co-production can bring real value to researchprojects and be key to ensuring that services aremore effective and better meet the needs of thepeople who access them.

Co-production can be challenging but with supportand encouragement, embracing continual andshared learning and by creating spaces for co-producers to connect, barriers can be overcome.

The key findings that emerged from the stories are:

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What is co-production?co-producer stated that "no one is ofhigher or lesser value". Echoing thissentiment, another co-producer statedthan in order to give people “equal value,equal agency”, you have to give peopleequal opportunity too. Fundamentally, co-production is a process of collaborativelearning led by strong values and itshould be undertaken with a growthmindset of “I’m still learning, we’re all stilllearning”.

People articulated their understanding ofco-production in a variety of ways. Manypeople stressed the need to not be puristor worry too much about a strict definitionof what co-production is in practice.Instead, they emphasised that co-production is “value-driven, and that’simportant”. People expressed ideals ofdemocracy and equality - of contributionand of treatment - as underpinning theco-production process. Indeed, one

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Why do co-production?The stories were full of examples of thebenefits of co-production. There was astrong sense that co-production wasessential in moving research and provisionforward, and that involving everybody makesprojects stronger and improves outcomes.One co-producer working in research saidthat it would be “impossible” to do their work“without including the family, friends andunderstanding the lived experience” ofpeople living with the condition.

Co-production “really does help get the bestvalue for public money that we are investingon the public’s behalf”, another co-producertold us. These stories resist a narrative thatcasts co-production as more expensive orwasteful compared to traditional researchmethods or standard ways of managingprojects. Instead, the stories suggest that,because its outputs are so tailored and thecommunity already have a stake in them,they are more likely to provide value formoney than other ways of working.

How do you do co-production?The stories highlighted particular ways of working that create the conditions needed forgood co-production. The Co-Production Collective sees co-production as an approach to working together in equal partnership and for equal benefit that is underpinned by livingout the core values of being human, inclusive, transparent and challenging. People's storiesreflected how these values are a core part of co-production.

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Relationship-building forms a huge part of the work of co-production,and it is through this that trust is created. Building trust is key tohelping people to get through the messiness of co-production, which“can be challenging for some people... you have to ride with it, run withit, know that it's going to be messy". Strong relationships help tonavigate this journey and provide people with the strength ofconnections to steer through it together.

H u m a n

The stories emphasised that “diversity” of voices was very important -“having conversations with people that you wouldn’t normally”. Co-production, therefore, is not just about working as a team. It’s aboutbuilding a team out of people who wouldn’t normally work together.This means that co-producers should be pro-active in terms ofinclusion and accessibility. As one co-producer stated, being"stamped down" or having needs overlooked "is not co-production".

I n c l u s i v e

Being transparent means addressing the power imbalances andhierarchies that exist, not simply trying to disguise them. A key part ofthis is not bringing people "as a tick box exercise". As one co-producerreflects, "by the time that people are involved, it's almost too late tohave a really meaningful impact". Co-production should not be aboutconfirming pre-existing ideas but instead be “a blank canvas”.

T r a n s p a r e n t

Co-production is challenging because it is more a practice than aprocess - "a state of being, not a state of doing"- and due to this on-going learning is needed. As one co-producer states, "just get yourhands in and get messy with it... just iterate over time and see whatworks well". This can be challenging but as many co-producers havesaid, it's "so worth it".

C h a l l e n g i n g

What are the challenges of co-production?

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Although the stories highlighted the manypositive elements of co-production, theyalso provided space for co-producers toreflect on some of the challenges of thisway of working.

The stories explored the emotionalimpacts of co-production. One co-producer pointed out that researchersneed to “examine their motives” beforethey start. They pled with researchers notto do it “because it's the thing to do or abox-ticking exercise”, because that can“do harm to people”. Similarly, if peopleapproach co-production “with anagenda, knowing what they want” thenco-production can feel disheartening andleave people feeling that there was not aproper attempt made to engage, changeand share (or shift) power.

Time was also considered a barrier to co-production. “Recruiting and supportingpeople to co-produce is a big job”reflected one co-producer. Availability orperhaps suitability of funding was anotherbig interlinked concern of many of the

contributors. Co-production “doesn’t costa lot of money, but it does requireresource”, reasoned one co-producer.

Furthermore, co-production rubs upagainst standard established workingpatterns and practices in institutions suchas healthcare, funding bodies anduniversities, which often have quite rigidways of working. As one co-producerexplains:

"Academic systems and structures arenot set-up for co-production... [we]wanted to collaboratively apply forfunding, but the application had to bethrough an academic institution, so thepower automatically goes to theinstitution, even though the point of co-production is about sharing power.”

The other challenge that emergedthroughout the interviews was that co-production can be “messy” and cansometimes not go as well as you’d hoped.Co-producers should be open to fail and then learn from this.

Support and Encouragement: Co-production can be hard work so continuedencouragement is needed. Specifically, co-producers felt support to stay engaged,deal with the emotions or challenges that co-production can bring (particularly forpeople with disabilities or conditions), were particularly needed.Continued Learning: There was a strong sense that “we all need to learn from eachother” and that co-producers wanted to share experiences, failures and learningswith others working in different fields to them.Spaces to Connect: To be able to share learning, the co-producers felt that morespaces - online and offline - needed to be created to allow this to happen. It wasfelt that the Co-Production Collective has a role to play in creating “a sustainablecommunity of co-producers”.

All of the co-producers were hopeful about the future of co-production. Co-productionis “vital” and there is “real value” in it, they told us. To support co-production'sdevelopment and expansion, the co-producers identified the need for the following:

The future of co-production

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S u p p o r t L e a r n i n g S p a c e s

Want to exploremore?

You can read the full analysis of the storieshere: https://rb.gy/hwtsit

You can also watch some extracts from thestories here: https://shorturl.at/uJPQV

Thank you to the storytellers and Co-Production Collective for providing the images.