User and community co-production is an integral component in the Strategy 2016-2019 of the Aberdeen City Health and Social Care Partnership. In fact, the move towards co-production is not a completely new departure for the Partnership, as evidenced by eight ‘pocket case studies’ which have already been published as existing co-production approaches practiced by a number of staff in the Partnership. However, the Partnership recognised the potential for a much more extensive co-production approach, with wider learning across different services, sectors and professions working within and with the partnership.
Consequently, the Partnership commissioned Governance International to deliver the Co-Production Star Action Learning programme, which involves a structured step-by-step approach and systematic framework to upskill staff to put more extensive and intensive co-production approaches into practice in order to improve public services and public outcomes.
A core element of this training programme was a series of Co-Production Labs, which had the objective of providing staff, service users and local communities with action learning from the design and delivery of small-scale co-production projects. The Co-Production Labs are embedded in the four Localities (Central, South, North, West) of the Partnership to ensure that the new co-production approaches consider the local context and work closely with key local stakeholders. The Locality Co-Production Labs focused on the following challenges:
South Locality: Improving the health and wellbeing of people living with type 2 diabetes
Central Locality: Reducing loneliness of people, e.g. through food-sharing activities
West Locality: Reducing the risk of falls of frail people
North Locality: 1. Creating more connected communities with people living in sheltered housing
2. Engaging people with breathing difficulties in a collective singing project
This paper analyses the process of shifting from traditional service delivery to a more extensive and intensive co-production approach by:
- Experience-sharing, through surfacing the stories of service users and local communities
- Exploring jointly new solutions
- Experimenting with the new co-production approaches, which can involve co-commissioning, co-design, co-delivery and co-assessment
- Evaluating the quality of collaboration in the Co-Production Lab and results of the co-production project.
The paper uses documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders from two selected co-production projects, including staff and local people. The interviews have been carried out at different stages of the process to capture lessons learnt and also the challenges which still face the stakeholders. The paper concludes with a co-evaluation of the project undertaken by staff and local people participating in the Labs.
The complexities of building an evidence-base and conducting evaluation in an era of co-pr
