Title image: Co-production in practice

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Introduction to Section 1 What is co-production? Why co-production? Participation and co-production What does co-production look like?
Introduction to Section 2 How to start co-production Methods and techniques Spotlight on lived experience panels Spotlight on facilitation techniques Supporting people in co-production
Introduction to section 3 Advocating for co-production The policy context Frameworks and tools
Introduction to Section 4 Reflecting, evaluating and learning Tips and helpful resources for evaluation

This section of the guide is designed to assist in designing and implementing co-productive activities and encouraging and supporting both communities and practitioners’ co-production journeys.      

Before we put co-production into practice however, we need to be realistic about what success will look like and this often means acknowledging that, in certain circumstances, it will not be always possible to implement co-production to every part of a project or programme.    

Being realistic

One of the things we hear consistently through our co-production training is that not only do people not know where to start their co-pro journey but are often deterred as they don’t always have the power to implement and encourage this at higher, more strategic decision-making levels.  This makes them worry that any co-pro activity they introduce will seem tokenistic or misrepresented to others participating.  

Our advice on this is that whilst strategic buy-in is important, and we will always champion this were possible, it is equally important to maximise co-production activities wherever possible for both the benefit of projects and those involved.    

Confidence and trust

There is almost always scope to maximise co-production within any context and as long as we are realistic, honest and transparent about what can be achieved and affected then there can be confidence and trust in the process.   

The more we practice co-production, the more we improve. The more we improve, larger positive impacts will be evidenced.  Such evidence will encourage more co-production including strategic buy-in and adoption.  

In this section we will start to unpack how to put co-production into practice and provide handy hints, tips and examples that will help to get you started (or continue) on your co-pro journey.