Leading the way: Reflections on #CoProWeekScot events

Paul Ballantyne, Development Manager at SCDC, shares some his reflections from attending Co-production Week Scotland events.

Reflections on Co-Pro Week - Paul Ballantyne

Co-Pro Week is over for another year but as we all know the challenges are constant and, in Covid times especially, the accompanying stresses can feel overwhelming.

I think that’s why I found the work people did together before the event through the Planning Group to be so rewarding. The group co-produced great ideas for themes for the week and the topics and issues that could be the focus of different events. It meant that the week itself was the product of a successful partnership between a variety of groups and individuals. 

The week itself showed that the Co-Pro Network has great potential to connect people and help them realise that they are not alone in tacking the problems of poverty, exclusion and discrimination in ways which value the assets and talents within communities.

Seeing co-pro in action

I attended the Media Co-Op event during the week where I had the opportunity to watch a number of short videos about co-production in different settings - including examples such as a local group working with the Council to take over the running of a Community Centre, two short animation films produced by young people in Scottish Women’s Aid sharing experiences of mutual support, and a video from Police Scotland explaining how co-production can help unearth issues and help people where they are at rather than where others would like them to be.

A common theme running through all the videos was the need for agencies and professionals to ‘let go’ and change their ways of working. Other fundamental issues came up, including the need to recognise and build on the resilience, perseverance and skills and expertise in communities - a pre-requisite of successful co-production.

And it was great to hear participants in projects acknowledge the need to ‘just do it’ and be prepared to learn from mistakes, alongside being open and honest. 

If I was left with one key ‘take away’ from the event it was the value that participants in all the videos put on making the time and creating the space to get to know people and the importance of equal relationships - that for me is central to shifting the power balance between agencies and local communities at both personal and organisational levels.

Tapping into co-production

I also attended an event run by the Scottish Commission for People with Learning Disabilities (SCLD) where members explained how they had worked with SCLD and a digital design company  to produce a ‘Human Rights Town’ App. 

It was impressive to hear from members about they various ways they had got involved in co-producing the App and also to hear their ideas for running road shows around the country to publicise it. It was also encouraging to see a new resource produced which very cleverly focuses on day to day scenarios and helps those using it check whether people’s human rights are being respected or not. By engaging with the App people can learn more about fundamental human rights under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).

My ‘take away’ away from that event was that the new resource had great potential to reach out to the local business community and possibly enable new co-production relationships to develop with individual local businesses or with networks such as Scotland’s Towns Partnership.

In my view it is the third sector which often leads the way on co-production (indeed as in so many other issues) and therefore anything that helps encourage and secure commitment from the public and private sector can only be a positive development as we all try together to find ways out of the current Covid pandemic.