3. 3www.choicesupport.org.uk
Πλεονεκτήματα
People at all levels are vital to an organisation, and their
full involvement ensures their abilities can be used for
everybody’s benefit. Some key benefits are that:
■ people are motivated, committed and involved
■ innovation and creativity help to achieve objectives and
outcomes
■ people are accountable for their own decisions
■ people are eager to participate in and contribute to
continual improvement.
4. 4www.choicesupport.org.uk
Co-production is not just a term or a model – it is
a dialogue-based approach, a coming together
of minds to find a solution to a shared problem.
In practice, it involves people who use services
being consulted, included and collaborated with
from the start to the end of any project that
affects them (Think Local Act Personal, 2011).
I’d like to talk a little bit about involvement and co-production and these prepare the ground for autonomy and citizenship. In all its forms, involvement is an on-going and sustained process of collaboration and information sharing between a public body or organisation and people with an interest in their work. Involvement is a form of public engagement in decision-making that recognises that:
■ all people and all communities have a right to help shape and influence decisions that affect them
■ involving a range of individuals and groups in decision-making is valuable because it creates greater resources, gives clearer insights, more diverse perspectives and shared knowledge, ideas and experiences to draw on
■ good involvement helps deliver better decisions, is a better use of resources, and gives better outcomes for participants, communities and organisations
■ barriers to participation in involvement should be removed.
When people begin working with a co-production approach, there are a number of things that they need to consider in relation to the individuals they will be involved with:
Mindset: they need to have a good understanding of the fundamentals of human rights, group dynamics, personal differences and relationships.
Recruitment: they will need to identify the individual skills they are looking for in people with learning disabilities; provide training; offer opt in/out options; set clear goals and expectations; and ideally, introduce a payment scheme.
Design: they will need to identify the skills and roles they are looking for; explore methodologies for working together; decide on research or working topics.
Accessibility: the service will need to be accessible to support contributions from people with learning disabilities and help with their learning.
Practicalities: how will the stakeholders travel to and from locations; will there be flexible timeframes for working; what support needs will the stakeholders require.
Gathering, analysing and sharing information: how will information be accessible and how will discussion be facilitated at all stages? How are new ideas and experiences to be shared?
One way or the other, what the term ‘co-production’ really infers is that the involvement of the third sector, or charitable organisations, transforms the delivery of public services. This relationship between the third sector and the production process is a dynamic one in that the involvement of stakeholders not only transforms the service but the stakeholders are transformed as part of the process as well, in their expectations and understanding and in feeling empowered. At the same time, third-sector organisations deliver services differently, and in doing so they incorporate themselves into this transformation by adapting and evolving the services all the time to meet the person’s needs.
Therefore, co-production has a clear link to citizenship. From inactivity the person or the group passes into universal connectivity whereby as citizens perform the role of partner rather than customer in the design and delivery of services. The collective participation of citizens in the provision of welfare services also has the potential to create a clear political value added not found in the passive consumption of services.
Choice of three final slides to leave up after you have completed the presentation.