This year we’re pleased to present a series of contributions, starting with three blogs from people with lived experience in response to this year’s challenge “What’s missing” followed by contributions from two West Midlands Councils on the approaches they are putting in place :
Sarah Roberts
In her blog, Sarah Roberts, a member of our Co-production Advisory Group talks about personalisation, and urges a change of approach from health and social care professionals about personalisation, especially if things don’t go as planned…
Katie-Rose Stone
Katie-Rose Stone, also a member of our Co-production Advisory Group, urges the increasing number of organisations now working with people with lived experience to think carefully – and, of course, consult with them – around the issue of remuneration. It's not straightforward and like everything else in co-production, there is a need to be both creative and flexible…
Keymn Whervin, co-chair for WM ADASS Regional Co-production Advisory Group (left), with Robyn Chapell, co-production advisor at National Voices (in middle), and Susan Eagle, a commissioning manager at Sandwell Council. The three were presenting at a recent ADASS conference
Keymn Whervin, who is co-chair of the Co-production Advisory Group as well as a lived experience associate at WM-ADASS, says lived experience members can find that some organisations have a tendency to share power only as and when it suits the organisation. Others need to upskill in ‘cultural intelligence’ she says, noting that as a black woman, her journey has been very different to that of most leaders ‘in the room’. And she reminds us that bereaved carers entering the co-production space have the dual challenge of coping with grief whilst reinventing themselves in a new role…
In addition to our these blogs we have contributions from co-production leads in two of our member councils:
Susan Eagle, a commissioning team manager for prevention and community-based services at Sandwell Council describes how she undertook a review for the council to “improve how they capture the ‘voice’ of people we work with and use findings to meaningfully influence and shape our work.” Susan's account, including details of what has developed from this work, is available in our resources section. What’s great to see in her account is how helpful Susan found involvement in the Co-production Advisory Group to be in supporting this work.
This image has been kindly provided by Carrie Lewis of New Possibilities (newpossibilities.co.uk), who created a visual summary of the Building Together launch event in April 2023. You can see the full visual on Worcestershire CC's Building Together Through Co-production page on their website.
Cleo Lapidge, who is Interim Co-Production Lead at Worcestershire County Council has shared information about Building Together which is Worcestershire’s Adult Social Care Co-production Forum. Since the Forum was launched in April 2023, a board has been established of people who use adult social care and their carers, and a range co-production projects have been undertaken. Among these, people with experience of adult social care have been supported to create “I” statements for the Adult Social Care Strategy; carers have been participating in a re-design of carers assessment paperwork; people with learning disabilities have delivered a workshop to social workers; and people who use direct payments have been involved in reviewing how we these can be improved.