CAF Lessons Learnt
2. Co-production
Introduction
The aim of the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) for Adults programme was to ensure a truly person centred and integrated approach to assessing, planning and delivering support. Co-production with individuals, their family and carers was a core principle of the programme.
There is no single definition of ‘co-production’ but it is a way of working inclusively with people to ensure that everyone who is affected by a decision or by using a service is actively involved in the process from the planning and design stage onwards.
The focus of the work undertaken by the CAF Demonstrator Sites, by sharing an individual’s personal information, was to enable people to have more choice and control over their care and support and to ensure that they were active participants in their own care and support arrangements. It was therefore essential for the CAF Sites to ensure that any products or services resulting from their projects were co-produced with the individuals who would use them. A number of events, workshops and meetings took place during the lifetime of the programme and these were co-designed and developed with the CAF demonstrator site partnerships to ensure they successfully delivered the desired outcomes.
One definition of co-production, which was fully co-produced with service users and carers, is included in the Department of Health Personalisation Communications Toolkit:
“Co-production is when you as an individual influence the support and services you receive, or when groups of people get together to influence the way that services are designed, commissioned and delivered”
Key principles and learning from the CAF Demonstrator Programme
Ø From inception through the planning and design stages, think carefully about who needs to be involved in the work – experience, skills and knowledge will be needed from a wide range of people
Ø Think about engaging with people who you would not normally involve – they may have valuable things to contribute
Ø Offer appropriate training and support to citizens to allow them to undertake a role in project teams and associated meetings
Ø Senior managers and staff need to be supportive of the work – staff training may be required and there may also be a resource issue in releasing staff to attend meetings
Ø A learning point from the programme has been that although co-production is about working with service users and carers, it is also essential to include frontline staff in the process to enable the culture change required to support the work
Ø Working in a co-productive way with users/carers allows professionals to think in a different way about their role, outside the constraints of the organisation
Ø Involve user led and voluntary sector organisations – build strong relationships and work in a co-productive way to achieve valuable contributions; they may also provide a route to find appropriate people to be involved in specific pieces of work e.g. hard to reach groups
Ø Think about utilising the expertise of networks of disabled people e.g. by commissioning discrete pieces of work
Ø Decide how people will work together to achieve a successful outcome and ensure this is communicated to everyone involved
Ø Recognise the constraints on users/carers – they may be unable to be involved long term
Ø Think carefully about the language used to communicate to people – ensure it meets their needs
Ø Choose accessible venues for meetings and events
Ø Make users/carers feel valued – offer financial recompense for their time and expertise
Ø Think about the sustainability of involving people in your work – support them to use their skills elsewhere for personal development
Examples from the CAF Demonstrator sites
The evidence documents shown below in bold italics can be found in the Co-production Evidence from CAF Programme folder on the Common Assessment Framework for Adults Learning Network
Ø Equal Citizen Services document – “Co-production: as easy as baking a cake!” – Case studies from Shropshire, Barnsley, Rochdale and Westminster.
(See document: Equal Citizen Services – Co-production: as easy as baking a cake!)
Ø ‘Working Successfully with Carers’ document – Case Studies from Rochdale,
Shropshire, Hampshire, Camden and Warwickshire.
(See document: Working Successfully with Carers)
Ø Shropshire – Recruitment of Service User. In February 2010 a service user from South Shropshire was recruited to the CAF Project Team in the role of CAF Support Assistant. They helped to put together easy read information, folded leaflets and helped with various administration tasks in the team. They also supported the organisation of various CAF workshops and events in Shropshire and took photographs at these to help the project team to communicate their CAF work to a wider audience.
Ø Shropshire – ‘As easy as baking a cake’ event. To explain the concept of the CAF Programme.
(See document: Equal Citizen Services – Co-production: as easy as baking a cake!)
Ø Shropshire – Development of Emergency Action Plan (EAP). Users and carers were involved in the design and development of the content of the EAU.
(See document: EAP Overview)
Ø Shropshire – Glossary of Terms. An easy read explanation of CAF and IT language.
(See documents: Glossary of Terms; A Way with Words)
Ø Barnsley – Citizen Portal. Co-produced with service users and carers.
Ø Camden – CAF Messaging. Included members of the Mental Health service users and carers group to co-produce the CAF Messaging process design.
(See documents: What’s improved for the service user?; MS and MHCOP To Be Process Map)
Ø Westminster – Involvement of Westminster Action Network on Disability (WAND)/Westminster Centre for Independent Living (CIL). Development of
i-Planner portal co-produced with service users and carers.
(See document: Equal Citizen Services – Co-production: as easy as baking a cake!)
Ø Westminster – Ideas Exchange Café. Event held to capture service users and carer’s views about information sharing within Westminster.
(See document: Ideas Exchange Café Summary Presentation)
Ø Portsmouth – People Development Report. Action learning sets held to look at the most effective media channels to keep professionals and users/carers updated with information relating to health and social care services.
(See documents: CAFA2 People Development Report; CAFA2 People Development – Action Learning Sets Report)
Ø Hampshire – ‘Say it Once’ website. Example of a website that is co-produced using accessible language. http://sayitonce.info/
Ø Hampshire – Development of Personal Profile. Designed to allow an individual to collate their important personal information and then decide who to share it with.
(See documents: My Personal Profile; My Advance Care Plan; Arrangements I Have Made)
Ø Hampshire – Co-production Model. A model of how co-production can be introduced to project processes and embedded within organisations.
(See documents: Co-production model and checklist)
Ø Consortium (Hampshire) – Health and Social Care students completed a two week study on co-production.
Ø Consortium (Southampton, Portsmouth & Hampshire) – Accessibility Guidelines. Developed to show how project information should be presented.
(See document: Accessibility and Design Guidelines)
Ø Consortium (Southampton, Portsmouth & Hampshire) – Development of Overview Groups. Hampshire Overview Group (HOG); Southampton Overview Group (SOG) and Portsmouth Overview Group (POG) consisted of users/carers, provided input and guidance to CAF project work including design and development of products.
(See documents: POG Terms of Reference; SOG Launch; CAFA2 Launch Summary Feedback Report)
Ø Consortium (Southampton, Portsmouth & Hampshire) – Development of Permission to Share Form. Users/carers involved in the design and development of the form.
(See document: Permission to Share Form)
Ø Isle of Wight – Prisoners Forum. The Forum was set up during the CAF project as a means for the issues that matter to Older Prisoners to be aired and addressed. The Albany Forum has contributed to work on a co-produced integrated assessment for use within prisons, and this work continues to develop. A model Forum constitution was developed with the Albany User Group, and Forums in Parkhurst and Camp Hill are to be established.
(See document: IOW Forum Constitution)
Ø East Cheshire - Choice Portal - Co-produced with service users and carers and health and social care employees.
(See document: CHOICE in Cheshire East)
Ø East Cheshire - Self Assessment Questionnaire - Designed by health and social care staff, users and carers to ensure optimum utilisation and effectiveness – available on Choice Portal.
(See document: CHOICE in Cheshire East)
Ø Rochdale - Citizen Portal – Service User and Carer involvement was integral to the development of the Citizen Portal. www.mycare.rochdale.gov.uk
Ø Rochdale – Recruitment of Service Users/Carers - Three Service Users and Carers were recruited as experts to the team, involved in all aspects of the local CAF demonstrator programme including chairing the Programme Board.
(See document: Service User Workshop Report)
Ø Stockport – User Involvement Group (including range of professional staff) - Periodic meetings provided an opportunity for user comments and further action. Stockport LINKs highlighted the work (edition 5).
http://www.stockportlink.co.uk/link_doc_news.php
(See document: User Involvement Group Report)
Ø Stockport – Advocacy Services - Completed a piece of work on Advocacy Services in response to queries from the user group; it looked at how easy it was to find out locally about Continuing Health Care and Funded Nursing Care.This was part of the benefits realisation work as an aspiration of Stockport’s personalisation agenda – it increased user/carer access and use of local advocacy services.
(See document: Advocacy Work Package Report)
For further information see CAF Lessons Learnt
Ø Users and Carers
Ø Culture Change
Ø Citizen Portals
Ø Voluntary Sector
Useful Links
Ø Think Local Act Personal – Working with people using services, carers and local citizens. http://www.thinklocalactpersonal.org.uk/Browse/Coproduction/Workingwithpeopleusingservices/
Ø Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) – Research Briefing:
Co-production.
www.scie.org.uk/publications/briefings/briefing31/index.asp
Ø People and Participation
http://www.peopleandparticipation.net/display/Methods/Co-production
Ø Joseph Rowntree Foundation. www.jrf.org.uk/publications/co-production-people-outside-paid-employment
Ø National Endowment for Science, Technology & Arts (NESTA) –
http://www.nesta.org.uk/areas_of_work/public_services_lab/coproduction
Ø My Support Broker – Developed from work within the CAF programme; a social franchise where disabled and older people are trained and accredited as peer brokers to help others like themselves to plan, find and manage their own care and support. www.mysupportbroker.com
(See document: My Support Broker PowerPoint slides)
12.04.12 Find the complete version of the CAF lessons learnt at: http://www.networks.nhs.uk/nhs-networks/common-assessment-framework-for-adults-learning Page 6