Scottish Third Sector Research Forum

Research project outline: What do we know about what makes for effective co-production?

Background

“Co- production is not about partnerships between organisations and working together across sector boundaries. It is much more. It is about combining the knowledge, skills and experience of people who use services, deliver services and commission services, and working together on an equal basis to achieve positive change and improve lives and outcomes […].

“In Scotland there are many people and organisations talking about co-production approaches, the principles of which are threaded through a vast range ofpolicies and legislation […]. Nevertheless the idea of co-production being the usual approach within public services – across sectors – still seems to be some way off. One of the difficulties appears to be that there are many interpretations of what co-production actually means.”Scottish Co-production Network website

Co-production is central to the process of growing the core economy. It goes well beyond the idea of ‘citizen engagement’ or ‘service user involvement’ to foster the principle of equal partnership. It offers to transform the dynamic between the public and public service workers, putting an end to ‘them’ and ‘us’. Instead, people pool different types of knowledge and skills, based on lived experience and professional learning.

Getting co-production right: There is no single formula for co-production but there are some key features that are present in co-production initiatives. They:

  • define people who use services as assets with skills
  • break down the barriers between people who use services and professionals
  • build on people’s existing capabilities
  • include reciprocity (where people get something back for having done something for others) and mutuality (people working together to achieve their shared interests)
  • work with peer and personal support networks alongside professional networks
  • facilitate services by helping organisations to become agents for change rather than just being service providers.

Co-production in research: Co-production in research aims to put principles of empowerment into practice, working with communities and offering communities greater control over the research process and providing opportunities to learn and reflect from their experience.

Research therefore is a collaborative, iterative process of shared learning, rather than distanced and linear; hence research is undertaken with people rather than on people. There is an expectation that co-produced research has greater potential than more conventional approaches to generate public benefit in the form of practical and policy-relevant insights, as well as findings that advance academic understanding.

Co-produced research offers academics and practitioners the opportunity to jointly initiate, develop and implement a research project, to follow it through, analyse the data, and to share and publicise the findings.

About the TSRF:

The overarching aim of the TSRF is to maximise the impact of knowledge and evidence by developing high quality evidence outputs drawing on robust and accurate information, and developing a strategic approach to dissemination. It will seek to become a recognised and authoritative voice on evidence and data relating to the third sector in Scotland.

Research project outline

TSRF will draw on third sector, public sector and academic researchto:

  1. Make sense of the meaning of co-production in practice
  2. Explore its meaning in different policies and in the context of research
  3. Draw principles from what the research tells us good co-production looks like – use case studies/examples to illustrate principles
  4. Make recommendations, if useful.

Process and timeline:

Discussion questions:

What question(s) do you think the research should aim to answer?

What should the outcomes of this research work be and for whom?(Outcomes are the changes or differences you’d expect the project to make)

Outcome 1:

Outcome 2:

Outcome 3:

Please leave us your contact details if you would like to contribute to and/or consulted on this piece of work:

Name:

Organisation:

E-mail:

For enquiries, please contact the TSRF’s Secretariat:

Patty Lozano-Casal, Evidence into Action Manager, Evaluation Support Scotland

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