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Case Study: Co-production in action

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Name of project: Engagement and Co-production Strategy for Adult Social Care

Led By: Adult Social Care, Barnet Council

Summary: To facilitate a shift beyond feedback to meaningful participation, and to ensure people have a voice across a wider range of services, Adult Social Care co-produced their strategy for engagement and co-production with people with lived experiences of their services.

The situation: The Adult Social Care team already had an established programme of community engagement and participation in particular activities and services. The team decided that it would be a powerful next step to co-produce the strategy itself, as an underpinning for all other individual activities.

The approach: The aim of the strategy was to set out key commitments about how the council works with people to make sure that engagement and co-production is high quality, meaningful and inclusive. The process for this involved working with a wide range of people with lived experience and expertise, and had several stages:

  • Oversight by a steering group made up of residents with lived experience, voluntary and community organisations, professionals from across the council, and health and social care.
  • Speaking to experts in co-production and engagement from within Barnet and across the country
  • Working with those already involved in adult social care as part of already-operational People’s Voice and Involvement Board
  • Conducting additional outreach and engagement work to reach specific groups who hadn’t had their voices heard
  • Awarding small grants to voluntary and community sector groups to undertake engagement

The detail: As the steering group had such an important overall role, a lot of effort went into making sure the group could be as effective as possible. To ensure everyone on the steering group felt able to share their views and constructively challenge the ideas shared, time was taken to establish a positive and inclusive atmosphere. The aim of early activities was to build relationships and trust, break down barriers and tackle any uneven power dynamics. This included running ice-breaker activities, setting clear parameters at the start of meetings, continuing to build relationships and maintain dialogue in between sessions, and making sure that meeting chairs broke down hierarchies in their facilitation style.

The group met monthly to shape the questions used for engagement, agree the structure of the strategy and the scope of the charter, review early drafts of the strategy, and hold individual conversations with residents about what matters to them.

Views on what was already working well and what could be improved were collected from those who already engage with the council through existing forums such as People’s Voice and the Involvement Board. This was done via an online survey, a standalone event with workshops and discussions, and opportunities to give feedback on the final draft strategy.

The steering group also engaged with a number of community events and groups, having in-depth conversations with people who use Adult Social Care as well as members of the wider community. Conversations aimed to draw out how people would like to get involved in the service, identify perceived barriers to having their say and how these might be overcome. In total over 300 people were involved across different activities.

As the final prong of this approach, voluntary and community sector organisations were given the opportunity to apply for grants of up to £5,000 to undertake engagement on the council’s behalf. Barnet Asian Women’s Association, the Jewish Deaf Association (JDA), Community Focus and Barnet Mencap used their existing expertise, relationships and understanding of individuals to lead on the engagement.

Through this, the council gained insights it otherwise would have been unable to obtain – by running the engagement process in the community, in their space, on their terms and in some cases, in their language, individuals expressed feeling much more comfortable to share their views. For example, the JDA ran an interactive workshop to gather views from the deaf community. Not only did this provide the council with invaluable information, it also led to increased awareness among council staff about the importance of language – in British Sign Language, the term ‘engagement’ doesn’t refer to involvement or participation, but rather a formal agreement to get married. Working with the JDA ensured that the conversation was inclusive and framed in the right way.

It was important to have the flexibility to engage different people in different ways that suited them. Sometimes connecting outside of meetings was a really important addition to what happened in meetings. Many participants, particularly people with learning disabilities, said that they didn’t always feel confident talking directly to the council, so working through trusted organisations both broadened the team’s reach, but also created an opportunity to build greater trust for the future.

The outcome of the strategy has been a set of guiding principles and practical changes to drive how the Adult Social Care team works. This process both informed better content, but also built trusting relationships which improved the team’s ability to do its core engagement work well. Additionally, by involving them from the outset, residents have become effective advocates for themselves and the services they need. The steering group members have presented their perspectives to politicians and senior leaders, in addition to advocating for the work of the adult social care team in the community.

For more details you can see the strategy.

Challenges:

  1. Setting parameters: It was initially challenging to strike a balance between having an open-ended conversation and being overly structured about specific discussion items. Initially the team didn’t set parameters for meetings, but this made the conversations more challenging and time-consuming, and risked people feeling unheard. Being increasingly upfront about expectations helped to build trust and create a safe space where everyone’s views could be shared and valued, and it was also easier to manage difficult conversations. Setting clearer parameters also supported better accountability, creating a space where the team could report back on how they had implemented particular ideas.
  2. Keep improving: The team also had to become comfortable taking risks and making mistakes. For example, when it was first set up, the Involvement Board was quite formulaic - residents would attend meetings, they would be updated by the council and would provide some feedback or opinions. The board has since become increasingly community-powered, with residents working alongside the council in a variety of ways, such as taking part in the recruitment process for new social workers, training staff and presenting at events. Where previously the board attended meetings chaired by the council, the upcoming introduction of a new co-chair role for a member of the community, with responsibility for planning and agenda setting for meetings, is set to significantly shift the power dynamics.

Top lessons:

  1. Build from where you are, map where you want to go: In order to kick-start the process the team built on existing relationships, such as those established through the Involvement Board and the existing history of good practice. They then identified groups who they knew they were less likely to hear from. They drew on existing connections within the council and across Barnet to undertake targeted outreach with partners with strong community links, including with the voluntary and community sector, Barnet Together and Barnet’s Prevention and Wellbeing team.
  2. The council doesn’t always know best: If you make assumptions rather than asking people how they would like to be involved, you will likely get it wrong. There are nuances within every community that the community themselves understand best. These insights need to built into the system in order for it to meet local needs and preferences.
  3. Remember that everyone is human: Building relationships, being authentic and getting to know people has people helped to break down barriers and break down fear. This helped residents to see the administration as more than just a faceless council and for council staff, particularly those with less experience of engaging with the community, to overcome worries about saying the wrong thing.

Sources:

Name of project: Engagement and Co-production Strategy for Adult Social Care

Led By: Adult Social Care, Barnet Council

Summary: To facilitate a shift beyond feedback to meaningful participation, and to ensure people have a voice across a wider range of services, Adult Social Care co-produced their strategy for engagement and co-production with people with lived experiences of their services.

The situation: The Adult Social Care team already had an established programme of community engagement and participation in particular activities and services. The team decided that it would be a powerful next step to co-produce the strategy itself, as an underpinning for all other individual activities.

The approach: The aim of the strategy was to set out key commitments about how the council works with people to make sure that engagement and co-production is high quality, meaningful and inclusive. The process for this involved working with a wide range of people with lived experience and expertise, and had several stages:

  • Oversight by a steering group made up of residents with lived experience, voluntary and community organisations, professionals from across the council, and health and social care.
  • Speaking to experts in co-production and engagement from within Barnet and across the country
  • Working with those already involved in adult social care as part of already-operational People’s Voice and Involvement Board
  • Conducting additional outreach and engagement work to reach specific groups who hadn’t had their voices heard
  • Awarding small grants to voluntary and community sector groups to undertake engagement

The detail: As the steering group had such an important overall role, a lot of effort went into making sure the group could be as effective as possible. To ensure everyone on the steering group felt able to share their views and constructively challenge the ideas shared, time was taken to establish a positive and inclusive atmosphere. The aim of early activities was to build relationships and trust, break down barriers and tackle any uneven power dynamics. This included running ice-breaker activities, setting clear parameters at the start of meetings, continuing to build relationships and maintain dialogue in between sessions, and making sure that meeting chairs broke down hierarchies in their facilitation style.

The group met monthly to shape the questions used for engagement, agree the structure of the strategy and the scope of the charter, review early drafts of the strategy, and hold individual conversations with residents about what matters to them.

Views on what was already working well and what could be improved were collected from those who already engage with the council through existing forums such as People’s Voice and the Involvement Board. This was done via an online survey, a standalone event with workshops and discussions, and opportunities to give feedback on the final draft strategy.

The steering group also engaged with a number of community events and groups, having in-depth conversations with people who use Adult Social Care as well as members of the wider community. Conversations aimed to draw out how people would like to get involved in the service, identify perceived barriers to having their say and how these might be overcome. In total over 300 people were involved across different activities.

As the final prong of this approach, voluntary and community sector organisations were given the opportunity to apply for grants of up to £5,000 to undertake engagement on the council’s behalf. Barnet Asian Women’s Association, the Jewish Deaf Association (JDA), Community Focus and Barnet Mencap used their existing expertise, relationships and understanding of individuals to lead on the engagement.

Through this, the council gained insights it otherwise would have been unable to obtain – by running the engagement process in the community, in their space, on their terms and in some cases, in their language, individuals expressed feeling much more comfortable to share their views. For example, the JDA ran an interactive workshop to gather views from the deaf community. Not only did this provide the council with invaluable information, it also led to increased awareness among council staff about the importance of language – in British Sign Language, the term ‘engagement’ doesn’t refer to involvement or participation, but rather a formal agreement to get married. Working with the JDA ensured that the conversation was inclusive and framed in the right way.

It was important to have the flexibility to engage different people in different ways that suited them. Sometimes connecting outside of meetings was a really important addition to what happened in meetings. Many participants, particularly people with learning disabilities, said that they didn’t always feel confident talking directly to the council, so working through trusted organisations both broadened the team’s reach, but also created an opportunity to build greater trust for the future.

The outcome of the strategy has been a set of guiding principles and practical changes to drive how the Adult Social Care team works. This process both informed better content, but also built trusting relationships which improved the team’s ability to do its core engagement work well. Additionally, by involving them from the outset, residents have become effective advocates for themselves and the services they need. The steering group members have presented their perspectives to politicians and senior leaders, in addition to advocating for the work of the adult social care team in the community.

For more details you can see the strategy.

Challenges:

  1. Setting parameters: It was initially challenging to strike a balance between having an open-ended conversation and being overly structured about specific discussion items. Initially the team didn’t set parameters for meetings, but this made the conversations more challenging and time-consuming, and risked people feeling unheard. Being increasingly upfront about expectations helped to build trust and create a safe space where everyone’s views could be shared and valued, and it was also easier to manage difficult conversations. Setting clearer parameters also supported better accountability, creating a space where the team could report back on how they had implemented particular ideas.
  2. Keep improving: The team also had to become comfortable taking risks and making mistakes. For example, when it was first set up, the Involvement Board was quite formulaic - residents would attend meetings, they would be updated by the council and would provide some feedback or opinions. The board has since become increasingly community-powered, with residents working alongside the council in a variety of ways, such as taking part in the recruitment process for new social workers, training staff and presenting at events. Where previously the board attended meetings chaired by the council, the upcoming introduction of a new co-chair role for a member of the community, with responsibility for planning and agenda setting for meetings, is set to significantly shift the power dynamics.

Top lessons:

  1. Build from where you are, map where you want to go: In order to kick-start the process the team built on existing relationships, such as those established through the Involvement Board and the existing history of good practice. They then identified groups who they knew they were less likely to hear from. They drew on existing connections within the council and across Barnet to undertake targeted outreach with partners with strong community links, including with the voluntary and community sector, Barnet Together and Barnet’s Prevention and Wellbeing team.
  2. The council doesn’t always know best: If you make assumptions rather than asking people how they would like to be involved, you will likely get it wrong. There are nuances within every community that the community themselves understand best. These insights need to built into the system in order for it to meet local needs and preferences.
  3. Remember that everyone is human: Building relationships, being authentic and getting to know people has people helped to break down barriers and break down fear. This helped residents to see the administration as more than just a faceless council and for council staff, particularly those with less experience of engaging with the community, to overcome worries about saying the wrong thing.

Sources:

Page published: 22 Nov 2023, 12:03 PM