Our latest publication, Coproduction: Principles into Practice, is released today. Drawing on experience of the Fulfilling Lives programme, the report provides practical guidance and learning on how on how to do coproduction well. It explores the ways in which partnerships have worked towards embedding coproduction in the daily practices of organisations in their local area, contributing towards systemic change.

For coproduction to be effective, participants must be offered equality of access and power imbalances be broken down. This involves frank discussions about the challenges and honest reflections on where improvements need to be made. People with lived experience of multiple disadvantage need to be given the time, space and resource to contribute. They need to be supported and recognised on a level playing field, as an equal contributor. Our report unpacks this and details examples of this has, and can, be done.

Work towards embedding coproduction has come a long way, but there is much for practitioners still to learn and enact. Alongside the key findings of the report, the Systems Change Action Network (SCAN) also offer the following recommendations for the adoption of more, and better, coproduction practices in national and local policy:

  • Embed coproduction throughout national government’s work on multiple disadvantage.
  • Promote the benefits of coproduction in the design of local services, strategies and solutions for people facing multiple disadvantage.
  • Ensure funding programmes and local commissioning cycles provide sufficient time, resource and flexibility to incorporate true coproduction.
  • Produce long-term strategies for coproduction that incorporate the principles of good practice set out in this report.
  • Invest sufficient resources – including funding, staffing and time – to embedding coproduction.
  • Monitor progress and commit to continuous improvement

Read the report in full here.

On 11th May 2022 we presented key findings from the report at a webinar. The slides from this event can be found here.