What’s with all the hype with Co-production?

Highlights from the first two Aberdeen Co-Production Roundtables

Is it because those at the receiving end of development projects or ‘service users’ know inherently what they need to improve their own lives? Could it be that it’s important for those we are trying to impact to have a stake in the outcome? Perhaps it’s crucial to empower communities that have been historically and systematically disempowered. Or could it simply be that those closer to the issue have the solutions on how to solve them and, it is just a matter of providing resources and encouragement

For these reasons and more, it is important to strive towards a robust form of co-production. How does one do that? This is the exact question that the participants of the co-production roundtables are exploring. Initially, the roundtables were aimed at youth-serving organisations to help them improve youth engagement. The intention of the roundtables has pivoted since to include other organisations interested in engaging in co-production across different sectors to support a variety of people.

The roundtables are mainly facilitated and structured by Reboot. However, Reboot encourages and highly welcomes others to collaborate in the design and facilitation of future roundtables. Two roundtables have taken place at the end of 2023. The first one asked participants to discuss what they believed co-production entailed and where they currently placed themselves on the ladder of participation and where they hoped to see themselves in the future. The first roundtable also captured a Wishlist of themes and topics to explore for future roundtables. The second roundtable, co-facilitated with Ross Mackay, from Grampian Regional Equality Council (GREC) with design support from Rachel Thompson, from Aberdeen City Health & Social Care Partnership, and Eleanor Hepburn from Aberdeen City Council explored examples of co-production followed by fruitful table discussions.

The two roundtables highlighted that practitioners have different perceptions of the word co-production. After some discussions, some participants left with their assumptions challenged and inspired to know more. Other highlights from the roundtables include:

Understanding when it is the right conditions for co-production and when can it just be consultation. Central to this understanding is the question, ‘is it always possible to do co-production?’
The need to identify the values and/or beliefs that an organisation needs to cultivate to embrace co-production
The need to learn and derive understanding from concrete examples
The interest in identifying, the often-unintended, consequences of claiming co-production when it is not
How does co-production fit and/or align with policies and other value systems such as, The Promise
Unlearning to relearn and challenging ‘business as usual’ thinking and practices
Addressing power differentials and creating enabling spaces for equitable discussions
The role of funding and how to include funders in future discussions

With several roundtables envisioned for 2024, Reboot hopes to see more participation from other organisations and the communities we serve. It is not all discussion. Reboot hopes to collectively create with the participants of the roundtables an accessible guide on how to move towards authentic and robust co-production. This guide will also be informed by tools currently being produced by Scottish Co-Production Network. If you wish to support and/or attend future co-production roundtables, please contact [email protected] or [email protected] or click HERE to sign up for the next roundtable.