Herts County Council Co-production
What is Co-production?
Co-production is a simple concept – all parties working together to create a service – that can become very complex very quickly. Healthwatch Hertfordshire have been proud members of the co-production board since its inception, and we were very happy to help facilitate today’s event.
About the day
The day started off with imagining how different types of service users might want to feed into co-production, and what could be done to support them to do so. After that we looked at areas of co-production that are currently done well, and where it’s not so good, as well as why. Paul’s group focused on a lack of creativity, and how thinking outside the box might get more people interested. Want to find out what blind people think about their services? Instead of a dry workshop, why not organise a barn dance? Build the feedback and information into a format people want to go to. It may be out there, but at least it’s creative.
The final thing we looked at was the current structure of co-production, and how we felt it should look. Interestingly, while some tables enjoyed this exercise, others struggled. Perhaps ones familiarity with boards and groups played into this one as a strength.
In summary
Without a doubt this was a well-attended event, showing that the people who use county services have a real hunger to be heard. This is amazingly positive. As long as they feel their time is well spent it’s possible to see how these kinds of events can continue being a success in the future. Hopefully, there will be lessons learned, both in how services are delivered in the future, and also how events like this can be tweaked in order to make them even more productive.
Thanks to all of our members who attended. Hopefully you got something useful out of it for yourselves, as well as feeding into a much bigger conversation.
Post event update:
Take a look at a short video taken on the day at the Co-production Event.
