Advisory Group

Facing Forward – Co-producing 2023!

Co-production group members attending a zoom meeting

As the complexity of problems and crisis management in adult social care continues, so too do the efforts of those working across all sectors to do their bit to effect change. Change does not happen quickly or magically. There is no wand. The crisis in health pushes adult social care further down the agenda. A growing and resilient social movement for change such as #SocialCareFuture across the UK is helping to bring it back to the forefront. So too is IMPACT, an implementation centre enabling practical improvements on the ground and making a crucial contribution to longer-term cultural change. Karen, our Lived Experience Engagement Lead, shares how IMPACT’s co-production work was shaped in 2022 and the upcoming plans for co-producing in 2023.

Our co-production approach

IMPACT projects, or sites as they are known, take a co-production approach. They span many areas of adult social care, such as direct payments, decision aids in end-of-life dementia care, and technology-enabling care. Expressions of interest are now open for organisations wishing to work on change projects in partnership with IMPACT in 2023-2024.

IMPACT’s co-production advisory group ensures the voice of those with lived experience is equally represented across IMPACT’s work. As will be reflected in our first annual report when it is published.

Co-production group members attending a zoom meeting

Learning from 2022 and co-producing into 2023

Looking back, co-producing our own work plan in 2022 was challenging and sometimes frustrating, but hugely rewarding. Relationships, time, and space were key themes. Time was well spent laying the foundations of our working relationships. We also acknowledged that co-production requires more space than we often afford – or can afford it. That will be a key lesson facing our work for 2023 – more space. A safe space to keep building trust, airing opinions freely, and listening to the voices of experience. We want to improve how we communicate this experience across IMPACT teams and beyond, by engaging further with like-minded groups.

In 2023, we begin to learn about the evidence emerging from existing sites and how IMPACT is practically working. We will continue with our flexible and responsive approach to our work. Our approach will continue to adapt based on what we hear. We also aim for many of our contributions to continue being implemented across IMPACT. We will draw on the strengths of our group members to inform, guide, and ensure that those who have lived experience of drawing on social care support are central to our work.

As we scale our projects, we want to ensure that co-production remains a core approach throughout all of IMPACT’s work. We want to ensure that this is consistent and transparent. Thankfully, the IMPACT team is traveling in that same direction and is listening with open ears. And listening to hear – prepared to act upon the feedback, and committed to effecting change. Each positive change in social care, however small it may seem, can lead to another, and another. Perhaps not from a magic wand, but from these tiny ripples come great waves.

Relationships and meetings of the mind

IMPACT and The Health Foundation logos

Earlier this year, IMPACT’s Co-production Advisory Group had the pleasure of meeting and engaging with The Health Foundation Inclusion Panel. This created an opportunity for IMPACT to focus on building relationships between organisations. Early in the process we agreed this would be a two-way engagement and we would focus on the theme of co-production. The detail of what that would look like took a little longer to decide.

Co-producing an event

We agreed to co-produce the preparation and delivery of our co-production themed event, involving two members of each group plus the coordinator of each group. Narrowing down such a big topic is challenging – it can be time consuming and a little messy, but this is time well spent. As co-production means different things to different people, it involves accommodation and relationship building, seeing things from alternative perspectives and not being prescriptive. Not being prescriptive means that it can take time to tease out the theme and agree on questions to address and perhaps working in a way that’s different from what we are used to.

Happy to say I’m quite reassured it’s come a long way. I didn’t think you would get there, well done guys!  Testament to real coproduction in action.

Isaac Samuels, member of the Co-production Advisory Group

Building relationships for a successful approach

Cohesiveness, trust, and building relationships takes time for groups. This applies internally to groups and in external engagement. This is an ongoing challenge when time to co-produce, plan and deliver is limited or restricted by the reality of projects and work programmes.

A takeaway for me was the importance of building relationships to ensure effective co-production.

Ann Marie Penman, member of the Co-production Advisory Group

As a fledgling group meeting, engaging, sharing and learning with an established group was insightful. We are at different points in our journeys – we are starting out on our journey and the Health Foundation Inclusion Panel is working out its path for a sustainable and productive future. The experience of meeting a more established group reinforced the point that relationships, group trust and dynamic takes time to build. The sense of family and community from the well-established Health Foundation Inclusion Panel was palpable. This was inspiring and settled us as a group that we are right to spend time on building relationships and trust within our group.

In the practical sense, the process of co-producing the joint event has prompted us to try this approach in our preparation and meeting delivery. Until this point, we were somewhat self-critical of our own approach – a ‘knowing’ that we weren’t quite there but not quite sure how to get where we want to be.

Reflections

I am very proud of our work as the Co-production Advisory Group in 2022, particularly our ability and willingness as a group to be flexible, listen to each other, to feedback and most importantly to act upon it. Building relationships involves building trust and confidence. This takes time. A key takeaway from this meeting is co-producing the preparation, delivery and follow up. We are implementing this approach in our workplan for 2023.

Karen McCormick, Lived Experience Engagement Lead 

My own reflections were about how important it is to consider the whole process in effective co-production. That is, thinking about before, during and after i.e. how do we make sure we give the opportunity of involvement to everyone, how do we bring people together in a suitable space (physical and otherwise) and how are people kept involved and updated afterwards? A lot of our discussions focused on the being together part, but I think it’s important not to lose site of the ‘before’ and ‘after’.

Ann Marie Penman, member of the Co-production Advisory Group 

Relationship building extends beyond the relationship between two groups. Bringing in another group can somewhat shift the dynamic within our own groups. Sharing lived experiences and a passion for co-production with another group was empowering for members of IMPACT’s Co-production Advisory Group, a sense of shared purpose, a healthy respect and acknowledgement of the perspective of others.

Reflections on Co-production

Zoom screenshot of Co-production Advisory Group meeting

We asked members of the Co-production Advisory Group, to reflect on the year, and the work of the group so far. Scroll through to read reflections from Karen McCormick (Lived Experience Engagement Lead), and Ann Marie Penman who co-designed and co-facilitated the last Co-production Advisory Group meeting of 2022.

Karen McCormick’s Reflections

Our Co-production Advisory Group has been given the freedom this year to co-design and co-develop our way of working (Charter), our workplan and how we will meet strategic objectives. This approach has been a breath of fresh air. However, it is not without challenge. There is a fine line between coordinating, supporting, and delivering for the group and the project but in a way that is not prescriptive.

We created a reflections document, which collates the sentiments, thoughts, and ideas of group members. Starting from “you said”, we move towards the outcomes we want to achieve and some actions that we can either take as a group or put forward to other team members in IMPACT that may be helpful in delivering the outcomes.

We have a number of priorities for 2023, including: establishing and embedding two-way communications with and across IMPACT, continuing to identify the skills and assets of the group and expand our engagement offering, and establishing a feedback loop.

Thoughts from Ann Marie Penman

It seems to me that we’ve come a really long way. We’ve come together from across four nations, with different backgrounds, experiences, skills, and opinions but with a shared belief in the value of co-production to make things better.

It’s been a really steep learning curve, in terms of getting to know each other, the wider work of IMPACT and what our role is and might be.

Our remit is very broad, but there are three key aspects:

  • develop, support, monitor and review IMPACT’s co-production activity
  • produce an annual report
  • identify areas of good practice and areas for development

In our first year, it feels like we’ve had an inward focus, quite rightly looking at us as a group and what we bring, our strengths and our assets. As well as that, we’ve been exploring and gathering more information on the wider work of IMPACT.

Each time we’ve met, we have raised questions, made observations, picked up issues and contributed comments – and it’s all of these that have been gathered together into our reflections document. Essentially, it’s giving us a direction for our second year. It’s clear in these recommendations that it’s still important that we continue getting to know each other better but there’s also now an increased emphasis on our personal development, for each one of us. What is the benefit for any one of us in being part of this group?

And there is a clearer balance now in terms of what we want to be bringing to the wider work of IMPACT – what difference do we make, what value do we add and how are things better because of us, the Co-production Advisory Group?

The reflections document is our own development plan. It’s what we’ve come up with ourselves in terms of what is important for us but also recommendations for the IMPACT Leadership Team, for all the different IMPACT projects and the whole organisation.

I think it’s important to remember this is a living document. It will grow and develop each time we meet as we go through the next year. We can add to it, change it and further develop it but also what we want to do is think about, for each recommendation, what is the outcome that we want to put forward as the Co-Production Advisory Group, what will be better and specifically what is the benefit and for who?

A Co-production Charter

The beginning of the journey of the Co-Production Advisory Group

A key element of IMPACT, the UK evidence centre for adult social care, is the commitment to co-production in all aspects of its work. The first step towards this commitment involved the Co-Production Advisory Group, and their group Charter.

The Co-Production Advisory Group’s role is to develop, support, monitor and review IMPACT’s co-production activity, producing an annual report for the Leadership Team on progress made during the year, areas of good practice and areas for further development. This work is supported by the Lived Experience Engagement Lead, Karen McCormick.

“Quite often when new groups come together for the very first time, it can be a challenge to gel. We are all a little bit nervous and perhaps unsure of each other’s circumstances. However, this was not the case with IMPACT’s new Co-Production Advisory Group. They are an animated, confident and lively bunch – this bodes well for us as a group.” Karen explained.

Creating a Charter

A charter is a nice way to document how we intend to collaborate together and our guiding principles.  It’s a way of acknowledging the work we have to do, such as project objectives and the parameters we have to work within, but also allowing space for members of the group to have their say on how we approach it and work together.  

“My approach to starting a charter is to include the knowns, leaving space for the unknowns and being open to the aspirations.” Karen tells us.

“The knowns are the practical things such as structures, definitions, the fact that we need to have 3 meetings this year and produce and annual report. The unknowns are things like the topics we are going to discuss and the schedule for this. Unknowns are also things like the shared vision for the work of the group, the strengths and assets of the group and the language we use and barriers to participation.  Suggestions around practical tips for working together online, communicating and engaging are also included in the early version.

“These were collated into a draft charter (a working document) and presented as suggestions to get us started at the induction meeting – the first coming together of the co-production advisory group – all subject to change through engagement and agreement among members of the group. Ideally with more time, we would come with a blank page but we have a lot of work to do in a short space of time.”

A Living Document

It is intended that the charter will be a living document. Just like charting any course, it will need revision – the group will have waypoints, needing to check where they are and if they are heading in the intended direction. It is hoped that by the end of the first working year together all members of the co-production advisory group respect the journey, and recognise each other and themselves as valued members of the crew.