What is co-production?

The Cabinet Office (2008) defines co-production as, 'a partnership between citizens and public services to achieve a valued outcome.' Put simply, it is about how public services work with people either on an individual level to give them more choice and control or on a wider level to reshape the way services are provided or commissioned.

In the past, commissioning for social care needs was based on the assumption that services produce outcomes and on a public service ethos that emphasised 'helping people'. However, the Cabinet Office paper explains how co-production empowers citizens to contribute more of their own resources (time, will power, expertise and effort) and have greater control over service decisions and resources. The paper concludes that Government should foster co-production in public services because it is popular, effective, value for money and a massive opportunity to create public value.

A recent Social Care Institute for Excellence www.scie.org.uk research briefing (2009) suggests:

'At its most effective, co-production can involve the transformation of services. The transformative level of co-production requires a relocation of power and control, through the development of new user-led mechanisms of planning, delivery, management and governance. It involves new structures of delivery to entrench co-production, rather than simply ad hoc opportunities for collaboration. It can be 'a form of citizenship in practice.'