Think Local Act Personal Tag Listing

Start with the first conversation and focus on step-by-step improvementsBy Shahana Ramsden Since the launch of Making it Real last week, I have had a number of useful conversations with organisations who are thinking about what "co-production with people" involves in practice and how to make the experience genuine and meaningful. My biggest piece of advice is to recognise that every person using a service - either independently or supported by an advocate - can contribute in an effective way.

Modelling the change we want to see - how Making it Real was truly co-producedThe launch of Making it Real has been a busy but energising week for both myself and the National Co-production Advisory Group, so it felt like a good time to reflect on how we have arrived at this point after a three year journey of user engagement. It was June 2009 when I first took up the post of User Engagement manager, at the Department of Health with the Putting People First programme.

Blog by Jaimee Lewis, Communications Manager, Think Local, Act Personal Have you read that story about the recent government policy to give people an "indicative allocation" of money available for their care and support? Where a "service user" goes through a "support planning process" to work out how they will spend their personal budget to best meet "their agreed outcomes" and then after sign off, manage it according to the "chosen deployment options"?My guess is that you have, especially if you work in social care. Maybe less so if you are someone who uses support.

This project explores the potential for co-production to improve outcomes for those individuals (along with their families and support networks) who are intended to benefit from the move towards greater personalisation of care and support services, including people who have personal budgets or are self funders. The call for care services to be 'personalised' has gathered strength over the last two decades and is a major policy objective of the Coalition Government.

Blog by Bill Mumford - Chief Executive of MacIntyre and Chair of VODG In an earlier blog, Clenton Farquharson, Co-Chair of the Making it Real sub group of the National Co-Production Advisory Group, provided a great definition of co-production:"Co-production means that the contribution of people who use services, their families and carers, is maximised and valued"Rather than merely describing a process, Clenton has suggested an outcome- people feeling valued- and in so doing he has modelled the whole approach of the Making it Real framework. I chair the Provider and Workforce Development work stream of Think Local, Act Personal and we have been charged with the task of considering how to facilitate many of the outcomes set out in Making it Real.

Blog by Clenton Farquharson Co-chair of Making it Real sub group: National Co-production Advisory Group The National Co-Production Advisory Group is a group of people who use social care services, carers and citizens which was set up following our work with the Department of Health. Our purpose is to continue working in co-production with Government departments and other influential social care and health organisations to co-design, co-develop and co-deliver services.

Author Shahana Ramsden This document has been co-produced with the TASC Co-production group and a range of partners who have shared their insights to highlight different aspects of co-production. Good Practice in Co-Production explores what we mean by co-production explaining that it is about sharing more power and control with people who use services.

In Cheshire East, the findings of local research by the Alzheimer's Society into the views of people with dementia and their families were used to inform the JSNA. The research was funded by the Central and Eastern Cheshire NHS Primary Care Trust.

Ealing Carers Connect is a carer led organisation providing support to carers and formed by a consortium of four organisations in the London Borough of Ealing:Ealing Centre for Independent Living Ealing Mencap Ealing Crossroads Alzheimers Concern Ealing Sian Vasey, Director of Ealing Centre for Independent Living, believes that user led organisations of disabled people and of carers need to work together. She says: "carers' organisations and disabled peoples organisation's have broadly the same goals - independent living for disabled people.

There's a New User Led Organisation in Town! DDN17 August 2010 saw the culmination of 7 months hard work in the form of the launch of Disability Direct Nottingham, a Centre for Independent Living. The first step on this exciting journey actually began in Newark where the regional Personalisation Programme Roadshow to launch the User Led Organisation (ULO) regional development programme brought together representatives from The Disability Syndicate, based in Derby and officers from Nottingham City Council.