TLAP co-production tree at NCASC

TLAP were in attendance at this year's National Children and Adult Services Conference (NCASC) in Bournemouth.

Our stall featured a display of a 'co-production tree of life'. Delegates were encouraged to write on leaves ways in which they would incorporate co-production into their work and pin them to the tree.

The idea was formed by members of TLAP and SCIE's co-production teams, who decided that they wanted to engage members of the conference and delegates of the sub-plenary sessions in a more interactive way.

Co-production is a continuous process of renewal, like the leaves growing on the tree. Eventually leaves wither and fall from the tree, but they bring new life by being absorbed into the soil, much like the way co-production continues to improve support services after the ideas are put forward.

We had a great response from delegates, many of whom felt inspired to contribute following an excellent sub-plenary session held by NCAG members, Isaac Samuels, Martin Yates and Tina Coldham on the merits of using co-production for personalising support.

We took some of the leaves and have come up with our top five:

• Listening is the most important aspect
• Make sure we get co-production into safeguarding
• Everyone has an individual experience -are we really listening and then acting the behaviours necessary to deliver outcomes?
• Use people themselves to build community capacity
• Get out and about more and listen to people who use services needs prior to making changes

To take a look at some of the leaves have a look at our Twitter and Facebook pages and get involved using the hashtag #coproduction.