How community co-production can make societies more equal

Event Summary

• Date 23/06/26
• Time 10:00
• Location Zoom
• Categories Health & Social Care

About the event

Join our online Midlands Co-Production Network event to explore new co-production approaches with vulnerable groups.

Co-production has become one of the ‘must-haves’ in all public service plans and strategies. One of its key attributes is that it can help to uncover and make productive use of the assets of all members of the community, including those in vulnerable groups. This can help raise the quality of life of people in marginalised groups and, importantly, improve their self-image and self-confidence as valuable members of society – and, of course, these benefits may lead to reduced inequality in service use and outcomes. However, these potential benefits are not always achieved by public agencies currently. Why not? This workshop will showcase case studies of innovative practices with different vulnerable groups, demonstrating that it can be done, followed by a discussion with all participants on how such inclusive coproduction approaches can be scaled up and made more common.

Governance International has facilitated the Midlands Co-production Network since 2012 to enable shared learning from good practices and successful case studies, and to explore innovative ways in which co-production can improve public services and the outcomes for communities in the Midlands of the UK. We wish to invite interested CCIN Members from and beyond the Midlands to join the upcoming online meeting of the network, which will feature three presentations on innovative co-production approaches to reduce inequalities in society.

Presentations

As always, we have lined up exciting speakers from the Midlands, UK and elsewhere in Europe:

• Co-production with families in temporary accommodation in Coventry City Council (Jane Moffat, Operational Lead for Early Help, Coventry Council): Coventry City Council has adopted a co-production approach to its homelessness and temporary accommodation strategy, involving people with lived experience and communities to improve key outcomes. Jane will highlight what has been achieved and the remaining challenges, with a focus on the lived experiences of families with young children resident in temporary accommodation.

• Co-production with people experiencing problematic substance use in Northern Ireland (Michael Morgan, Social Care Support, Belfast Health & Social Care Trust): Co-production with people experiencing limited treatment options, stigma and repeat crises involves multiple social challenges. Michael will report on his current pilot project helping male and female service users, who have been impacted by (predominantly) cocaine use, to access and make successful use of support groups with a view to changing behaviour and developing peer roles.

• Co-production with people living in poverty to achieve more inclusive health services (Alessandro Spano, Professor of Public Management, University of Cagliari): In Sardinia, as elsewhere, many disadvantaged groups face challenges in accessing health services. Alessandro will discuss a voluntary initiative of the Rotary Club Cagliari East (which he leads) on making it easier for people living in poverty to access health services.

Catch-up session 

In the final part of the workshop, all participants will have the chance to share what they are currently up to and seek comments from others.