What is co-production?

Co-production is an important part of how we care for our patients and service users.

It is about recognising and using everyone’s diverse knowledge, experience and perspective to drive recovery - whether they be a patient, service user, staff member, carer, a volunteer or another individual.

Co-production means working together as equals and making best use of our strengths to find ways of doing things that benefit everyone. 

We recognise that every person may have something different to give; we listen to all of our people, because we know everyone has an important experience to share.

Our Co-production Network

At St Andrew's, co-production is more than just a buzzword. Our Co-production Network (established in January 2022) consists of service users, staff and peer support workers. The Network meet regularly to share ideas, discuss projects and any blockages that are stopping people from getting involved.

To contact the Co-production Network, please email: co-production@stah.org

Staff and patients take the co-production pledge to ensure patients have an equal say in their care

A pledge – which everyone at St Andrew's Healthcare is being urged to take - has been created as part of our Co-production Framework.

The pledge was developed by the charity’s Co-production Network, which consists of people who use their services, staff and peer support workers, who wanted to create a structured approach across the entire organisation for co-production.

Dr Inga Stewart, Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Co-chair of the Co-production Network said: “Co-production is an important part of how we work with people. It is about recognising and using everyone’s diverse knowledge, experience and perspective - whether they be an inpatient, community service user, staff member, carer, a volunteer or another individual.

“Co-production is a set of values that ensures equal partnership where people actively work together by making the best use of their strengths to find ways of doing things that benefit everyone. It’s an approach that all health organisations need to adopt.

“It is about a change in culture from ‘doing to’ to ‘doing with’, where we automatically make decisions about someone’s care with them. We need a default position where we genuinely share power and we respect the person’s expertise on the subject of themselves and their loved ones from their own living experience. We’ve therefore gone one step further and created a framework which all staff and patients can follow.  

It shows that as a charity, we recognise that every person may have something different to give; we listen to all of our people, because we know everyone has an important experience to share.”

The framework can be accessed by all staff and people using St Andrew’s services and provides a structure for service level quality improvement plans, laying out clear priorities and measurable criteria to help describe, track and provide recognition for what good co-production practice looks like.

It also lays out the right infrastructure which will support the monitoring and delivery of high-quality co-production initiatives, underpinned with a robust governance structure. 

For information about our Co-production Framework, click here. News about our pledge has also reached the media! Read more in the NR Times and Northampton Chronicle and Echo.

The St Andrew's Co-production Framework

Head of Co-production, Dr Inga Stewart, is pleased to announce the launch of our new Co-production Framework. 

Co-created based on workshops with experts-by-experience and staff, the framework provides a structured, whole system approach to co-production across the charity. 

The Framework document includes the principles of successful co-production:

•   Tackling unequal power dynamics
•   Challenging knowledge hierarchy
•   Ensuring more equitable partnerships
•   Ensuring there is equal give and take in the process
•   Promoting mutual growth
•   Reflecting on all aspects of the co-production process
•   Enabling flexible ways of interacting and working

As well as examples of engagement, co-design and full-scale co-production.

An Easy Read version is also available.

If you have any questions about co-production then you can contact Inga on co-production@stah.org 

People living with dementia as co-researchers in the co-production of care planning

Our very own Inga Stewart, in her role of Clinical Research Fellow, is leading and co-ordinating on a research programme about co-producing research into care planning. This blog has been co-written by all members of the research programme steering group, including people with living, and learnt experience of dementia.

This is a co-produced project with people with dementia involved. For us as a research group, co-production means working together to make things better for everyone. It is sponsored by St Andrew’s Healthcare in partnership with the Alzheimer’s Society. We want people living with dementia, and their care partners, to be able to create better outcomes for themselves through co-producing their own care plans. We are developing a new toolkit to help care teams involve people with dementia in writing their own care plans.

A brilliant example of why co-production is so important