Patients and staff at a charity which looks after people with complex mental health needs have taken the ‘Co-production Pledge’ to ensure patients have an equal say in their care.

The pledge – which everyone at St Andrew’s Healthcare is being urged to take - has been created as part of the hospital’s Co-production Framework which has just been rolled out.

It 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 at St Andrew’s Healthcare, 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 document 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. 

Recovery College Lead Stephen Parker at St Andrew’s Healthcare, who also co-chairs the Co-production Network, has experience of staying within inpatient services.

Having now worked at the hospital for six years, he says adopting co-production has huge potential for helping patients.

He said: “I have been employed for my lived experience and I know from first-hand experience that when you admitted to a hospital under a Section, you feel many of your personal rights and freedoms are taken away. In reality, this isn’t actually the case, but that is how it can feel. So, to be told by your care team that they actively want you to speak up and become involved in your treatment is empowering.

“Our patients here are very lucky to be in a hospital that has a set of values that ensure equal partnership, with active collaboration between those who use our services and those who provide them. We encourage all our patients, service users, partners-in-care and staff to  influence and shape decisions.”

The framework also lays out a series of steps to achieve full-scale co-production. It explains how involvement, consultation, engagement and co-design encourage people to participate to differing degrees in different ways. Each asks for their ideas, experience and opinions. However, ‘full-scale co-production’ also needs people’s actions and is therefore about sharing the power to plan, design and deliver care, services and projects.

St Andrew’s Healthcare’s CEO Dr Vivienne McVey said: “I’m pleased to say, that I too have taken the ‘Co-production Pledge’ as it’s important to lead by example. I’ve vowed, that where possible, I will work with our patients, service users and carers to ensure they are respected, valued and their input actively contributes to decision-making around their care.  

“The concept of co-production in healthcare has been round for a long time, but I’m pleased to say that here at St Andrew’s, we are working on firmly embedding it within our culture. To have a co-produced framework – which staff and patients are already using – is incredibly inspiring and we’re very proud of the work we’ve done in this area.”

For information about the St Andrew’s Healthcare Co-production Framework, click here.