“Embedding co-production into the operating structures of human service agencies” Time Banking Wales

Agency focussed community services each with their own territory of need Little evidence of community development Disadvantaged communities attract significant resources and interventions from professional agencies and still have too many intractable problems Why are these communities not becoming safer, healthier, greener, more skilled or more sustainable? The missing ingredients are collaboration and co-production which defines services users as members working together with professionals, both parties mutually engaged to build better tomorrows for the common good.

The bad old days Agency focussed outcomes Example: Environment (Gellideg Forest) Agency in Control:Service User Discontent (one way conversation)

The bad old days Agency focussed outcomes : Agency in control Example: Housing and Regeneration Option 1Demolition Option 2Renovation Change service design and service delivery

10 years after

The Big Divide “We are dealing with people who have no initiative or civic pride” Newcastle Chief Planning Officer 1983 “Whatever we do for them they are never satisfied” Merthyr Planning Department

The ‘old’ professional agency/need driven model of public services Community Government Professional Agency Person in Need Contribution via taxation Funding for services Assessment and support Consumer Client Customer Beneficiary Service User

The good new days Citizen’s voice Example: Meals on Wheels Change service design and service delivery Citizen in Control:Meals on Legs

The Good New Days Citizen’s voice Example: Domiciliary Care Support Change service design and service delivery Citizen in Control:Localised Care Support

Better Outcomes for Citizens Co-production goes well beyond the idea of service user involvement. Co-production dissolves the distinction between providers and users of services, it offers to transform the dynamic between the professional and service user, putting an end to ‘them and us’. Participants are no longer ‘providers’ or ‘users’ instead people pool different kinds of knowledge and skills based on professional learning and lived experience to co-produce well being. A mutual partnership, citizens and agencies in MUTUAL CONTROL actively working together to collectively CO-PRODUCE mutually agreed outcomes.

Community Member Citizen ProfessionalAgency Contribution via subscription Mutualism Co-production of services Funding for co-production of services The Old Agencies – a trip back in time

Building Better Tomorrows 1Commissioning agents write co-production into their service level agreements. 2Delivery agents become the ‘new social care mutuals’ which aim; To be value-driven with mutuality at the core of their operating structure To be member focussed To foster a culture where members relate to professionals as part of a mutual concern, having a strong sense that they own and belong to the concern To promote and develop life long learning for members To value and utilise the abilities of members

Building Better Tomorrows To listen and respond to the voice of members, to shape the design, delivery and improvement of services To support members and their supportive relatives develop a real sense of being a part of the community, its heritage (the best of the past) culture and citizenship. To treat all members with dignity and respect To ensure that all members have access to new technologies To lead and build a federation with third and public sector organisations in a locality, providing opportunities for members to become change agents for the co-production of ‘a new public good’

Together we can: the spirit of mutuality “For us empowerment meant the use of collective action to transform society and so lift all of us together” Aneurin Bevan