What enables and what hinders collaboration and coproduction What enables and what hinders collaboration and coproduction between social workers and service users in practice? Dr Ruth Allen CEO BASW

The ‘Social Work for Better Mental Health’ initiative in England An initiative to explore the strategic and practice potential of social work in mental health Aims to explore the conditions for building professional and practice social work leadership A quality assurance (QA) and improvement tool An invitation to increase use of direct feedback from service users and carers DH backed but independently developed and implemented

Setting an ambition for Social work Human rights focus Co-production and recovery Social approaches and interventions Recognising, preventing and addressing trauma Evidence-led practice Addressing social determinants

Social Work for Better Mental Health (2016) - 3 Resources A strategic statement on the role of social workers in mental health services – Social Work for Better Mental Health ‘How are we doing?’ – An organisational self assessment for MHSW ‘Making the difference together’ – co-production of professional practice 20 different local authorities and some NHS Trusts

"Co-production means delivering public services in an equal and reciprocal relationship between professionals, people using services, their families and their neighbours" (New Economics Foundation) More than collaboration and involvement but overlaps

A naïve question! Collaboration and co-production in mental health routine practice – why is it important?

What enables and hinders service user involvement and coproduction? Practitioner factors Service user factors Service factors Other factors

Making collaboration and involvement meaningful Principles – shared values and principles? Purpose - reason for involvement? Presence - who should be involved? Process – what planning is needed? Impact – what difference will it make? 4PI – National Involvement Standards NSUN 2015

Making the difference together Integrating service user and carer evaluative feedback into routine practice and strategic planning: Questionnaires Collaborative conversations Co-producing professionalism and practice: openness and responsiveness Continuous learning Recognising our own experiences and lived expertise – ‘internal co-production’ as part of reflective practice and development of resilience  

Creative conversations Find the right setting – most workplaces are not conducive to good conversations Create shared space – this could include ways to work together and clarify thinking, such as visual images or common themes Slow down to speed up – taking time to listen as well as speak Honour unique contributions – explore how each person can contribute to the other’s learning See reflection as action – to enable new meanings to be recognised and shared and to allow ‘questions that matter’ to surface. (adapted from Brown & Isaacs, 1997 p5)

Setting the conditions for direct feedback and co-productive dialogue All parts of the system need to be engaged and prepared Co-produce the whole process Ensure it is part of learning not blaming culture Make it relevant and safe for people using services and for staff Carefully set the conditions that enables all parties to feel appropriate levels of control: ‘controlled learning encounters’ Ensure clarity for all about how feedback or dialogue will be used For staff, integrate into reflective supervision and development plans

Co-production at the organisational and system level Scaling up from practice Design and strategy Co-creation of culture Designing the future

More information Swforbettermentalhealth@gmail.com Dr Ruth Allen Dr Karen Linde Dr Sarah Carr