1. “If you want to go fast, walk alone
“If you want to go fast, walk alone. If you want to go far, walk together”: citizens and the co-production of public services
Dr. Elke Löffler, Governance International

2. The boundary between service providers and service users has shifted
Increasingly we are seeing greater involvement of
users in services, for example
E-government solutions all over Europe
The use of expert patients in UK hospitals
Parents of teenagers patrolling the streets at night to prevent riots in ‘hot spots’ in Denmark
“Citizens drive buses for citizens” to complement the offer of public transport in the small-sized local authority Brieselang (near Berlin)

3. Why co-production has become an issue in the public sector
Expected benefits of co-production
Cutting costs
Making public services more responsive to users, building in users’ holistic perceptions of what quality of life outcomes they desire
Providing more differentiated services and more choice
Improving public service quality by bringing in the expertise of service users, and often of their families and communities as well

4. There was a wide range of views from our focus groups…
“Professionals across all sectors have woken up to the fact that they need to do things with people rather than for people” (UK focus group)
“Most doctors appreciate better informed patients but about one third of doctors prefer to be the only ‘clever participant’ in the care process” (Czech focus group)
“…Danish society is a bit different. Somehow we gave all social affairs to the public sector and people do not want to get involved…” (Danish focus group)

5. A slight difference of opinion ...
Public official
“Well, I don‘t really know ...
but not very, I would say”
Interviewer
How important is the role of citizens
in public services?
Citizen “VERY important – I’m active on
on environmental and health issues,
a bit less active in safety”

6. The project: a representative citizen survey
Telephone survey of a representative random sample of 4,951 adults (18+ years), about 1,000 interviews each in Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany and the UK
Focus on three different sectors:
Community safety
Local environment
Public health
Issues to be explored:
How big a role do citizens play in public services?
Does involving citizens change their attitudes and expectations towards public services?
Is the role of citizens in public services likely to be more important in the future?

7. Definition of co-production used in this study
“The involvement of citizens in the delivery of public services to achieve outcomes, which depend at least partly on their own behaviour”

8. A European picture of the role of citizens in public services: What we found out
There is no typical “European citizen” - levels of co-production vary between different countries
Levels and forms of co-production also vary between sectors – when it comes to improving the local environment (index 61) and health (index 54) - we are now around mid-way in the scale from “zero” to “hero”, however, citizens are less active in improving community safety (index 45)
Citizens best like co-producing alone and with little effort
Citizens who are elderly, female and not in the labour market are most active
70% of citizens, in particular, young people are willing to do more
Citizens who co-produce only show a weak tendency to be more satisfied with the performance of public agencies
Do citizens believe that their co-production can make a difference?
Have you found the answer in the report? …

9. A European picture of the role of citizens in public services : What this implies for government
The ‘ageing society’ means increasing levels of ‘co-production’
Government needs to target young people, who are generally interested in only one single issue
Citizens do not need to be educated to co-produce more since 70 % already want to do more
Government needs to provide citizens with more opportunities to co-produce as individuals
Co-production means professionals are no longer the only experts

10. Some thoughts from a recent Roundtable discussion in London -
Issues for discussion: what co-production implies for the European public sector quality agenda
Some thoughts from a recent Roundtable discussion in
London -
“Given that 60%–70% of health care is around long-term conditions,
We have probably reached the limits of what the NHS can achieve
without co-production from its users. Co-production is no longer
just a possible option – it is now a material necessity”.
“Co-production isn’t a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ decision – its about a spectrum of
increasing involvement in different types of co-production.”
“We must map our carefully the limitations to co-production – for
example, we must not assume too much about citizens can do and
what they want to do. And we must not let the public services off
the hook, suggesting that co-producing service users should
themselves have to make up the deficiencies of poor quality public
services.”

11. Possible projects to take the 4QC and 5QC agendas further
Co-production Toolkit : developing a typology of co-production and how it might apply across a range of public services – including mapping existing examples of co-planning, co-design, co-commissioning, co-resourcing, co-managing, co-delivering, co-monitoring and co-evaluating in existing public services and identifying how this might be rolled out to wider services
Good Practice Guidance: “Higher quality, lower costs? Assessing the costs and benefits of co-production in key service areas” – this evaluation could explore selected 4QC/5QC good practice cases to identify the areas in which co-production is most likely to be cost-effective
Policy brief: “How can central government promote co-production and scale it up to much higher levels?” - why does co-production not scale up naturally but often remains at local, neighbourhood or even individual level? How can co-production be embedded in government policy and managerial practices? What skills need to be developed among professionals to be able to make the most of the potential of co-production?

12. Contact and further information
The report is available (in French and English) at