C4PC designed and published our widely used Co-production Model in 2020. While this model remains true to the values of co-production that we hold as an organisation, we have become increasingly aware of the need to contextualise co-production as part of the wider landscape.

So often, when we collaborate with organisations on co-production projects, it seems that a lot of the barriers to good co-production lie in the surrounding culture rather than in the co-production of the piece of work itself.

This got us thinking about where we believe co-production and the voices of lived experience sit within the wider context of health and social care and led to us creating this representative image.

The image depicts a circular journey which starts and ends with the lived experience of many individuals. In the right environment, these individuals are able to use the tools of effective storytelling to share their experiences.

These individual stories can be effectively combined to create a powerful body of evidence. This collective evidence supports the smaller group of individuals who undertake strategic co-production roles, so that they are constructively armed with the voices of many.

Strategic co-production ideally channels these stories and ideas into the practical planning and development of services, policies, research, communications and other projects. These are co-produced with input from relevant professionals, people with lived experience and experts by learning.

Any co-produced outputs or outcomes need to be evaluated, ideally in a co-produced way, to assess their impact and effectiveness for the people involved. These people with lived experience bring us back to the start of the cycle.

We hope that this image helps to illustrate both the importance of lived experience voices within co-production processes, and how these processes function as part of a healthy cycle of service development and evaluation.

We welcome comments and feedback on these ideas. If you would like to provide input,please contact Katie Clarke-Day, our Co-production and lived experience lead