Coproduction can only happen when those within the system work with those who have a lived experience of receiving services. Coproduction is about understanding a different perspective, but a very specific different perspective. It’s about understanding and valuing the perspective of those who depend on support from services, alongside those whose job it is to design, deliver and monitor services.
Both those with a lived experience and those who work within a system bring valuable knowledge to decision making, but if the system operates without the input of lived experience, it does so without the full picture. One of the unique benefits of coproduction is that those with a lived experience have an overview of the system that those working in it usually don’t. Those working in a system tend to know their work area but often have limited understanding of how other areas operate. Those with a lived experience see the bigger picture and experience a cumulative impact of interacting with multiple, parts of the system. Inevitably practitioners will have a focus on system priorities and ultimately the priorities for their work area. Embedding coproduction however enable us to design a system that is not just workable but, more importantly, liveable.
Ensuring that different parts of the system come together to understand each other’s role and aims is of course important, but that is a professional conversation based on professional experiences. Its focus will inevitably be on addressing system issues and responding to system pressure and it can easily overlook the lived experience. What do the decisions actually mean for the people who use a service? Does it work for them? That is why people with lived experience need to be in the room to bring that knowledge and understanding to these discussions.
A specific process for working with those with a lived experience addresses the fundamental issue of decisions being made about people’s lives, by others who have limited understanding of those lives. A professional role doesn’t enable an understanding of what relying on services feels like or how it impacts hidden aspects of people’s lives. A professional experience is valuable in its own right, but at the end of the day people in these roles can leave the office and go home. Ultimately a professional can decide to leave that role, a luxury that is not available to those living with a disability or providing unpaid care.
Therefore, coproduction can only happen when it includes those with a lived experience and that experience is equally valued in the decision-making process. It needs to be embedded in everyday practice and not seen as a separate process. It relies on building relationship throughout the system and requires those with a lived experience being in the room with practitioners, so that they are part of discussions from the beginning.