Our co-production for change principles

It is those of us with lived experience of social injustice who have the expertise to see most clearly what needs to change, for whom change is most vital, and whose voices are essential to shape this work.

We aim to facilitate those least heard and often ignored into positions of decision making and influence. We do this through

~ employing a team with a range of lived experiences including of multiple and systemic disadvantage

~ our flexible work policies and practices, which enable us to meet each of our team's needs beyond what conventional work places could

~ our connections and collaborations with other organisations/institutions to establish spaces where we can work alongside those in positions of power in decision making spaces

~ embedding capacity building into each project to enable us to develop the competence and confidence to work effectively alongside – and challenge – those in power.

Not just during designated co-pro sessions, but at all times across the organisation all of our team have genuine opportunities for meaningful input, decision making and leadership. We have a high expectation, high support culture enabling those of us who usually face barriers to inclusion to take ownership of our work.

We aim to democratise knowledge and power in all of the forums we hold or are part of. Our team are encouraged and supported to critique ideas, speak up, and place value on our varied expertise. This is particularly impactful in spaces with people in positions of leadership or those we might feel have more status or power than us.

Business as usual is not working for too many of us. We seek to resist unfair and ineffective conventions of research and practice. Instead we strive to implement or at least nudge towards alternative methods and goals that can be transformative. This of course requires a balance to be struck between collaboration and critique in relationships with partners, particularly powerful ones. Naming and discussing these tensions is often a helpful place to start.

We are part of a much bigger picture of people and groups working together towards shared goals for positive change. We see ourselves as contributing to a collective effort and work with a spirit of reciprocity, enlisting and giving help, nurturing relational rather than transactional partnerships, and aiming to create as much value as possible for our communities rather than for our organisation.

We also all have multiple and shifting identities, fitting into many (or no) 'categories' at any given time. Rather than define our selves as staff vs service user, professional vs community member, lived expertise vs learned expertise, facilitator vs attendee, our organisation vs your organisation, us vs them, everyone involved can often simply be reframed as 'we'.

We build in the additional time, money and effort into our projects that is essential to convene high quality and authentic co-production. We also try to influence practice with partners and funders, raising awareness of what it takes for organisations like ours to sustain themselves, and all of the unseen work (and therefore cost) that goes into successful community co-pro and participatory research, beyond just the delivery time.

At the core of our offer is our holistic and flexible approach to supporting and nurturing our people, and an open minded and inclusive definition of what reducing barriers to meaningful participation looks like. We take time to prioritise building relationships of trust and respect, and a team culture of belonging, honesty and kindness.

Accessibility needs are not limited to the usual workplace assessments. Does someone need us to sort a bus pass, child care, food or ID before they can take part? Does someone need help to stablise a situation in their personal life so that they can make it in to work? Does someone need to be given grace to communicate or engage with their work in an unconventional way?

We also up-skill our team in the broadest sense; raising confidence, increasing knowledge and competence, expanding experiences, expectations and responsibilities, whilst providing a safety net throughout the (never ending) learning curve.

Being a lived expert in the workplace can bring unique challenges and opportunities so we have also created peer support spaces, discussion groups and developed lived experience workshops to support this.

The nature of co-production often requires us just start the work, without a clear plan or direction, using our learning so far to make best guesses, and relying on the guiding principles that we are certain of. We stand at the forefront of this way of working and there is often no blueprint to follow. We therefore accept that we will make mistakes but we try to be brave to take action on the things we feel are important, rather than doing nothing through fear of doing something wrong. Our culture is one open mindedness, friendly critique and self-reflection, and iteratively implementing our learning.

Our priority is to do work that has clear potential to make systems and structures fairer through the equitable distribution of rights, power, resources, health, opportunities and freedom from discrimination (along intersections of race, sex, gender, disability, sexuality, age and religion).

Not all beneficial or worthy causes are about social justice, so we will tend to prioritise those that do, or try to add a social justice element to those that don’t. It is very easy (often through limited time or resources) for even the best intentioned projects to lose sight of their transformational goals, so we frequently take a step back to sense check the work we are involved with, its aims, methods and outcomes, to correct our path if we need to.

Not all community participation is equal. Taking inspiration from Hart’s Ladder of Children’s Participation we have created our own Ladder of Community Participation to describe the different standards of work that could claim to be inclusive. The very highest rung is not always achievable, but we do strive to stay towards the top of the ladder in all of our work, where shared decision making is the common feature and goal. This looks different to consultation and very different to tokenistic attendance.

Where we have less power over how projects are run we advocate, nudge and campaign to increase the quality of community participation and encourage everyone as far up the ladder as we can.