The West of England AHSN is committed to supporting the VCSFE sector, helping organisations in the region find innovative ways to collaborate with local NHS health and care systems. This page will provide insight into how co-production can be used to effectively redesign services together to meet the needs of our populations – leading to higher quality care and improved outcomes.

What is co-production?

Co-production is a method of working which helps facilitate change. Co-production is all about involving people from a range of backgrounds, with a range of skills and expertise from the very early stages of problem identification all the way through the project and beyond into evaluation and business as usual.

Why do we need to co-produce?

Co-production understands that those who have lived experiences are going to be best placed to understand the issues and opportunities within the area of change. This will ensure the proposed change is person-centred throughout all phases of its lifetime, leading to improved quality of care and outcomes.

Co-production also ensures that those people involved in making the change have been involved in the decision-making process throughout and will improve buy-in as well as widening the breadth of perspectives given, making the change more likely to get off the ground in the first place and ultimately be a long-term success.

How can we co-produce?

Below are a range of useful co-production resources, including guidance, toolkits and case studies, to support and inspire the VCFSE sector:

A co-production model: five values and seven steps to make this happen in reality

Click here to read this guidance paper produced by NHS England and NHS Coalition for Personalised Care.

Cambridge Elements: Co-producing and co-designing

Access this academic paper, published by Cambridge University Press, here

How to co-design digital inclusion in health – a pathfinder model

Read Digital health lab’s co-design in health guide here.

How to involve and engage patients in digital health tech innovation – an evidence based guide

The AHSN Network worked with Boehringer Ingelheim and the University of Plymouth to produce the first evidence-based guide to support digital health innovators and leaders to conduct meaningful patient and public involvement and engagement. You can find out more and download the report here. 

Huntington’s Disease (HD): Co-production of a proposed new service model for patients in Surrey Heartlands Health and Care Partnership

Click here to read this case study by Kent Surrey Sussex AHSN.

People in Health West of England

People in Health West of England (PHWE) is an initiative promoting innovative and effective public involvement in research and evidence-based service improvement.  You can access its resources here. 

Engaging patients in co-design of chronic condition support pathways: a video ethnography approach

Click here to discover how needs identification agency Mace and Menter used video ethnography as a research technique for identifying patient need.