What is co-production?

Central to the Brighton and Hove Common Ambition project is co-production. This operates on the premise that those who use a service are best placed to offer insights as to how it could be improved. Here are some principles of co-production, which we are putting into practice in Common Ambition:

• A focus on finding shared solutions
• Those who use the services are in charge of shaping those services, from the beginning of the project to the end
• The project leader’s main role is to bring people with lived experience together with others in the sector (frontline workers, commissioners, directors, academics) in order to work together
• This goes against the usual hierarchical nature of large-scale projects, and blurs the boundaries between delivering and receiving services
• Working from the premise that those who use a service are best placed to give insights into its successes and flaws, and how best to improve it