Events

Birmingham Co-production Roadshow

Date: 29.03.2011

Location: Birmingham

The Birmingham Co-production roadshow was hosted jointly by Governance International, Birmingham University, NESTA and nef. The event was part of a series of 5 Roadshows showcasing examples of people powered public services across the country and providing a platform for practitioners and decision makers to share experiences on achieving more in public services.

Halima Khan, deputy director of NESTA's Public Services Lab opened the event with an address that framed the day in the context of NESTA's mission to promote innovation in public services. She said that co-production emerged as one of the key models in the Lab's experience of promoting people powered public services and welcomed the growing and diverse movement that is building around coproduction across the country.

Defining co-production

In the first keynote speech Tony Bovaird from INLOGOV at Birmingham University and Elke Loeffler, CEO of Governance International, said that, no matter which of the several definitions of co-production you choose, co-production is about a fundamental shift of power; it is centred upon viewing service users as assets, it has at its heart a collaborative rather than paternalistic approach and it can only enrich and complement and never replace State responsibilities. It is a tool to harness the potential of collaborations at the interface between the state and civil society.

Paul Sheehan, CEO of Walsall Council, followed with an inspiring and provocative address that touched upon the current public sector reform and the new roles and responsibilities that citizens, public managers and and politicians need to assume to deliver a more participative and self reliant society.

Jim McManus, director of public health at Birmingham City Council, closed the plenary session with an insightful and pragmatic address inviting us to shift away from the deficit model as a first and essential step towards co-production. He also recognised that it is impossible to co-produce every service and that the choice of what to co-produce must be made with realism and discernment. He went on to point out that we must let go of the expectation that everything must be perfect and recognise that co-production will be born out of iterative practice when the right soft skills and competences are fostered.

The discussion that followed brought out the key themes of trust and relationships, leadership and culture, soft skills and competences as pre-requisites for the success of co-production. The question of where does state responsibility legitimately stop was raised. A participant talked about the importance of investing in people's capacity to get involved and said that the success of co-production hinges on developing inclusive avenues for people to engage with services.

One of the final reflections pointed out that we all share a responsibility for creating the customs and values that make people want to engage and ultimately will make co-production work.

Co-production working in practice

The workshops shared four vibrant examples of co-production in practice:

Martin Simon from Timebanking UK and Lawrence Hughes from Fairshares, the UK's first time bank, hosted a discussion on the role of timebanking as a tool for co-production. To read about the first 12 years of timebanking in the UK, read Martin's Book  "Your Money or Your Life: time for both". Lawrence shared examples of innovative practices such as "time philanthropsists" and the "Fairshares pension / goodwill pot" and an initiative that connects prisoners in Gloucestershire with their own communities and communities in the developing world

Caroline Tomlinson from In Control talked about her experience of helping people to achieve greater self determination in accessing the support they need to achieve their life goals.

Alison Lush talked about how, through Solihull's Environmental Champions, residents and the Council are joining forces to create a safer and cleaner borough.

Rabiyah Latif, from Birmingham City Council, shared her experience of setting up a service to help people from refugee communities access the job market through peer support and community engagement.

Speakers:

Halima Khan - NESTA

Prof. Tony Bovaird - INLOGOV, University of Birmingham

Elke Loeffler - Governance International

Paul Sheehan -  Walsall MBC and Lead of West Midlands Local Authority Leadership Group

Jim McManus - Birmingham City Council

Caroline Tomlinson - In Control 

Lawrence Hughes - Fair Shares

Martin Simon - Timebanking UK

Alison Lush - Solihull Council 

Rabiyah K Latif - Birmingham City Council