In November 2020 we invited people to join us and Co-Production Collective to discuss living our values in the real world, exploring whether genuine coproduction in health and care research was possible.
We were thrilled that 37 people attended the event and together we considered a number of questions that were drafted through conversation with attendees in advance of the event.
At the end of the event we agreed with those present to have a go at putting together something that might act as a manifesto, and / or a set of standards that could act as a guidance to support coproduction in health and care research.
We said we would share this for further discussion along with the information captured on Mural boards in each breakout group – so here goes.
Draft coproduction in health and care research – manifesto
- Know where power sits and who holds it - be open to your own blind spots.
- Challenge cultural hierarchies and institutional structures that reinforce unequal power.
- Be brave - create an environment where power is rebalanced between those who traditionally have it and those who don’t.
- Pay people to help equalise power differentials and recognise all contributions as valuable.
- Be open to the relevance and value of the emotions connected to experience.
- Start small, give it a go - don’t just talk about it - do it! J
- Learn and share as you go, from the good and the bad – in this spirit, it’s ok to get it wrong.
- Be honest with yourself and others when you’re involved in tokenistic practice
- Focus on sharing positive success stories to support coproduction as a core part of quality research with an equal place at the research table
- Recognise research as only part of a bigger picture of health and care
We would love to know your comments and feedback on the draft manifesto. Is something missing? Do they make sense? Are some more important than others? Should they be numbered? – please send them to jessie.cunnett@traverse.ltd or directly comment on the Google doc here.
We would also really appreciate your thoughts about where we might share it more widely and whether further work to develop some standards would be a good idea?
For our part, in the next few months Traverse will be calling ourselves to action. We will be establishing a lived experience advisory panel to help us:
- Design great research with people who have lived experience;
- Have a route out to networks and connections of people who are interested to get involved in research projects as researchers and partners; and
- Helps to influence and shape our own work, the market, funders and commissioners to better see the value of working in this way.
We will be working with the group to understand what the journey of change is and what success looks like when we get there so we can meaningfully and truthfully embed coproduction in our own practice.
Co-Production Collective continue to work hard on challenging the status quo, advocating for more authentic co-production (not faux-production!). As a co-production community we have been providing co-production support and training to various organisations and working in partnership with funders and other groups to plan some upcoming events. We also always take time to challenge ourselves, in particular in relation to making sure that we are engaging and working with a diverse group of people.
As both Traverse and Co-Production Collective we would like to report back on how we’re getting on and to host a follow up event to keep up the momentum for how we can support coproduction in health and care research. We would love for you to join us, please save this date: Thursday May 20th – this will be exactly 6 months from the initial event and feels like a suitable time to check back in.
