As part of National Co-Production Week 2020, we teamed up with Curators of Change and the National Co-Production Advisory Group (NCAG) to deliver the Co-Production: Can you feel it? workshop. This workshop provided a space for attendees to listen to different people’s experiences of health and social care and reflect on what they key points of these stories were.

Whilst there are undoubtedly positive experiences of health and social care, the stories also painted a clear picture about some of the issues in the sector. Specifically, the stories highlighted the need to ‘rehumanise’ services and move beyond bureaucracy and process, and focus on connections and relationships.

With this in mind, discussions moved onto how we – the people in the ‘room’ – can practically begin to take steps to make this happen. Key to this discussion were questions such as – What can we do from our own sphere of influence? What power to affect change do we have? How can we use our power? What is our responsibility to make change?

Loads of suggestions were brought to the table and here’s just a few:

• Trust people – they know what works for them
• Stop following entrenched and broken systems
• Ensure there is transparency and clarity
• Get out from behind the computer and go and see/meet people
• Professionals should share more of their whole self – be human too!
• Empathy – connect at an emotional level, not a process level

In October we will be taking the knowledge from this session and the stories, and combining it with other learnings from similar discussions and events, and will launch a policy briefing on the topic. A big thank you to everyone who has given their stories, time and energies so far and watch this space!