Frequently asked questions

Explore our FAQs to learn about some of the key terms we use in our work, from alliancing and co-production to lived experience

Co-production brings together people with lived experiences and learned expertise as equal partners to collaboratively design, develop, and deliver solutions.

This approach goes beyond traditional consultation or engagement by actively involving people in every stage of the process, from inception to implementation and evaluation.

These partnerships allow for a more inclusive, innovative and effective way of working, ensuring that outcomes better reflect the needs and strengths of the community. They promote shared ownership, mutual respect and empowerment, recognizing that everyone has a vital contribution to make.

At the heart of co-production is the belief that everyone’s knowledge and experience is valuable, and that collaboration leads to stronger, more inclusive, and more effective outcomes.

Co-production creates solutions that are more relevant, effective, and sustainable by fully involving everyone who will be impacted by them. This  leads to more practical and user-centered approaches that are likely to be more successful in the long term. It also gives people a voice and control over decisions that affect them. 

Having a sense of ownership increases engagement and makes people more invested in the success of the outcome. It promotes mutual respect, understanding and collaboration, leading to a more inclusive and cohesive environment. By drawing on the unique insights and experiences of all participants, it challenges traditional ways of thinking and opens up new possibilities for innovation.

Co-production makes decision-making more transparent and accountable. It shifts the power dynamics, ensuring that those affected by decisions are involved in every step, which can lead to greater trust in institutions and systems.

Alliancing is a transformative way for service providers and commissioners to work together and realise shared ambitions, formalising collaboration without the need for new organisational forms.

Rather than having individual contracts with a group of providers within a system and hoping they will collaborate, an alliance brings providers together under one contract. The commissioner drives collaboration and the sharing of opportunities, risks and the responsibility for delivering outcomes.

Alliancing can be a mechanism to drive a cultural shift within the sector towards strength- based working and co-production, where people with lived experience have a full role in service design and delivery.

Lived experience is a person’s experiences, decisions and the knowledge gained from them. It’s based on direct, first-hand involvement in everyday events, rather than assumptions or constructs made by other people.

Within the health and social care sector, lived experience often refers to people who draw on services for support, their experiences of those services and the situations that led to them needing support.

A community of practice is a group of people who share a common interest, passion or concern, and collectively learn how to do it better or improve it by interacting regularly. A space to share ideas, experiences and best practice. 

Community research is a participatory approach involving people with lived experience of the research issue(s) as equal partners in the design, information gathering, sense-making and dissemination of findings, as a way to bring about positive social change.

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