Co-production: reflections and practical ideas from our October 2025 Learning Lab

A blog from Tina Puryear

Our recent Learning Lab session on co-production sparked some rich conversation about what the term really means, how it is misused, and how organisations are trying to embed it in ethical and meaningful ways.

Co-production has become something of a buzzword. It appears everywhere, often used loosely to describe anything from consultation to volunteer engagement. One participant shared an example of a government project labelled as ‘co-produced’, despite the reality being little more than a rebranded consultation. That disconnect creates confusion and, understandably, a bit of cynicism.

Although there’s no single agreed definition, most people recognise the same core principles:

• Equality, recognising that both professionals and communities bring assets and expertise

• Shared power in decisions, responsibility, and ownership

• Building on strengths rather than deficits

• Reciprocity and mutuality

• Inclusion and accessibility

• Connection and peer support

A central point from the session was that co-production is not a type of consultation.  It is a shift from seeing people as passive recipients towards recognising them as active agents: doing with, not doing to. Co-production challenges the old ‘professional knows best’ service model and recognises participation as a right.

Co-production is best understood as a practice rather than a project.  It has no neat formula; it is iterative, relational, and rooted in shared responsibility for shaping and improving services. Many organisations described it as a journey rather than a destination. 

What this looks like in legal advice settings

For legal advice organisations, co-production can feel difficult to picture because much of the work is technical, regulated, and time pressured.  Co-producing the legal advice is not the goal, but there are many parts of a service where co-production can be embedded, including:

• Governance and oversight: creating advisory panels for specific projects or for strategic planning.

• Co-design: shaping a service or project from its early stages, including scoping, priorities, and criteria.

• Co-planning: developing approaches, workflows, or community-facing processes together.

• Co-delivering to the wider ecosystem: outreach, community engagement, training, preventative work, research, lived-experience insight.

• Co-knowledge-building: interpreting data, understanding community needs, exploring patterns, and identifying service improvements.

• Influencing local systems: working with communities to co-develop evidence and priorities for policy or commissioning conversations. 

One participant noted that even led-by-and-for organisations still need co-production. Having staff and trustees with lived experience is vital, but it doesn’t automatically ensure that the wider community continues to shape the service, especially as needs evolve. 

The resource question 

Doing co-production well requires resourcing. The most important elements raised during the session included:

• Protected staff time for relationship building, preparation and debriefing, and ongoing communication.

• Investment in trust, often based on consistency, acknowledging contributions, and adapting based on feedback.

• Training and induction for both staff and lived-experience partners.

• Reciprocity: acknowledging contribution through vouchers, travel costs, recognition, certificates, or short term paid roles where appropriate (in other words, getting something back for putting something in)

These are often the hardest parts to fund, but they are essential for ethical, non-extractive practice.

A participant also reminded us of the challenge for ongoing funding - whilst some funders offer grants to launch or initiate co-production elements, not all will provide sustained funding to continue or grow co-production for the longer term.

Practical ways to get started (or move further)

For organisations unsure where to begin, or those looking to build on existing work, here are practical steps shared during or inspired by the discussions:

1. Use the ‘ladder of participation’ as a joint self-assessment tool (see image below).  Bring together staff and service users to map where your organisation sits now and what realistic next steps could look like.

Example: If you sit mostly at ‘consultation’, consider adding small group discussions, co-analysis sessions, or community-led feedback workshops before making decisions.

2. Audit where decisions are made.  Ask: Which decisions would be richer, more strategic, or more grounded in lived experience if service users were at the table?

Example: Instead of staff deciding outreach locations, share community-need data and budget constraints and design an outreach plan collaboratively.

3. Create small ‘entry points’ for co-production.  Not everything has to start big.

Examples: A lived-experience working group feeding into service design; community-led testing of new forms, letters, or communication processes; jointly developing principles for how the service engages with clients; a co-produced welcome or induction pack.

4. Build co-production into existing touchpoints.  Start where relationships already exist.

Example: If you run drop-ins, working groups, peer groups, or advice clubs, use these as spaces to explore experiences, priorities, and ideas - not just casework.

5. Make the ‘co’ visible.  Naming co-production when it’s happening - and openly reflecting when it isn’t happening - helps build confidence and supports culture change.

Example: Acknowledging in meetings: ‘This decision was shaped by our lived-experience group and staff team together.’

Some practical ideas

A few additional practical ‘examples’ from other sectors that may inspire new ideas:

Service improvements

• Co-developing client-facing materials (letters, leaflets, website content).

• Reviewing accessibility barriers with lived-experience partners and prioritising fixes.

• Co-creating guidance for staff on trauma-informed or anti-racist practice.

Strategy and governance

• A time-limited advisory panel for shaping the organisation’s next strategy.

• A lived-experience ‘challenge panel’ that reviews draft proposals.

• Joint workshops where staff and clients interpret service-use data together.

Community engagement

• Co-produced community surveys or neighbourhood listening sessions.

• Peer researchers gathering insight from harder-to-reach groups.

• Co-delivering awareness sessions in community spaces.

Closing reflection

A big takeaway from the Learning Lab was that co-production is not one thing and no organisation will ever get it ‘perfect’. It is a series of choices, experiments, reflections, and adaptations. Even small steps can shift power, strengthen trust, and make services more accountable and more effective.

Every organisation, regardless of size or starting point, can take one concrete step towards deeper participation.  Those steps, over time, reshape the culture of a service.