Co-production is an integral part of our unique approach to care and support for people with additional needs. Empowering freedom of expression, we invite the people we support and their families to actively participate in the care we deliver.
Providing valuable insights, they collaborate with us to shape the care and support they receive – ensuring our services truly meet their needs.
According to the NHS, co-production means involving the people who use health and social care services, carers, and communities in the design and delivery of their care and support. This might include gathering their valuable opinions on the planning of the service and evaluating the care delivered. The Care Act 2014 highlights the importance of co-production in its statutory guidance.
At Voyage Care, we put the people we support at the heart of what we do. Our mission is to empower them to live the lives they choose. We strongly encourage the people we support and their families to get involved in shaping the care and support they receive. After all, they’re the experts on how we can truly meet their needs and support them to live a fulfilling life.
A great example of the impact of effective co-production can be found at one of our supported living services in Edinburgh.
Importance of co-production
Norma, Service Manager at our supported living service in Edinburgh, recognises that co-production is an essential ingredient in the making of a service. It ensures the people we support and their surrounding community are involved in decision making. Whether that’s for recruiting new support staff, explaining the areas that will be observed by the Scotland quality of care team at the Care Inspectorate, or the daily running of the home. Everyone is included to ensure the people who live at our supported living service in Edinburgh receive great care and support.
Co-production is essential in ensuring the people we support feel empowered and in control of their own care. Having a voice and feeling listened to encourages confidence, promotes self-worth, and ensures people’s unique needs are being met.
Getting involved in decision making
At our supported living service in Edinburgh, they’ve enhanced their approach to co-production even further. Norma and the team organise weekly meetings, with a committee made up of people we support across Edinburgh, members of our team, and members of the community. These discussions focus on different aspects of our care and support we provide.
An open and honest forum, it’s also an opportunity to explain the differences between good and bad support. By engaging in these conversations, the people we support are gain valuable knowledge, giving them a clearer picture of how they should be receiving their care.
Taking into consideration each person’s unique communication needs, we adapt our approach for sharing this information. We promote interaction, so our panel will often use a big sheet of paper to write down their thoughts and feelings about their support. Together, they discuss areas like what qualities they’d like in their support team and activities they would like to participate in.
Having weekly committee meetings allows Norma and the team to deliver care and support effectively. With the valued input of the people we support, everyone at the service is reassured their care and support is the best it can be!
Recently, the committee collaborated on a project with the Voyage Care recruitment team in the North, to explore the qualities the people we support desire in their Support Workers.
Using visual aids, they designed an interactive spider diagram pinpointing qualities like a good sense of humour, kindness, and compassion. They then fed back their results to the recruitment team, allowing our recruitment team to develop a clear understanding of what the people we support need in their support team.
Self-evaluation group
As part of Norma’s role as Service Manager, she uses the Quality Framework from the Care Inspectorate to evaluate the service, continuously measuring its performance.
During this process, she realised the most important feedback she could gather was from the people living there – who are the experts by experience. She considered how she could involve the people we support and their families in this evaluation, giving a true reflection of life at the home.
Norma established a working self-evaluation group consisting of families, team members, and people we support.
In these meetings, everyone involved discussed how they’d like the home to be run. The people we support are open about how they like to be supported with different aspects such as health and wellbeing.
A great example of something that came out of these groups was around oral healthcare. The group wondered how they could promote the people we support’s health and wellbeing, as some people find dentists hard to access. While some people said they’re afraid of the dentist, others said they weren’t sure if their needs would be accommodated. This put them off attending dental appointments.
After discussing different solutions, they sent flyers to local dentists asking them to empower people with additional needs to access their services.
Prioritising building relationships, they helped dentists understand people with additional needs, teaching them how they can help break down the barriers faced by this community.
To Norma’s delight, a local dentist responded. Now, a meeting is in the works to promote accessible oral healthcare to people with needs, like those we support at our supported living service in Edinburgh.
Benefits of co-production
Research shows co-production has a huge range of benefits for everyone who gets involved. For the people we support at this service the benefits include:
• Increased confidence and self-esteem
• A sense of empowerment
• Improved health and wellbeing
• Increased engagement and trust
• Higher levels of satisfaction with services.
There are also excellent benefits for the team, such as:
• Improved job satisfaction, motivation and practice.
• Increased trust with the people we support and their families.
• Increased engagement and dialogue with people we support and their families.
Getting the people we support involved in their care and support improves the effectiveness of social care provisions. So, services can ensure the people we support are free to express their opinions, feel respected, and receive the support they need and deserve.
Find out more!
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