Principles of Co-Production: From Tokenism to True Partnership

September 11, 2025

📘 Blog 2 of 7 in our Co-Production & Engagement Series
Principles of Co-Production: From Tokenism to True Partnership

Links to all 7 blogs in this series are at the bottom of this post.

🧩 What Do We Mean by Co-Production?

Co-production means working in equal partnership with people who use services, their families, and communities to design, deliver, and evaluate care. It is not consultation, focus groups, or feedback forms — it is about sharing power and decision-making so that people influence outcomes directly.

Commissioners increasingly see co-production as a test of culture: do providers value lived experience as much as professional expertise? For the learning disability sector, for example, this often means enabling people with lived experience to co-design care pathways, training, and governance structures.

🔑 Core Principles of Genuine Co-Production

The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) highlights four pillars of authentic co-production:

Equality — lived experience has equal weight to professional expertise.
Diversity — involving a wide range of voices, including those often excluded.
Accessibility — information, meetings, and decision-making are inclusive and understandable.
Reciprocity — people are valued and rewarded for their contributions, not treated as unpaid advisors.

Embedding these principles shows commissioners and the CQC that co-production is more than a buzzword — it is a working practice.

⚠️ Avoiding Tokenism

Tokenism occurs when providers involve people superficially without sharing real influence. Examples include:

Inviting one “service user representative” onto a board but not listening to them.
Running a survey and calling it co-production without follow-up action.
Only involving families after key decisions have already been made.

Commissioners see through this quickly. Stronger bids show how engagement shapes real change — whether that’s redesigning rotas, co-authoring policies, or contributing to recruitment panels.

💡 Practical Example (Domiciliary Care)

Scenario: A domiciliary care provider wants to improve scheduling.

❌ Weak response: “We asked service users for feedback on call times.”
✅ Stronger response: “We co-designed a new scheduling system with service users and families, piloted it with 12 households, and adopted their recommendations. Satisfaction scores rose from 65% ➜ 91%.”

The second approach demonstrates influence and measurable outcomes — what commissioners and inspectors value most.

🧰 Getting Tender-Ready

Show how you apply SCIE’s four principles in daily practice.
Include examples of service changes directly shaped by co-production.
Record outcomes (e.g., satisfaction, reduced complaints, improved continuity).
Integrate co-production evidence into method statements and strategies.
Test your narratives through bid strategy training and polish with proofreading.

🛠️ Practical Tips for Providers

Make every answer scorable: mirror the question’s headings, signpost clearly, and prove each claim with a concise data point or example.
Standardise your toolkit: keep one live set of method statements, annexes and KPIs so teams aren’t reinventing content each time.
Protect word counts: prioritise impact lines, cut duplication, and move low-value detail into annexes or tables.
Evidence cadence: publish a quarterly mini “commissioner pack” (KPI trends, governance actions, case studies) so renewals are never a scramble.
Triaging discipline: only pursue tenders where you can evidence fit, safe mobilisation and measurable outcomes at the proposed price.