Coproduction

What is coproduction?

We campaign for coproduction because we believe this is the only way to ensure services provided by the council meet the needs of the people they are suppose to serve.

Why coproduction?

Working with service users to design services is especially important in a time when budgets are getting smaller and local authorities are struggling to meet statutory duties. 

We think coproduction is important to ensure that public money is not wasted on services that do not meet needs. 

We think that coproduction is important to ensure the inclusion of marginalised people.

In the beginning

Since 2016 have been campaigning for better services for families of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).  Through this we have worked on various projects and always demanding that the SEND department reach out to all parents and give everyone an opportunity to contribute through appropriate engagement activities.

What needs to change in the Haringey Children's Services for coproduction to happen?

We have asked the council to go to groups of parents, rather than expecting parents to go to the council.

We have asked the council to ensure that every SEND parent, child and family is given the opportunity to contribute and that all voices are heard.

We have asked that there is always a range of ways that people can engage - digitally, through social media, through surveys and online surveys, through face-to-face meetings and virtual meetings and through big community meetings and smaller meetings for special interest groups -  and we ask that the council coproduce engagement with parents, children and families.

We have campaigned for all the engagement activities to mean something. We need the council to ensure that their systems and processes are open and transparent - that there is good governance and oversight and clear lines of reporting upwards to decision-makers and outwards to SEND families.

We have campaigned tirelessly because we are not convinced that these basic foundations and building blocks for good production are in place within the Haringey SEND department; we are not convinced that parents are being listened to tand we are not convinced that the Haringey SEND department that having an agreeable parent in the room is NOT coproduction, but a waste of everybody's time, and it ain't fooling no one.

And finally, we believe that the responsibility to ensure that coproduction works and is well funded lies with he council, not unqualified parents with limited time, capacity and resources.