The state of coproduction in Haringey 2 years after Amaze
- By Brian Leveson
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- 19 Mar, 2022
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Haringey SEND department have told us that they want to embed coproduction at the heart of service improvements. The Amaze report provided a starting point on their journey to excellent co-production and outstanding services. How's that gone then?
One year ago, in March 2021, we pointed out that the SEND service was not adopting the recommendations of the report in the blog AMAZE report recommendations for Haringey professionals. We find that a year on from that blog and two years after Amaze came to do thier report, Haringey SEND are still not following the report recommendations.
https://www.difficultparent.com/what-the-amaze-report-said-about-what-professionals-need-to-do-when-...
4 Key recommendations of the report that have not been followed to the detriment of the inclusion of the parent carers in Haringey
CULTURE AND PRACTICE: Ensure sufficient time/capacity is built into staff work plans and project plans to support a variety of participation activities. This should include time for senior management to meet with the parent carer forum and hear from parent support groups.
STRUCTURE AND PROCESSES: Minutes, agenda items and other relevant documents should be shared at least one week prior to the meeting, to allow parent carers time to prepare.
- PARTICIPATION PROJECTS AND COMMUNICATION: Professionals to plan ahead for consultations and engagement opportunities, with an ideal minimum of three weeks' notice for meetings and six for consultations.
- Agree the scope of pieces of work by developing a co-production document and a brief to bring clarity to the process and manage expectations.
Who is responsible for the delivery of coproduction?
- setting up of the forum (less than 2 weeks notice),
- the meetings for the written statement of action following the OFSTED inspection (19 says notice) and
- the Truth and Reconciliation meeting (2 and a half weeks notice) and
- none of the other meetings organised by the council -
- except the one organised by Haringey HealthWatch.
Reflecting on the same 4 key recommendations of the Amaze report:
CULTURE AND PRACTICE: Ensure sufficient time/capacity is built into staff work plans and project plans to support a variety of participation activities. This should include time for senior management to meet with the parent carer forum and hear from parent support groups. OUTCOME: Coproduction seems to be only via the parent carer forum, with only the members of the parent care forum steering group on working parties (8 self selected individuals) and papers for meetings are not shared with anyone else.
STRUCTURE AND PROCESSES: Minutes, agenda items and other relevant documents should be shared at least one week prior to the meeting, to allow parent carers time to prepare. OUTCOME: There are no meeting minutes available for the setting up of the forum and the contract being awarded to the Bridge Renewal Trust. This is open to abuses of the process of awarding contracts. Our understanding is that no one came forward when the project was initially put out to tender and at some point The Bridge Renewal Trust were approached by an very senior leader in the local authority.
- PARTICIPATION PROJECTS AND COMMUNICATION:Professionals to plan ahead for consultations and engagement opportunities, with an ideal minimum of three weeks' notice for meetings and six for consultations. Not done - OUTCOME: Parents who were able to operate at less than 3 weeks notice and were free for day time only meetings have gone on to commission and run the parent carer forum together: who is responsible for the lack of inclusion in they way this forum was set up?
- Agree the scope of pieces of work by developing a co-production document and a brief to bring clarity to the process and manage expectations. OUTCOME: There needs to be clarity about what is happening in meetings and how the information shared by parents will be used. When Dr. James Chiriyankandath asked about the Truth and Reconciliation meetings at Children and Young People's Scrutiny Panel this week it was unclear how the information collected would be used.
Coproduction means something different to everyone
And yet, when we look towards the Amaze Report, again there is clear direction about what coproduction is
CULTURE AND PRACTICE: Ensure sufficient time/capacity is built into staff work plans and project plans to support a variety of participation activities. This should include time for senior management to meet with the PCF and hear from parent support groups. WHAT IS NEEDED: Is that the council need to engage with groups beyond the parent carer forum, not just the self selected few who happen to be available for day time meetings, as recommended by the Amaze Report.
STRUCTURE AND PROCESSES: Minutes, agenda items and other relevant documents should be shared at least one week prior to the meeting, to allow parent carers time to prepare.WHAT IS NEEDED: Is that the council need to produce governance papers and meeting minutes for all 'coproduction' meetings, and make them available to all parent carers, not just a self selected few, as recommended by the Amaze Report.
- PARTICIPATION PROJECTS AND COMMUNICATION:Professionals to plan ahead for consultations and engagement opportunities, with an ideal minimum of three weeks' notice for meetings and six for consultations. WHAT IS NEEDED: Is that the council need to engage with groups beyond the parent carer forum, as recommended by the Amaze Report.WHAT IS NEEDED: Is that the council need make this happen: 3 week notice for meetings and 6 weeks for consultations, so that all parent can take part. I have seen leaders delude themselves and CYP scrutiny panel with the trite remark that all people that wanted to attend the written statement of action meetings could. This is plainly untrue as three weeks notice was not give. What should have been said was everyone who approached the council to attend the meetings the council arranged got a seat at the table.
- Agree the scope of pieces of work by developing a co-production document and a brief to bring clarity to the process and manage expectations.WHAT IS NEEDED: How is this the perfect and most obvious solution to 'coproduction means something different to everyone?!'. Sitting down and 'contacting' with stakeholders to manage expectations and discuss outcomes seems like the most mature way of resolving this.
Follow the 'Amaze Report' recommendations
CULTURE AND PRACTICE: Groups beyond the parent carer forum are being excluded by Haringey and the Parent Carer Forum, whose un-elected and self selected leaders, on the basis that they were free for daytime meetings, are directing coproduction and engagement in Haringey. It took 6 months of lobbying The Bridge Renewal Trust to arrange evening meetings for the forum. Once the self selected steering group had secured their places, they decided on evening meetings 'as this is were the most demand is'. We have been to two meetings recently were either the venue or the proposed venue was inaccessible to us. When we tried to explain why a venue was inaccessible to the parent carer forum our lived experience was dismissed and it was explained to us why we were 'stupid' and 'wrong' that a venue that we had been to 2 days before was in fact accessible, despite our very recent lived experience.
STRUCTURE AND PROCESSES: By sharing papers before meetings and being clear how feedback is accepted and used, people can contribute to meetings they might be unable to attend. However, there needs to be transparency about these processes. We have been told that the parent carer forum do not want discussions in their meetings .... ... yeah, go figure...
- PARTICIPATION PROJECTS AND COMMUNICATION:Some parents, including ourselves, have been unable to go to meetings where 3 weeks notice has not been given, including the written statement of action meetings. We are quite sure that we are not the only working parents with a very severely disabled child who is excluded from coproduction due to the continuation of this lack of sufficient notice.
- Agree the scope of pieces of work by developing a co-production document and a brief to bring clarity to the process and manage expectations. "Coproduction means different things to different people" needs to be clearly managed in the setting up and running of individual coproduction projects.
How the Difficult Parent rates Haringey SEND coproduction so far...
What the Difficult Parent's 'coproduction' and 'inequalities for disabled people' ratings mean
Coproduction rating
Inequalities for disabled people rating
