York's Model of Joint Partnership working (co-production)

Joint partnership (co-producing) at a strategic level means involving children, young people and parents or carers in designing the way services are developed and delivered. By using these individuals expertise as service users, the outcomes will be influential and radically improved.

Use this part of the model when:

• developing a new service
• reviewing a service
• developing or reviewing policy documents
• hiring new staff members
• creating an improvement or action plan to better service delivery
• developing a project that will affect parents, children and young people
• creating information that will be publicly accessible to parents, children and young people

At any point that changes are being made at a strategic level which will affect parents, children and young people, those stakeholders should be involved at the assessment, planning, action and reviewing stages. Where it will affect them, involve them as equal partners.

Note: there will be times when there is a requirement to develop services or make changes that have statutory components, where parents or young people may not have a choice in what is being changed or developed. This situation is overcome by being open and transparent; by being honest with those who wish to work in joint partnership, and the outcomes of the project will be even stronger as all stakeholders work together to think on a strategic level.

We need to:

• listen - gather and hear the voices of all stakeholders involved, prioritising the child in every conversation. Second cycle - did it work? what changes are needed?
• plan - with all those stakeholders and the child, outline the plan and ensure everyone understands the process
• do - together, complete the action (for example, a meeting, paperwork or a review)
• feedback - feedback the outcomes or completed task to all involved and check that all understand the final result

Example activities include:

• allow the children to run the meetings, include games to make it fun – could they even plan the whole project as a starting point?
• coffee mornings for families to hear their views

Some tips for Strategic Joint Partnership include:

1. Do your research. Gather voice of your target audience, make it accessible and be creative with the methods you choose (be sure not to duplicate, check if these views have already been gathered).
2. Set out time frames, does this work for all stakeholders?
3. Offer families the opportunity to be involved in every meeting, work around them when choosing meeting times, location and method.
4. Can you attend meetings and events that are already taking place rather than creating a new time to meet?
5. Update those involved in the same way you would a colleague. Email or phone to discuss changes, questions and next steps – you're all equal in this process. 
6. Before completing the work, test and sense what has been produced with a wider audience to ensure it is representative (work with our Parent Carer Forum for wider views)

Ask yourself:

• did you ensure all involved understood the language, process and purpose throughout?
• have you reconsidered and actively used the child and parent views before making any decision?
• were the child and parent views used in a way that can be seen and recognised in the final outcome?
• was the opportunity meaningful and purposeful? Can you evidence this?