This report examines how people's needs are better met when they are involved in an equal and reciprocal relationship with professionals and others.

Key findings:

• This is the right time to take co-production in to the mainstream so that it becomes the default model for public services.
• However there are four barriers to doing so: commissioning co-production activity; generating evidence of value; taking successful co-production approaches to scale; and developing professionals’ skills.
• The recommendations in this report are focused on: changing the way services are managed and delivered; changing the way services are commissioned; and opening up new opportunities for coproduction.

People's needs are better met when they are involved in an equal and reciprocal relationship with professionals and others, working together to get things done. This is the underlying principle of co-production – a transformational approach to delivering services - whose time has now come.

For over a year, nef and Nesta have been working together to grow a network of co-production practitioners. We are building a substantial body of knowledge about co-production that offers a powerful critique of the current model of public service delivery and a key to transforming it.

This document is the last of three reports from nef and Nesta.

Author
David Boyle, Anna Coote, Chris Sherwood and Julia Slay