On 7 June 2024, 28 people got together as part of Southampton Voluntary Services’ Friday Forum.
Below is a summary of the main speakers and points made through discussion. This is the full report of the event, with a summary of each talk. Notes of Coproduction Friday Forum 070624 FOR SHARING
The subject was a Coproduction Showcase, giving members of the local Voluntary, Community and Social Enteprise (VCSE) sector the chance to share some of their good work. Local groups offered short talks from their work that included some or all of these elements :
- Local people have been involved in designing and delivering a project, service, or initiative.
- People with “lived experience” are helping to make decisions.
- It fulfills the objective of “nothing about us without us.”
- It makes people feel valued rather than “done to.”
Southampton Coproduction Corner: the Context
Rebecca Kinge from SVS explained the context. She talked about how the Southampton Coproduction Corner Community has been evolving since September 2023. Here is her presentation:
A series of other talks were given with a coproduction theme:
Annie Clewlow, Communicare, Our multi-generational friendship clubs
Anne Cato/Susie Scourer, St Denys Activity Group
Nina Kelly, Safe New Futures, Pathways programme
Wendy Redman, Southampton Voluntary Services, Community Roots
Katie Daley-Yates, Host Productions and Southampton Collective, Drawing on the Outside
Lynda Walton, Holyrood, Holyrood Gardeneers – narrative
Susan Hayward Southampton Mental Health Network, Coproduction with SMHN
Claudia Murg, We Make Southampton CIC, The Green Hour
- https://www.youtube.com/c/wemakesouthampton Our website https://wemakesouthampton.co.uk/ For the Go Jauntly walks https://walks.gojauntly.com/collections/discover-green-gems-in-southampton-206?utm_campaign=partner&utm_medium=web&utm_source=partner
Hayley Binstead, Board in the City, Community conversations
Becky Wilkinson, Southampton City Council referred to funding received from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) to establish a Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC) in Southampton. The purpose of this funding is to develop the Council’s research infrastructure to enable them to become more research active and make better use of research evidence when making decisions on the wider determinants of health. The programme is at the early stage, and it doesn’t have all the answers, but Southampton City Council is keen to work with local VCSE organisations and the local community to decide firstly what the priorities are for that research. Rob Kurn from Southampton Voluntary Services is part of the HDRC Steering Group.
- Details here: HDRC Southampton
Karen Tillyer, University of Southampton, Active Living Cafe and project with Swim England
Discussion
We had a round table discussion about issues associated with coproduction.
We asked:
- What are our reflections on coproduction, including what we have heard today?
- What issues related to coproduction should we explore together in the future?
Key issues discussed include:
- the value of long term community activity which foster trusted relationships between people;
- coproduction being part of long term processes, so gathering views to feed into policy development, service delivery, decision-making and research is not a stop/start approach;
- for people and communities who are involved in sharing their views (e.g. on their needs or how services could be improved) to then be told what happens as a result;
- the importance of being aware and then addressing imbalances in power between communities, small and large organisations;
- working together towards a more open relationship between different organisations and communities;
- developing the Southampton Coproduction Corner community so it involves more people from the NHS and strong connections with strategic decision-makers in Southampton.
In addition, people were asked to share something that resonated with them on post it notes, and after the event, people were asked for feedback. This data is being analysed and will feed into the evaluation of Southampton Coproduction Corner over Summer 2024 as well as a Policy Review which will be published and shared.
Through all the work undertaken through Southampton Coproduction Corner, we try and share what has happened, what is happening next, asking people what else they want to do and be transparent. Any group or organisation can offer to host a conversation or event as part of the work. We encourage people to help the community to widen its reach.
A recording was made of the event. Please get in touch with Southampton Voluntary Services or myself if you’d like to see it, or have an questions or comments about any of the above or would like to join the Southampton Coproduction Community.
Rebecca Kinge
21 June 2024