Blog: The power of co-production and policymaking

Turn2us co-production partner, Erica Donaldson-Ellison, talks to our policy and influencing team about her experience of collaborating with others and the role that co-production can play in policymaking.

Why is it important to you that those with lived experiences are involved in policymaking around financial insecurity?  

Research and developing policy to address financial security cannot be conducted without people at the core of that process. It needs to incorporate meaningful experiences, including people who suffer mental health trauma because of financial insecurity. 

By emphasising the importance of individuals at the outset and incorporating many co-production partners' views, we can better represent varying experiences and circumstances. This helps to communicate real life experiences to policymakers. 

Ensuring people with lived experience have a seat at the table helps policy makers prioritise needs by hearing from a range of voices. It also makes us all think and use familiar language, as well as acknowledging disabilities. Co-production can be a two-way learning experience which benefits both policymakers and co-production partners. Humanity is varied. The process of shaping services and policy can be messy and complicated, however the rewards are worth it.  

The practice of co-production may be time-consuming but, ultimately, the development of trust and the process of sharing and adapting contributes to us all thriving as well as to practical outcomes. This will be more significant for people who are at the heart of the research, if participants are involved in all stages of the methodology, during the learning periods and the final evaluation.

What do you hope to see from people, those with lived experience and those without lived experience, when they come together to co-produce policy? 

Working together and co-operating with each other while maintaining a balance of power is important in a working group, but we should bear in mind that when skilfully managed, allowing space for conflicting viewpoints and opinions can lead to exciting outcomes. 

We should allocate a generous amount of time for co production partners to share their stories, and the freedom to express these creatively. 

Passion, fear and hope will be part and parcel of conveying these heartfelt stories because co-production partners feel and relive their trauma in the retelling of the experiences, an experience which may also regularly haunt their dreams. 

Conveying the poetry of their experience is a necessary stage in the process to inspire policymakers to fine tune and to improve services. The Turn2us value - impatient for change - is inspired by the pain of financial insecurity and by the urgency to make systems work better so that any trauma is avoided.

What are some of the myths that you've encountered about co-production and involving people with lived experience?   

Co-production partners have the right to be considered as individuals and yet, frequently, a misinterpretation of partners as a homogenous group exists. Diversity is an important part of co-production.  

Our varying experiences are influenced by our differences in culture, language and family circumstances, and foremost by the barriers which society creates. Co production partners are further diverse in where we live, who we live with, our creativity and our life experiences in areas such as education, work and our careers. 

We are all influenced by where we are found, at any given time in our journey. Yet, we all share a humanity which demands the right to dignity, to choice, to equality and to an inclusion in the policy decisions that affect our lives. We are all susceptible to financial shocks. 

There is no ‘them’ and ‘us’ because for policy makers and co-production partners financial insecurity can affect us all, either directly or as it impacts on the lives of our families, neighbours, friends and members of our communities.  

What do you think is important for policymakers to remember when setting out to co-produce policy around financial security in the UK? 

Working with co-production partners in policymaking must be an egalitarian practice which avoids polarising group members. The process should test us to think and work together where each voice matters equally. 

Encouraging equity and parity of esteem, inducting all participants into a shared ethos, and ensuring safeguarding is in place so that everyone can feel safe, secure and welcomed to share their views without fear or recrimination is the first step.  

Encouraging different voices to be heard is the mark of a democracy and essential for inclusion and belonging to be incorporated in the decision-making process. Actively seeking to provide situations and environments in which equity of voices is a priority enables co-production partners to thrive. 

Reaching towards this authentic goal can enrich our experiences whilst improving policies for the people they affect. There is a centring of all participants. Each member can develop and profit from working together while appreciating each other’s contributions.  

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