About the project

Last November, in a moment of heady enthusiasm brought on by talking to actual live CP practitioners, I emailed members of the Co-practitioners’ Network to ask if you felt that an open-access, not-for-profit co-production toolkit would be useful.

Of the 82 respondents, three-quarters of you agreed that a resource/toolkit of some kind would help those new to co-production, two-thirds also thought it would assist existing practitioners. You wanted something which would provide both an experience-based guide to co-production, and persuasive evidence for the effectiveness of the approach.

the doughty CPR participants set out for the uplands of Success and the butterfly-strewn meadows of Renown

Unsurprisingly, given that we learn best through doing/engaging, you absolutely didn’t want a conventional text-based toolkit. In fact many of you reacted to the word ‘toolkit’ like vampires rolled in garlic-paste – but with less enthusiasm. So the project outcome is now renamed a Co-production Resource (thanks to Eve from Stockport) and it emphatically won’t be an A4 spiral-bound document in 14 point Arial. The form and format is yet to be decided, but it will be designed to engage and involve the audience and to capture the passion and commitment of practitioners. It is intended to inspire, excite, inform, share, persuade, advocate and evidence. It needs to function as an inspirational mentor as much as a factual reference tool. It will provide signposts to quality-assured training & resources. It might be used as part of a training course but it must also communicate effectively in its own right and assist the growth of a shared community of practice.

And it will, of course, be exquisitely co-produced by the 65+ practitioners, participants, commissioners, trainers, consultants and designers who have offered to collaborate. Just a small, unambitious little project then.

This blog, a post-modern and somewhat random version of the Canterbury Tales crossed with Pilgrim’s Progress, will attempt to document the achievements, the adventures, the pitfalls and the pleasures of our journey towards the sunlit uplands of Joyous Success and the verdant pastures of Refulgent Renown.