Co-pro do’s and don’ts – from people who know!

Extract from a great project blog…

Project information and lots more from Derby and Leicester PCTs ‘Community Dialogue’ initiative. Including this essential checklist:

You think you know precisely the service that you require.

You aren’t prepared to fail.

You can’t leave your agenda (or strategy) at the door.

You can’t regard your critics as your prime resource.

You can’t regard peoples’ outrage as important as your evidence, statistics and strategy.

You haven’t got access to all levels and all stakeholders.

You aren’t prepared for this to take far longer than you imagine.

You can’t afford to take lots of small steps to get where you want to go.

You think you might not be able to spot or value people’s capabilities, time or energy.

You haven’t got someone facilitating the project that has good connections both above and below in the health organisation.

You haven’t got the commissioners behind you, and the other stakeholders who need to be involved.

You think coproduction is a way to save money on services.

You’re not prepared to follow through with something meaningful to your participants.

You feel that getting close to people, or rewarding them for their time and energy, may violate your ethics.

You detect ‘outrage’ among some of your community, if people are banging the table about a service.

There’s doubt about the design of service you want.

You need the active participation or acceptance of your service users.

You’re happy for your participants to take over your project entirely.

You need a solution on the same scale as the problem, ie, how else are you going to deal with obesity?

You’re happy not to achieve it, but prepared to get lots of user input to your design.

You can talk to people in plain English and not ‘NHS-speak’

You can be honest with people about your priorities and resources.

You’re prepared for ideas to come from anywhere and anybody.

You’re happy to go where your participants take you.

You have the time and resources to maintain participants’ energy during the dark weeks of the project.