What is co-production?

Co-production is an important part of how we care for our patients and service users.

It is about recognising and using everyone’s diverse knowledge, experience and perspective to drive recovery - whether they be a patient, service user, staff member, carer, a volunteer or another individual.

Co-production means working together as equals and making best use of our strengths to find ways of doing things that benefit everyone. 

We recognise that every person may have something different to give; we listen to all of our people, because we know everyone has an important experience to share.

Our Co-production Network

At St Andrew's, co-production is more than just a buzzword. Our Co-production Network (established in January 2022) consists of service users, staff and peer support workers. The Network meet regularly to share ideas, discuss projects and any blockages that are stopping people from getting involved.

To contact the Co-production Network, please email: co-production@stah.org

A brilliant example of why co-production is so important 

People living with dementia as co-researchers in the co-production of care planning

Our very own Inga Stewart, in her role of Clinical Research Fellow, is leading and co-ordinating on a research programme about co-producing research into care planning. This blog has been co-written by all members of the research programme steering group, including people with living, and learnt experience of dementia.

This is a co-produced project with people with dementia involved. For us as a research group, co-production means working together to make things better for everyone. It is sponsored by St Andrew’s Healthcare in partnership with the Alzheimer’s Society. We want people living with dementia, and their care partners, to be able to create better outcomes for themselves through co-producing their own care plans. We are developing a new toolkit to help care teams involve people with dementia in writing their own care plans.