Across our services, co-production is embedded into everyday practices. Through this approach, we ensure the people we support are involved in decisions about their care and lead lives that are meaningful to them. By working collaboratively, we recognise that each person we support is an expert on their own needs and preferences, and we use this to ensure everyone’s individual voice is heard.
At Lower St Helens, our specialist service in Hampshire, our team truly value the power of co-production – particularly for those we support with a learning disability. Actively involving each person in their care planning, they’re achieving amazing outcomes together! By coordinating support around individual needs, everyone feels heard, respected, and understood.
Positive decision making
Many people with a learning disability and other support needs often feel excluded from everyday activities. This might be because of misunderstood needs or not finding accessible opportunities. But when the people we support are involved in planning their care, we support them to find suitable activities. By making decisions for themselves and feeling more included, they’re empowered to communicate more openly, knowing they’re truly being heard and listened to. And this has a positive effect on overall wellbeing and some support needs!
This is something Mariza, our Service Manager at Lower St Helens has seen with the people we support: “Coordinating support around individual needs and preferences helps promote independence, dignity, confidence, and brings a lot of positive outcomes. By promoting choices through co-production, we ensure our support is proactive rather than reactive. This approach can help reduce behavioural needs because individual thoughts, feelings and wishes are being met!”
Offering the people we support opportunities to make decisions about their lives and their care empowers them with a sense of control, which helps them grow confidence. Even small decisions, such as choosing meals and activities, can have a huge, positive impact on their self-esteem.
Everyday empowerment
At Lower St Helens, embedding coproduction within their daily support has had a transformative effect on the people we support. By collaborating with the people we support, they’ve seen how empowering people to make decisions about their own lives can create meaningful and lasting outcomes.
One lady we support has become more independent when managing her diabetes. When she expressed this was something she wanted to take control of, Mariza and the team worked with her to establish achievable goals. They supported her to learn about healthier food choices and routines, communicating the information using her preferred communication method. Empowered with information that was meaningful to her, she’s now more engaged with her own health and wellbeing. She’s started making informed decisions around food and activities and is on her way to achieving her goals and self-managing her diabetes!
By placing the people we support at the centre of conversations around their goals and routines, our team has seen increased confidence, greater independence, and improved wellbeing. As Mariza explains, “These achievements demonstrate how empowering people to make decisions leads to improved confidence, wellbeing, independence, and quality of life. This approach shows the impact of coproduction in social care, recognising that when people are trusted to shape their own support, they build fulfilling lives that are driven by choice.”
Gaining life skills through co-production
At heart, co-production is about recognising people with a learning disability as equal partners in shaping the support they receive and the environment they live in. When they’re at the heart of making decisions about their care and the home they live in, it creates opportunities to strengthen important skills.
In particular, co-production supports positive development of communication and problem-solving skills. Co-production also has rich emotional benefits, supporting people to be their authentic selves and build bonds with each other. Reinforcing a culture where people feel valued, listened to and empowered to influence the world around them, co-production promotes inclusion and acceptance. By embedding co-production into everyday support, we gently move away from doing things for people. Instead, creating spaces where people are empowered to lead the way on their journey and make their own decisions about their life.
Co-production can also be beneficial in promoting positive-risk taking. Rather than focusing on limitations, it focuses on possibilities and creating accessible opportunities to develop new possibilities independently.
For one of the people we support at Lower St Helens, co-production has empowered them to live the active, social life they always dreamed of. Previously facing challenges in community settings, co-production has empowered them to now confidently attends clubs, enjoys community activities, and engage socially with others. Our team listened to their voice and supported them to guide the pace of their progress. Over time, their self-esteem and independence grew tremendously. Because they were understood and trusted to make decisions, they found the self-confidence needed to achieve her goals and become a social butterfly!
As this shows, when people are supported to lead the way in their own care, the outcomes are not only positive, but truly life-changing – unlocking potential, building confidence, and enabling fulfilling lives for all.
Supporting individuals to make empowered decisions
Because every person with a learning disability processes information and experiences the world differently, communication is a big part of co-production. Our teams use person-centred support and take their time to get to know each person as an individual. This includes how people prefer to communicate. Whether through visual communication tools, easy read documents or even choice boards, we support each person’s unique way of expressing themselves! This ensures they can let us know their real needs and wishes, and they can make informed choices in a way that’s comfortable for them.
Mariza explains “the consistency, patience, and compassion of our teams create an environment where people feel safe, listened to, and empowered to express themselves freely and without judgement.”
When people feel heard and supported to communicate in ways that work for them, it not only strengthens confidence and independence but also reinforces the right to have choice and control over their own life.
Learn more
Find out more about our learning disability support.
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