Co-production. My Journey

• Co-production Week 2023

Money was tight so I developed a plan with the help of my social worker to cycle to school on a tricycle, supervising my children on their own bikes. To find out where to borrow a tricycle I contacted Disability Sheffield, who gave me Cycling UK’s local development officer’s contact details. His name was Steve and together, we co-produced a plan which involved road safety and me building up stamina and the provision of a tricycle.

New project named

My children are now grown up, but I continue to cycle for health benefits and to access shops, doctors and my own activities. Working with Cycling UK’s development officer we identified a need for a Sheffield based disability cycling service as we had to source my trike and support from around the country. We called our new project Sheffield Cycling4All and it has grown enormously since the first early days.

This is an excellent example of how good co-production can work for people like me as well as the organisations involved. Although I was a founder partner in the beginning and helped run the sessions for 10 years, carrying the Olympic torch on behalf of disabled people in the group, I have since stepped back from the day to day organisation and am now much more involved in the National Co-production Advisory Group.