Co-production Week 2025

30 June – 4 July 2025

Introduction
Social media toolkit
Online conference and webinars
Patrick's blog
Our co-production history

Innovation through co-production: Kathryn Marsden OBE and Kevin Minier

A welcome message from Patrick Wood

Read our new report on learnings from the Accelerating Reform Fund

Introduction: Innovation through co-production

Monday 30 June marks the start of the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE)’s Co-production Week 2025, a celebration of the power of co-production to design and develop better ways of doing things in social care.

It highlights the benefits of co-production, shares good practice, stimulates debate and promotes the contribution of people who use services and carers in developing better social care. 

Co-production is about working in equal partnership with people using services, carers, families and citizens, offering the chance to transform social care and health provision to a model that offers people real choice and control.

This year’s theme ‘Innovation through co-production’  focuses on exploring how co-production can help innovation and how to better demonstrate the impact and difference it makes. We aim to uncover new insights into how co-production fuels innovation in social care, sharing ideas and learning across the co-production community.

We will showcase innovative projects supporting unpaid carers, with potential to transform their experience of social care and demonstrate the value of investment in this area.  SCIE has been providing hands-on support for the Department of Health and Social Care’s Accelerating Reform Fund (ARF), which has funded over 120 projects requesting co-production from the start, aiming to improve adult social care through innovation and scaling while kickstarting support for unpaid carers. Around 70% of projects have an element supporting unpaid carers; 73 are wholly focused on this.

We will be revealing interesting findings on how co-production has helped innovation, along with barriers, enablers and recommendations to help shape the future of social care. With the Casey Commission report not due until 2028, immediate solutions are necessary to deliver for unpaid carers and stabilise the sector – these projects are delivering learning to solutions that can be deployed now.

We’ll also be looking at the role of AI (artificial intelligence) and how equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) links to social justice and can create ways to co-produce more innovatively

Celebrate Co-Production Week 2025 with our social media toolkit

Help us spread the word and celebrate the power of co-production by using our Co-Production Week 2025 Social Media Toolkit. Whether you’re facilitating an event, sharing lived experience, or championing the values of co-production, this toolkit provides everything you need to make your voice heard online.

Inside, you’ll find a vibrant collection of free-to-download infographics, ready-made social media posts, campaign hashtags, key messages, and other engaging visual assets. These have all been designed to help you raise awareness, inspire others, and show your support.

We invite all stakeholders, organisations, individuals, community groups, and beyond, to get involved. When posting, don’t forget to tag SCIE and use the hashtag #CoProWeek2025 so we can see, celebrate, and share your contributions.

Let’s work together to showcase the power and impact of co-production.

Social media toolkit

Programme of activity

Our programme has been co-produced with people with lived experience. Do keep checking this page for blogs, films, podcasts and webinar recordings during the week – we’ll be highlighting the experiences and perspectives of a range of people.

Tuesday 1 July: Co-production Week conference ‘Innovation through co-production’ (10.00am – 4.00pm) – get tickets here, full details below.

Wednesday 2 July: Launch of SCIE’s ‘Embracing change: scaling innovation in social care in practice’ report on the DHSC’s Accelerating Reform Fund (ARF), sharing the invaluable learnings we have gathered on the barriers to and enablers of innovation. They provide a clear understanding of what approaches people are using and what works in practice.

Thursday 3 July: Two webinars, full details below.

12.00pm: LinkedIn Live Q&A where we’ll tackle pressing audience questions on the link between co-production and innovation.

Friday 4 July: Listen to our podcast – an exploration of how the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services worked with people with lived experience and partners to create a vision for co-production.

Online conference and webinars

Workshop schedule

Our conference features six interactive workshops – find out more about each one below:

Workshop 1: Looking at impact and evidencing co-production 10.15am – 11.10am

A deep dive into SCIE’s updated impact tool, funded by the Department of Health and Social Care, measuring the difference co-production makes and how this has been used in East Riding Council.

Hosts: Daniel Kina (Senior Research Analyst, SCIE), Kevin Wright, Peter Measures (East Riding Council) and Isaac Samuels

Workshop 2: Accelerating Reform Fund: two projects showcasing community co-production 10.15am – 11.10am

Find out about how SCIE is supporting the scaling of digital innovations in support for family and friend/unpaid carers.

We’ll focus on projects covering themes including hospital discharge and technology-enabled care, the development of a carers data dashboard, how a digital tool was developed for carers and a common approach to Shared Lives across a range of partners.

Hosts: Accelerating Reform Fund community projects- Duc Tran (Transformation Programme Manager, Brent Council) and Kevin Minier

Kim Terry and Mel Smith (Worcestershire Association of Carers)

Workshop 3: Innovations in commissioning 11.20am – 12.15pm

Find out how commissioners working the Integrated Care Board in South Tyneside partnered with their local user-led organisation, ‘Your Voice Counts’ to create a ‘Lived Experience Commissioning Officer role’ and the impact this lived experience voice is having on the way services are being bought and delivered.

Hosts: Sarah Golightly (Head of Mental Health, Learning Disabilities, Autism and Neurodiversity, North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board) Shaun Armour (Lived Experience Commissioner).

Workshop 4: Decolonisation, harm reduction and understanding power dynamics when co-producing with communities 11.20am – 12.15pm

Co-production requires a radical change, with a focus on decolonization, harm reduction and understanding power dynamics when co producing with communities. Abdirahim Hassan, Founder of Coffee Afrik CIC, running 7 community led hubs, across 29 projects, will offer alterative ways of knowing and building with communities of colour.

Host: Abdirahim Hassan (Founder, Coffee Afrik CIC)

Workshop 5: The use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) in social care and ‘Data for People’ (TLAP – Think Local Act Personal) 1pm -1.55pm

Generative AI is already being used in care and support, bringing both opportunities and risks. How can we ensure AI supports ethical, personalised care that enables people to live their lives their way? Our work set out a series of principles to inform policy and practice, identify practical issues and areas that need urgent action from government and regulators.

The government has made improving data in care a core part of its programme for reform. We identified a need to develop a position on care data – one that starts from the perspectives of people with lived experience. Find out about 15 key co-produced principles and six actions about the collection, storage, sharing, and use of data in care in England along themes of commitment to co-production, equity, inclusion, trust and transparency.

Hosts: Kate Jopling (University of Oxford); members of the National Co-production Advisory Group (NCAG- Jennifer Pearl, Jacqui Darlington); Jacky Morton (Sentai) and Dr Caroline Green (Oxford Institute for ethics in AI)

Workshop 6: National Care Forum ‘Care Innovation Challenge’ and TLAP hack-day 2pm – 2.55pm

Find out about innovative approaches bringing app and web developers together with people with lived experience to co-design solutions to problems facing social care; winners receive mentoring and support from people with lived experience. In this joint session we’ll also explore TLAP’s approach to a ‘hack-day’ – fully co-produced and co-delivered session by people with lived experience, sector colleagues, and partners from beyond social care which leads to innovative thinking, unexpected partnerships, and momentum for change. The session highlights co-production as an engine for innovation and what happens when you hack social care with new voices at the table.

Hosts: Freya Al Baz (Associate, Think Local Act Personal); Jennifer Pearl and members of the National Co-production Advisory Group (NCAG); Ian McCreath (Director, TLAP)

Please note some sessions run at the same time- all recordings will be available on the SCIE website after the conference.

Register for the conference on Eventbrite

Webinar

‘Using arts, nature and heritage to improve carer connectivity in Lincolnshire‘ –
Thursday 3 July, 10.30am – 11.30am

Unpaid carers can often feel alone, unconnected and unable to talk about their feelings or struggles. Find out how Lincolnshire County Council improved local support for unpaid carers, helping them to connect with others and to improve their wellbeing and resilience. Innovation Lincolnshire used a broad community-based partnership approach to co-design arts and nature sessions with unpaid carers. Sessions are combined with supportive respite care options, using social impact evaluation to assess outcomes.

Hosts: Sarah Grundy (Lincolnshire County Council), local carers and Robert Dean (University of Lincoln).

Register for the webinar on Zoom

What is the role of co-production in innovation? (event for people with lived experience, 40 places) 2pm – 4pm (Sold out)

A big conversation to discuss how people with lived experience feel about innovation in health and social care and what it means to us. How helpful is innovation in improving quality of life? Does ‘innovation’ result in the loss of human contact? How can we ensure that people with lived experience play a meaningful role in shaping innovation?

This session won’t be recorded but we’ll produce a summary after the event.

Co-production Week 2025: Innovation through co-production

The theme of Co-production Week 2025 is Innovation through co-production. The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) will be aiming to uncover new insights into how co-production fuels innovation in social care and sharing ideas and learning across the co-production community.

Innovation in social care refers to developing and applying new ideas, practices, models, or technologies that improve the quality, accessibility, efficiency, and outcomes of social care. At its heart, co-production means people who draw on care and support, including unpaid carers, working in genuine partnership with decision-makers to design and deliver services that are informed by and recognise the power of lived experience.

Successful innovation proceeds from solid foundations. Effective co-production is grounded in the principles of accessibility, diversity, equality and reciprocity, or getting something back for putting something in. Innovation isn’t just about products; it’s also about process. People with lived experience aren’t just there to say what they think about the fabulous ideas of professionals. We’re there to make meaningful contributions, to decide on an equal basis what is talked about, what is done, and who does it. We’re there to take leadership roles, not to make up the numbers.

I’m pleased that we will be showcasing some case studies during the week of the innovative Accelerating Reform Fund projects, as this programme specifically required all projects to involve co-production from the start. Let’s hope all such funds in future follow this practice.

I’m looking forward to the opportunity to learn what innovation means to people with lived experience and to hear about the part they are playing in leading innovation in co-production. One of the events during the week has been specifically designed to explore these issues. I’m sure that John Evans would have made a valuable contribution to this discussion. John was a pioneer of the Disability movement who was deeply committed to co-production. He was involved in the SCIE Co-production Network from the start and was a former chair of the SCIE Co-production Steering Group. Sadly, John passed away in January of this year, so he won’t be with us in person, but the principles and values he embodied will remain to inform our discussions and thoughts about the new way on.

Patrick Wood

Chair, SCIE Co-production Steering Group

More Co-production Week 2025 blogs

Blog: Co-production Week 2025: Innovation through co-production in a pressured social care system

Blog: Working better together: Cornwall’s co-production revolution in adult social care

Our co-production history

SCIE has a long history of being at the forefront of co-production. To find out more about SCIE’s work around co-production see:

View 2024 co-production films, workshop slides and recordings