2 July 2026
By Paula Sardinha, Rich Amos, and Caroline Waugh
The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE)’s Co-production Week, taking place from 29 June to 3 July 2026, celebrates the benefits of co-production by sharing good practice and demonstrating how equal partnerships can lead to better ways of working in social care.
This year’s theme, ‘Care Equity: Who Gets Care?’, highlights SCIE’s new research, ‘Understanding People’s Experiences of Inequalities in Social Care’. The research shares learning and insights to help overcome inequities in access to, quality of, and outcomes from care, while showcasing innovative projects that are making a difference.
SCIE has also recently launched its Care Equity Evidence Hub, an evidence-rich, co-produced online resource for those working in health and social care. The hub highlights inequities in social care and presents evidence-based approaches that may help address them.
We kicked off Co-production Week with an inspiring session, ‘Co-production: The key to achieving care equity’, exploring how co-production can drive real change in care equity.
Tuesday’s session highlighted what inclusive co-production looks like in practice. The goal of which was to leave participants with fresh ideas and practical approaches, making their work more inclusive and impactful.
West Midlands ADASS hosted a session on Wednesday about its AI Playbook. Launched in January, the playbook is the result of a year-long collaboration between people with lived experience, unpaid carers, developers, local authorities and digital leads from across the region.
At a time when AI is advancing at an incredible pace, the AI Playbook has three key features:
- telling the story of AI, including addressing concerns and identifying calls to action
- demonstrating real-life examples of how people and councils are using AI
- introducing AI coaches.
The playbook aims to demystify AI, provide practical guidance, and spotlight the coaches, who are based on real people and their lived experiences.
During the workshop, we explored why developing the playbook was important, highlighting key stages in its development, and introducing the people on whom the coaches are based.
As we get towards the end of the week, we have an interactive workshop on ‘Towards Fair Care’. We will be exploring barriers and solutions through discussions and shared learning.
On the final day of Co-production Week 2026, ‘Valuing Lived Experience: From Good Intentions to Good Practice’ will tackle the realities of recognition, payment, and fairness in co-production.
Co-Production Week 2026 is a timely opportunity to reflect on what it truly means to value lived experience. People with experience of health conditions, caring responsibilities, disability, and social care bring knowledge and insight that cannot be learned from textbooks or training courses. Their perspectives help create better outcomes for everyone.
Many organisations recognise the importance of lived experience, but true co-production involves much more than simply asking for feedback. It means recognising lived experience as expertise and involving people as equal partners in shaping services, decisions, and outcomes.
Good practice means creating accessible opportunities for everyone to contribute, removing barriers to participation, and recognising the value of lived experience. It also means ensuring that people are appropriately compensated for the additional time, effort and expertise they bring to co-produced work. Above all, it requires building relationships based on respect, trust, and shared learning. These are key issues which SCIE explores in its research published last year, ‘Shaping change together: co-producing innovation in social care.’
When lived experience is genuinely valued, everyone benefits. Services become better informed, more responsive, and more inclusive, while people feel heard, respected, and empowered.
Care should not depend on where someone lives. Yet across England, the postcode lottery means that people with similar needs can experience vastly different levels of support, safety, and dignity. Achieving care equity is essential to ensure that access to high-quality care is determined by need rather than geography or circumstance, and to prevent inequalities from deepening for those who are already most at risk.
This Co-production Week, let us continue moving from good intentions to good practice by ensuring that lived experience is not only recognised but truly valued.
Visit the SCIE website to find out more about the activity going on during Co-production Week, and to stay up to date on all things Co-production Week, follow the conversation on social media using #CoProWeek2026.
