Expectations versus reality: the sustainability of co-production approaches over time

ABSTRACT

This study explores co-production between practitioners and service users through a longitudinal analysis of two programmes, identifying the factors that facilitate or prevent co-production from being sustainable over the longer term. There is no one ‘best practice’ for sustainable co-production; rather, it is contingent upon the nature of the service and the environment in which it operates. Sustainable co-production requires an alignment between four elements – structure, skills, resources, and mutual commitment. Structure (design and framework for co-production) must be able to deploy available resources and skills so that service users’ and professionals’ commitment to continue co-production is fostered.

KEYWORDS:

• Co-production
• sustainability
• third sector

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The National Lottery Community Fund is a non-departmental public body that allocates grants to community organizations from funds raised through the UK National Lottery.

2. These formed part of a larger comparative project about co-production by non-profit professionals in England and France. Other cases for the research were five community development organizations in each context.

3. Ethical approval was received by the University of Birmingham (2015) and the University of Montreal (2019).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the American Political Science Association [Small Research Grant (2019)]