SEND Co-production Toolkit

These checklist questions could help you get started with including co-production. They explain practical steps to take and things to consider for your project. You can adapt and change the checklist to suit your piece of work.

• What do you want to achieve; what is your objective?
• Who do you want/need to be involved?
• What experiences, talents and skills will they bring?
• How will you encourage people to be involved?
• What support or training have you built in?
• Have you incorporated time for people to think and plan?
• Is all the information you will provide accessible for everyone?
• Have you checked people’s preferences for communicating and meetings (face to face, video, email)?
• What are the next steps you need to take?
• What are the next steps you need to take?
• What are the next steps you need to take?
• Who will do what; what is each person’s role or input?
• How will you get people’s views?
• How will you feed back to people both during the project and at the end of the project?
• How will you assess the results and outcomes of the work and how will you share the learnings with others?

This checklist shows suggested actions at every level of work:

• as individuals
• collectively as groups or teams
• strategically as schools or organisations

It could be used as:

• a self-assessment tool to help you understand whether co-production may already be happening
• a list of suggestions and tips for including co-production
• a checklist to assess how your co-production work is progressing

Our objective

That the views, wishes and ideas of children and young people will have every opportunity to form the provision and services required to support them and their families.

How we achieve co-production in our work.

• Start together and listen to the views of all those involved. Individuals, parents, carers and professionals will be included and everyone will be valued and treated equally
• Use real-life experiences from people we work with to improve our services. We value the first-hand perspective children, young people, adults and their families provide
• Encourage and support children, young people and their parents/carers to think about what would help them to be as independent as possible
• Communicate transparently, honestly, responsively and creatively to enable everyone to express their views and promote positive working relationship
• Share information, so children, young people and their parents/carers will not have to repeat their story
• Be flexible and adapt processes to ensure access to services and decision processes

Our objective

Collectively influence the design, commissioning and delivery of services.

This ensures that the services provided are suitable for the children, young people, adults and their families who need them.

How do we achieve co-production in our work.

• Listen and learn from each other and share information about what works and what doesn’t work
• Tell children, young people, adults and their families what we have done in response to their feedback. For example, publishing and responding to feedback on the Local Offer’s ‘You said...we did’
• Make sure there are different ways that children, young people, adults and their families can share their feedback with us. We’ll use feedback when creating new services or improving existing ones (commissioning)
• Ensure all our information and documentation is easy to understand and accessible

Our objective

Strategically planning for better services and better outcomes.

This ensures that long-term plans and new projects are designed to the needs of the children, young people, adults and their families in Buckinghamshire.

How we achieve co-production in our work.

• Value children, young people and their parents/carers as experts by experience to provide feedback, review and evaluate services
• Involve children, young people and their parents/carers in the planning, commissioning and reviewing of services and the development of strategies and plans
• Enable the collective voice of children, young people and their parents/ carers to set their own plans and priorities by support and empower them to undertake specific pieces of work at a strategic level
• Include children and young people (a representative on their behalf) and the Parent Carer Forum in decision-making boards and groups
• Embed co-production culture in the workforce and practices. This includes sharing the learning from co-production and its successes
• Hold regular events to celebrate and engage with children, young people, adults and their families about the successes achieved and how this informs decision-making processes