Co-Production

When decisions are made about you, not with you, it’s incredibly disempowering. And when they have a major impact on your future life, care and wellbeing, the effects can even be harmful. 

Unfortunately, this is something that often happens to people who experience any combination of homelessness, mental ill health and trauma, poor physical health, a history of offending and a lack of support networks.  

What if everyone had a say in the care and services they needed and in shaping how it was provided to them? That’s where co-production comes in. 

What is Co-production?  

Co-production is a way of working that puts individuals – their insights, ideas and experiences – at the centre of their recovery and rebuilding journey.  

This empowers people to reclaim control over their lives – a crucial step in healing from trauma. It also helps break down the hierarchy and dissolve negative feelings towards services as “us versus them.”

What is our approach to co-production at Single Homeless Project?

One of our fundamental values is that clients hold the key, and we make co-production part of everything we do. It’s not just a set of ideas but a practical way of working.  

• Individual: We encourage all of our clients to actively shape their support and care based on their needs, interests and experiences. They are directly involved in the decision-making process. Everyone receives accessible information so that they can make informed choices and provide feedback on their experiences with our services and staff.
• In our services: We facilitate open spaces such as community meetings or client forums to ensure that everyone is involved and owns the decisions that affect them. 
• Organisation-wide: Heads Up is our official co-production group. Supported by our Co-Production Lead, this group of diverse individuals who have all experienced homelessness meets weekly to work on various projects that help shape how we operate as a charity. All clients are encouraged to join and contribute their insights.

Want to find out more about Heads Up, our co-producers group? See our subject experts page here. We also have a toolkit for other organisations to begin co-production work here.

By working in a co-produced way, we ensure our services are always looking to evolve and improve, working to meet better the needs of the people we work with. Most importantly, it shows the Londoners we work with that their voices and experiences matter and that they are seen and heard.