Co-production: Children, young people and their parent carers

Caroline Bennett, Senior Development Officer, the Council for Disabled Children (CDC)

Social innovation young people event, March 2016

We're excited that the Children and Families Act 2014 enshrines in law the Section 19 principles in relation to the involvement and participation of children, young people and their parent carers.  This has created a number of opportunities for meaningful co-production at both a strategic and individual level. In some areas this has included disabled children and young people and those with special educational needs being part of local authority work on the Local Offer or the development of Education, Health and Care plans and processes, as well as more person-centred approaches to individual assessments and planning.

CDC have been focusing on co-production with a range of audiences through a number of our ongoing projects in Social Care and transition.  As part of the Social Care Innovation Programme we have been working with five local authorities to explore challenges and potential innovative solutions in relation to assessment of disabled children, young people and their families.  

The programme has four key principles that have underpinned our work and one of them was meaningful co-production with children, young people and families but also with all professional stakeholders across education, health and care; children’s and adults services; and the voluntary and community sector.  You can read more about our work in Transforming culture and practice in children’s social care assessment.

One of the initial outputs from this work is a postcard we have co-produced with young people to share some top tips for professionals on how young people would like to be engaged in their own assessments. You can download it here.    

During co-production week we will be delivering interactive training on the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and supported decision making with Face Front Inclusive Theatre, a group of learning disabled artists, who we have worked with to develop and deliver the performance and training workshop. You can find out more information about the events, which are happening in the first week in July, on our website.