By Penny Pepper, writer poet and performer
As an avid movie buff, when I think of the word co-production, immediately I see flashing up in the credits - especially a 60s British horror: A Black Snake - A Red Skull – Hungarian Co-production. Yet writing this blog I can see that co production has played a crucial role in my life and my work, alongside collaboration.
When I moved to London in 1985, a young punk, the idea of Independent Living hinged upon the reverse of co-production. To struggle alone, to surround yourself with gadgets and medical grotesqueries so you could attempt to do everything yourself. For me, this meant failure, unstable health and episodes of ongoing mental distress. Ironically my work, even then, was always approached with a sense of co-production, whether this was as a singer-songwriter, a poet or a writer. Punks were the epitome of that notion: do it yourself, collaborate, co-produce.
As a user of Personal Budgets (PBs) and its predecessors for 22 years, I’ve always employed my own personal assistants directly. Unsurprisingly the road has been rocky as much as it has been smooth. These days those like me, who are ex ILF users, are in a stasis of anxiety that the stability of our hard-won independence erodes daily via welfare cuts.
Approaching a care review with the concept of co-production would be welcome, but sadly my own recent experiences were alarming. The Care Act seemed to be interpreted as a means of re-animating that old style of independence, the resurrection of those grotesqueries, of physio and OT assessments. Not to create co-productive relationships as a means to independence, but cutting budgets by pushing those on PBs into ‘rehabilitation’ and the damnable Must Try Harder medical model ethic.
There is consolation. From my current PAs to work colleagues, varieties of co-production come into play for me, meaning that however impaired a current assessment procedure declares me to be I can still work as a writer and a speaker, working the well oiled co-production that is my life as a disabled creative. And thankfully – at the moment! – I can go to the toilet when I need to.
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