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Co-production Week is an annual awareness campaign that celebrates the benefits of working in equal partnership with people who use health and social care services.

The week highlights the power of co-production in designing and developing better ways of delivering health and social care, with this year's theme, Care Equity: Building Equality and Inclusion in Care Together, focusing on the importance of ensuring everyone has an equal voice in shaping services.

This year, our Together Team, in partnership with the Quality Improvement (QI) Team, Programme Management Office (PMO) Team, Senior Leaders and our Experts by Experience, hosted four Together Strategy engagement events throughout June to showcase the impact of working together and embedding co-production as the default approach to developing and improving services.

Joanna Duke, Together and Carer Lead, said: "We were delighted to welcome a range of inspiring guest speakers who shared how co-production has made a difference in their work, the lessons they have learned, and practical tips to support and inspire colleagues.

"Each event began by setting the scene, reflecting on the aims of the Together Strategy and why involvement and co-production are central to everything we do. We heard from our senior leaders that meaningful involvement is not an optional extra — it is fundamental to delivering compassionate, effective and person-centred services. They highlighted how many of the most significant improvements across our organisation have been achieved by genuinely listening to and working alongside people with lived experience, carers, families and our communities."

Attendees at the event took part in a bite-sized training session on the essentials of co-production, delivered by external lived experience consultant Emily Reynolds from Together for Wellbeing. The session explored the core principles of co-production and provided practical guidance on how to apply them in everyday practice.

The events also showcased examples of involvement in action, demonstrating how people with lived experience, carers, families, staff and partners have worked together to improve services and outcomes. These included the World Café initiative on inpatient wards, where patients shared their experiences of restrictive practice, reflected on its impact and identified what positive changes could be made. Attendees also heard how Experts by Experience played a key role in developing the new Rapid Tranquillisation Guide, ensuring lived experience informed both its content and implementation. In addition, the event explored how Experts by Experience have been involved in strategic work, including Improvement Programmes, helping to shape service development and ensure that lived experience influences decision-making at every level.

Another session explored the relationship between co-production and quality improvement, highlighting how these complementary approaches can be used together to drive meaningful and sustainable change.

The final session focused on another example of involvement in practice and revisited the involvement principles within a project planning, delivery and evaluation, giving participants the opportunity to reflect on what they had heard throughout the morning and consider how these principles can continue to be embedded across our organisation.

The events were a fantastic example of true collaboration between colleagues, Experts by Experience and partner organisations, demonstrating the significant benefits of working in partnership to improve care.

For more information please contact our Together Team, at dpt.together@nhs.net