This example is based on the dementia peer support network developed through a partnership between East Riding Yorkshire Council and Innovations in Dementia.   

The dementia peer support network is being developed based on the Good Life approach. The starting point of the approach is the co-production of ‘’A Good Life With Dementia’ courses co-delivered by people with dementia and facilitated by a member of Innovations in Dementia. The courses are often the starting point for a range of incidental peer support activities, including the development of peer support groups led by people with dementia who attended the courses. 

Challenge, issue, or improvement needed 

People diagnosed with dementia didn’t have options for tailored support and had to face challenges alone. 

Targeted impact 

Project impact – to create a network of peers across the county led by people with dementia to provide long-term peer support for people with dementia. 

Co-production impact – to make the peer support groups relevant to the needs of people with dementia and carers, creating a space for mutual support, socialisation, local influence and learning. 

Outcomes 

Project outcomes  

• Identify locations and venues for courses and peer support groups to take place. 

• Using the Innovations in Dementia ‘good life’ model, co-produce a new ‘A good life with dementia’ course alongside local people with dementia.   

• People with dementia deliver a six-week good life course (with facilitated support) to peers more recently diagnosed. 

• Encourage and support the creation of peer support groups. 

• Provide a space for mutual support, socialisation, and learning. 

Co-production outcomes  

• Identify places that are easy to access, are local, and that offer the facilities needed for people with dementia. 

• Make the good life course content accessible and relevant to people with dementia. 

• An engaging, relevant, safe and appropriate space is made to enable people with dementia to learn and share together at a comfortable space. 

• People with dementia taking the lead in forming peer support groups as a follow-on from the shared learning experience and running regular meetings. 

• Local facilitators and people with dementia running the peer support groups independently with the support of local organisations. 

• People with dementia and carers being part of a wider dementia conversation (locally and nationally) and becoming increasingly engaged and active in helping shape local services. 

Activities  

Project activities 

• Shadow and work alongside Innovations in Dementia – or undertake ‘A good life with dementia’ facilitation training. 

• Meet to discuss and identify locations and venues for new courses and groups. 

• Facilitate focus groups of people with dementia to plan the good life courses. 

• Organise and facilitate each of the six meetings included in the course. 

• Picking up from expressed wishes from course participants to continue meeting, engaging in conversations, encouraging, and supporting the creation of support groups led by people with dementia. 

• Discussing and deciding the location, format, and frequency of the group between people with dementia and good life facilitator and any other relevant stakeholder. 

• Facilitating subsequent peer support group meetings regularly and independently. 

Co-production activities 

• Take part in deciding location and venue, ensuring it is easy to access, in a good location, and offers facilities needed for people with dementia, with a separate space for care partners to meet. 

• People with dementia taking part in focus groups drawing from their own experience to play an active role in designing the course content and format ensuring relevance to the learning needs of participants. 

• People with dementia helping to deliver all the sessions of the course, contributing with their skills and experience, and sharing power. 

• People with dementia taking part in conversations, having opportunities to express their interest in creating a new group or joining an existing group. 

• People with dementia deciding location, format, and frequency and taking the lead in setting up the new group. 

• People with dementia benefiting from regular peer support meetings, receiving and giving support, and socialising. 

This example is based on the Buckinghamshire Council’s experience of improving the carers assessment process making it accessible and relevant to people involved in the assessment.   

Challenge, issue, or improvement needed 

The carers assessment process was hard to understand, the form was too complicated, individuals felt that questions were not easy to understand, and it was not clear why some information was needed. 

Targeted impact 

Project impact – to review and make improvements to the carers assessment form, increasing accessibility and relevance so it is not a tick-box exercise. 

Co-production impact – to make the form easy to understand, with clear language and structure, and relevant to carers so they are engaged with the process and understand the reasons for providing the information asked. 

Outcomes 

Project outcomes  

• Identifying what needs to be improved to make the form clearer and more accessible. 

• Improve the form’s structure and visual appearance to improve accessibility. 

• Improving individuals’ experience with the carers assessment process. 

Co-production outcomes 

• People with lived experience helping to define what parts of the form needs to be improved, changing wording, identifying jargons, and unclear questions. Individuals making decisions to ensure that resources, equipment and materials are adequate to their needs and preferences.  

•  People with lived experience helping to define how the form should be organised and how it should look to make it more user friendly. 

• People with lived experience having a positive experience and better understanding of the carers assessment process. 

Activities 

Project activities 

• A series of meetings to go through the form and identify what makes it difficult to understand. 

• Change wording, replacing jargon with plain language and make the form clear and relevant to carers. 

• Producing an updated version of the forms based on feedback and information collected. 

• Having the form implemented and being used across the county. 

Co-production activities 

• People with lived experience deciding what doesn’t make sense and needs to be improved. 

• People with lived experience helping to change wording and deciding on better ways to make the form clearer and more relevant. 

• People with lived experience reviewing and having the opportunity to make final suggestions. 

• People with lived experience using the form and having opportunities to feedback. 

This is an illustrative example created during workshops with members of the Proactive Community co-production group.  

Challenge, issue, or improvement needed 

People with learning disabilities don’t have a place to go to make friends, learn new things, have a good time, and feel valued. 

Targeted impact 

Project impact – to create a day centre for people with learning disabilities. 

Co-production impact – to make the day centre how people would like it to be, that will match their needs and preferences, and that more people will be happy to use. 

Outcomes 

Project outcomes  

• To have a detailed plan for all activities to be offered. 

• To have a plan for the service agreed and approved. 

• To have the building adapted, decorated and furnished. 

• To have staff recruited. 

• To engage with the community, talk about the new service and gather ideas. 

• To have resources equipment and materials in place for all activities and staff duties. 

Co-production outcomes 

• Individuals making decisions, planning, supporting the delivery of activities and ensuring that the approach is relevant to their needs. 

• Individuals making decisions on the service plan and ensuring the service is relevant to people’s needs and processes. 

• Individuals making decisions on how the building should be adapted, decorated and furnished according to people’s needs. 

• Individuals making decisions on recruitment, including taking part in the interview panel. 

• Individuals actively speaking to their peers in the community to gain feedback and include their views in the process. 

• Individuals making decisions to ensure that resources, equipment and materials are adequate to their needs and preferences.    

Activities 

Project activities 

• Co-production preparation. 

• Series of workshops with the community to hear about their needs and expectations. 

• Series of internal meetings to create a plan for developing the service. 

• Develop a plan and start work to adapt, decorate, and furnish the building. 

• Identify staffing needs, liaise with the HR team, prepare documentation and initiate recruitment. 

• Review applications and shortlist. 

• Interview and appoint new staff. 

• Source all equipment, materials and resources needed for daily activities. 

• Liaise with procurement and management teams. 

Co-production activities 

• Creating a co-production group with people with lived experience from the community. 

• Workshops to prepare groups to take part in planning meetings. 

• Preparing easy-read materials and approaches for sharing information and making decisions. 

• Individuals engaging with the community to learn about needs and expectations. 

• Individuals taking an active role in meetings and making decisions on:  

• The overall plan for the service. 

• Plans to adapt, decorate and furnish the building. 

• Individuals attending meetings to make decisions on recruitment criteria and shortlisting candidates, plus taking part in interview panels. 

• Individuals supporting decisions on suitable equipment, materials and resources. 

In groups – organise group activities and encourage individuals to share their views.

• These can be dedicated sessions, or they can be part of a planned group activity.

• Ask open questions and encourage conversations between individuals. Some themes could include:

• Opening themes – for stimulating reflection and starting conversations: perceptions of the process, favourite activities, any relationships they built during the process, and overall experiences,

• Core themes – for encouraging individuals to talk about the benefits: what was learnt, what they can take away from the process, any changes in the way they feel and understand things, improvement in confidence, self-worth, skills, and socialisation.

Individual conversations or interviews – give individuals the opportunity to openly talk about their perceptions and any benefits they have gained from joining the process. A variety of approaches are available, the most common being: 

• Structured conversations – these types of conversations will be limited by the questions asked to individuals. It is often based on a list of questions which the interviewer/one asking questions goes through in a consistent manner with all individuals. It gives fewer opportunities for the individuals to shape the conversation, making it less spontaneous and open. However, it increases the consistency of the information collected.  

• Semi-structured conversations – the conversation is guided by open questions and general themes that will be used to prompt the individual to express their views and shape the conversation by proposing other themes. The interviewer/one asking questions may ask follow-up questions to encourage the individual to expand on certain themes. Each conversation will be different however the themes covered will be the same.  

• Themes for individual conversations can follow the same suggestions as outlined above – under group conversations – with the addition of other specific themes to encourage individuals to talk about their singular views. Some suggestions are the importance of co-production in their lives, reasons that encouraged them to take part in the process, and their aspirations for the future in terms of co-production

• It is very common for individuals to express their opinions and how they feel about taking part in co-production during or after their involvement. These can be a rich source of information to understand benefits as they are spontaneous and often honest and detailed.  

• Ensure different channels of communication are available so individuals can choose what best suits them. For example, written and voice notes, online messaging, face-to-face, and feedback post boxes. 

• Ensure you have a good system of recording this type of feedback such as a logbook or form. Record the date and the subject (what is the feedback about) and make note of what has been said. It is a good idea to share the note with the individual and confirm that it reflects their views

• Although these can restrict accessibility and limit the amount of detail collected, this approach can reach more people and require fewer resources to collect the information needed. 

• Common ways of using forms and questionnaires are by providing individuals with the form or collectively by distributing or making the questionnaire available to a wider number of people.  

• These are the most common ways of collecting feedback. If designed in an accessible way, it can work for a diverse range of individuals’ needs.

• Although these can restrict accessibility and limit the amount of detail collected, this approach can reach more people and require fewer resources to collect the information needed.

• Themes covered may include positive and challenging experiences, what worked well and what needs improvement, rating their experience and the benefit gained, other activities of interest, how they feel before and after the activity, rating the quality of the activity, and rating the practical arrangements and delivery of the activity.

In groups – organise group activities and encourage individuals to share their views. 

• These can be dedicated sessions – if seeking feedback for the entire or large parts of the process, or it can be part of a planned group activity – if seeking feedback on that particular session. 

• Ask open questions and encourage conversations between individuals. Some themes could include: 

• Opening themes – for stimulating reflection and starting conversations: perceptions of the process, favourite activities, any relationships they built during the process, and overall experiences. 

• Core themes could include – the positive and challenging experiences, things they liked and what they didn’t, what can be improved and how, what would they do differently next time, would they take part in again and why, and would they recommend the experience to a friend and why. 

• Recording the information – define an approach to record the information and make it consistent throughout the process. Usual approaches include note-taking, audio recording, and asking individuals to put their ideas on boards and sheets as part of the activity. For any form of data recording, It is crucial to follow relevant GDPR, data protection, and confidentiality policies. 

• Individual conversations or interviews – give individuals the opportunity to openly talk about their views and provide detailed feedback. A variety of approaches is available in individual conversations, the most common being: 

• Structured conversations – the conversation will be limited by the questions asked to individuals. It is often based on a list of questions which the interviewer goes through in a consistent manner with all individuals. It gives fewer opportunities for the individuals to shape the conversation, making it less spontaneous and open, but it increases the consistency of the information collected.  

• Semi-structured conversations – the conversation is guided by open questions and general themes that will be used to prompt the individual to express their views and shape the conversation by proposing other themes. The interviewer may ask follow-up questions to encourage the individual to expand on certain themes. Each conversation will be different however the themes covered will be the same.  

• Themes for individual conversations can follow the same suggestions as outlined above – under group conversations – with the addition of other specific themes to encourage individuals to talk about their singular views, e.g. if activities have met their expectations and needs, details about their experience, and their specific benefits and challenges. 

• It is very common for individuals to express their opinions and provide feedback spontaneously. These can be a rich source of information as they are spontaneous and often honest and detailed.  

• Make sure you have a system to record this type of feedback. A logbook or form can be a good way to record this information. Record the date, the subject (what is the feedback about) and make note of what has been said. It is a good idea to share the note with the individual and confirm that it reflects their views.