Arfan Hussain and Colin Hurst

Hello, my name is Arfan. I am the Strategy and Transformation Programme Manager for the NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB). My role focuses on the Power of Communities Programme, which is all about how we empower how we work with the voluntary, community & social enterprise sector across the health and care system.  

Hello, my name is Colin. I'm the Insight, Involvement and Consultation Lead for the ICB.

We both facilitate the West Yorkshire Co-production Group and would like to tell you about some of the exciting work that the group has been doing, and how you can get involved during National Co-production Week from 1-5 July.

The Co-production Group began as an open forum for people across the health and care system to talk about co-production and share what they were doing. However, the more we met, the more we heard about people wanting a shared understanding of what co-production means, looks like and feels like for the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership as an integrated care system (ICS).

Watch this short video to understand the power of co-production and why it works

So, what do we mean by co-production and why is it important?

Simply, co-production is about working together to make a difference. It brings together people with lived experience, carers, volunteers, community leaders, and staff from across different organisations, valuing equally each person's unique perspective, expertise, and point of view.

There is a lot of excellent co-production work happening across West Yorkshire and we recognise that when we work closer together, our services better reflect what our communities need, we see better outcomes for people and what is important to them. Co-production also helps people feel more connected and in control of change; it feels more rewarding and enriching for everyone involved.

Learning from each other and what already exists in Bradford District and Craven, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield District, the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership has developed the West Yorkshire co-production principles.

Our principles, with values and behaviours, recognise that there are many approaches to co-production and describe a shared understanding and expectation of how we want to meaningfully work together with people, communities, and organisations and what that involves.

The principles have been developed over the last 18 months though the West Yorkshire Co-production Group, working with over 100 people across the partnership through events, workshops and training, learning from people’s experiences of co-production and bringing together the shared key ingredients of what co-production means from each place. This work does not replace what is happening in each place but complements it.

Developing the West Yorkshire co-production principles is the start of the journey. They shouldn’t just be a pretty poster, or document on a shelf, but something that helps us to get better at working together and embedded as how we like to work across our Partnership.

Genuine and sincere and ongoing co-production is a skill, one that takes time to develop and to become comfortable with and which needs to be owned and supported by everyone. Learning from each other's experiences is essential to develop.

Co-production week, 1-5 July 2024

This year’s theme focuses on “What’s Missing?” As a result, we want to know what is missing to help embed the West Yorkshire co-production principles across our Partnership:

  • What do the principles, values and behaviours mean for you and your group, team, community, or organisation?
  • What does it feel like if we are really working together in this way?
  • What does it look like in practice?

We will be looking at what it means to be inclusive and respectful of each other's experience, and how we share power. We also want to hear what good co-production means to you, and how we make sure that co-production is valued.

These discussions will help us to support people to develop tools and networks, and use co-production to make a difference together. Click the links to join, or email colin.hurst@nhs.net to be added to the invite.

On Wednesday 6 July, 12:00pm – 1:00pm New Citizenship Project will share their expertise of co-production across the health and care system. Commissioned by NHSE and the NHS Leadership Academy North East and Yorkshire, over the last 12 months they have been coaching and working with five project teams across the Partnership to embed co-production into how they work. They will share the early findings from their report on what they have learned about co-production within an ICS, as well as expert advice, tips and tricks. Join the session by clicking this link or email colin.hurst@nhs.net to be added to the invite.

There will also be local co-production sessions happening in each of our places. Make sure everyone knows about them by tagging your activities, thoughts, and celebrations on all social media with the hashtag #WYWorkingTogether and #CoProWeek2024.