Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Co Creación
Co Creación
Preface
PREFACE
When organising public services, how do we best make use of all
the resources that the wider society can provide? How do we ensure
collaboration with all the actors who can potentially make a contribution
to the challenges we face?
Christian Bason
Director of Innovation, MindLab
Definition
WHAT IS
CO-PRODUCTION?
Public institutions are not the only actors that influence the extent to which
a child who speaks another language at home learns proper Danish, or
whether someone who has suffered an industrial injury is able to go back
to work. On the contrary, public authorities are always dependent on the
interactions between many different participants if they are to achieve their
objectives.
When shifting to co-production, this interaction is the starting point. This
could involve contacting the former employer of a person who has suffered
an industrial injury or the relevant municipality or insurance company in
question when trying to get the individual back into the labour market.
It might mean involving the parents of the child who speaks a different
language at home, like Aarhus Municipality did when they developed their
language suitcase, which is a tool to aid the linguistic development of preschool children.
Success in co-production requires an awareness of other actors who
are already making a contribution to carrying out the tasks set by public
authorities, and of the fact that there may well be even more participants
who have the potential to contribute. This requires public organisations to
plan their activities based on strategic considerations of which types of
partnerships with citizens, relatives and organisations can have the greatest
positive impact.
Co-production must be taken literally. We are to produce better outcomes
together. Traditional self-service or simply leaving the job to volunteers or
private individuals is not necessarily co-production. Instead, we must find
ways of involving the citizen, volunteers and many other participants in
public sector solutions.
Definition
1.
Redefine the task
2.
Organise and build resources
3.
Create platforms
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Principle 1:
Better quality of life for people and families living with dementia, or more
people returning to work following industrial injuries are important public
sector objectives. However, the route to success may involve different
methods than those used at the moment and may involve other participants
than those we had imagined. A redefinition of the task is an essential part of
working towards successful co-production. It requires raising fundamental
questions such as: Which outcomes do we want to achieve in both the short
and long term? Which participants should be involved? Which activities are
most appropriate?
Indeed, co-production is not simply a question of getting citizens to
perform the same tasks as were previously done by public sector staff and
thus effectively providing a poorer service. It is about daring to implement
a fundamentally different way of getting the job done a solution that
highlights new ways of achieving the desired outcome.
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Focus on retention
One of the biggest challenges for citizens who have suffered an industrial
injury is to remain in work. The National Board of Industrial Injuries in
Denmark (ASK) therefore established a Retention Centre in 2008, as part of
a change of strategy: ASK had previously concentrated its efforts on making
sure the maximum possible number of people who had suffered industrial
injuries were given a quick ruling in their case. In the future they would also
focus on keeping those who had suffered an industrial injury in the labour
market. This is a significant change of strategy the kind that requires a
positive attitude to change, not only internally at ASK, but also among the
participants who have a role to play in industrial injury compensation cases,
such as municipalities, insurance companies, trade unions and professional
organisations. Those who have suffered an industrial injury must also
become involved in resolving their own situation. If injured workers lack
motivation or belief in their own abilities, it is extremely difficult to help
them retain their job. In this instance, co-production requires a new type of
relationship between ASK, other authorities and participants and with the
individual citizen.
Employees at the Retention Centre are currently working on integrating
the many different aspects of cases involving those who have suffered an
industrial injury. They hold roundtable discussions where the person who has
suffered an industrial injury can meet with their employer, trade union and
municipal case worker to find long-term solutions. They have established
a partnership with municipalities for parallel and more rapid processing of
cases, and they have a particular focus on making interim decisions, so that
citizens are able to move on quickly.
The Retention Centre is currently collaborating with over 70 of the 98
municipalities in Denmark.
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De 3 principper
Principle 2:
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It became apparent that the inclusion of pupils with special needs was not
just a question of what was going on in class, but also of how the pupils were
coping outside of school. During extracurricular activities, for example, there
were many individuals who would be pleased to help these children, but who
did not know how best to go about it.
The study showed that Langeland was able to draw on the benefits of being
a small, yet strong, local community. The sports and leisure clubs could, for
example, be better equipped to deal with the physically energetic children
who might later end up having difficulties at school. By investing in skills
development for family members and volunteers, Langeland Municipality
will be better able to help challenged pupils in their spare time, while also
providing important opportunities for learning and building self-confidence.
Langeland Municipality is currently furthering its work on these ideas as
part of its focus on the inclusion of pupils with special needs.
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Family by Family
Socially at-risk families living in Adelaide, Australia, are able to access help
from other families with similar experiences. The Local Authoritys family
administration collaborates with the independent organisation TACSI to
invest in a mentoring network for families in crisis. The idea is based on the
observation that some families are in fact positive deviants: they have a
similar socio-economic background, history, etc. to the at-risk families, but
they do very well despite the odds. Those who have been able to break the
mould can act as a source of inspiration and as a resource for families who
are in trouble. Connecting the positive deviant families with families at risk
via a mentoring programme has proven to be an effective way of generating
positive developments. The Australians report that many of the chaotic
families have broken the negative patterns and that some are now even
able to become mentors for others. For the same cost as removing one child
a year, the Family by Family programme is able to help approximately 200
families thrive again.
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Principle 3:
CREATE PLATFORMS
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Create platforms
Create platforms
37
Create platforms
Leaving responsibility
behind
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Create platforms
Youth Court
In a socially marginalised area of Washington D.C., half of the AfricanAmerican population aged under 35 years was either incarcerated or on
parole. This prompted a so-called Youth Court to be set up, in which 80 per
cent of young first-time-offenders are cross-examined and then sentenced
by their peers - young people who have previously been convicted. The
sentences involve various types of community service and require the firsttime offenders themselves to participate as judges in the Youth Court. The
underlying idea is to create a youth judiciary that not only passes sentences,
but also engages the youngsters as spokespeople for good behaviour. With
Youth Court it turned out that previously convicted young people are often
more competent than professional judges when it comes to differentiating
between hard-core young criminals and those who have just messed up
but are otherwise good enough. The model has achieved good results in
Washington D.C. Only nine percent of young people sentenced by the Youth
Court end up re-offending, compared with 20 percent for other programmes.
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Sources
SOURCES
Bourgon
Jocelyne:
Boyle, David;
Coote, Anna;
Sherwood, Chris;
Slay, Julia:
Boyle, David;
Harris, Michael:
Jakobsen, Morten:
Mandag Morgen:
A New Synthesis of
Public Administration
Co-production: Right
here, Right now
The Challenge of
co-production
Family by Family
Evaluation Report
2011-12
TASCI, Community
Matters Pty Ltd, 2012.
Organisatorisk
support og
samproduktionEt eksperimentelt
studie af
styringsstrategier
i den offentlige
uddannelsessektor
youthcourtofdc.org/
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MindLab
Slotsholmsgade 12
1216 Copenhagen K
Denmark
info@mind-lab.dk
www.mind-lab.dk/en
Text:
Christian Bason
Johanne Mygind
Runa Sabroe
Design & photography:
Anette Vring
Caroline Arvidsson
Paper:
Munken Polar 90g./130g./300g.
Printing:
ReklameTryk, Herning
MindLab 2013
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www.mind-lab.dk/en
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