We’re all in this together: Harnessing user and community co-production of public outcomes
This highly-cited publication explores how the ‘well-kept secret’ of user and community co-production – always important but rarely noticed – can be made even more effective if the public sector learns to work in a very different way with co-producing users and communities. It suggests, in particular, that the co-production efforts of citizens and service users must be harnessed, not wasted, by public agencies – they must stop being profligate in the way they have used citizen inputs, and learn to take the many opportunities which co-production offers for improvements of public outcomes. This will pose a great challenge to public agencies, which typically have little experience in analysing and harnessing the needs of specific citizens - moving from a ‘blunderbuss’ to a ‘rifle’ approach to citizen involvement will require a huge change in attitudes and skills on the part of staff. The publication also highlights how the conflicting priorities of co-producing citizens will often require resolution by political decision makers. Finally, it is emphasised that co-production may capture and harness resources from outside the public sector but it always requires some public inputs as well – it is not ‘free’.
Cite as: Bovaird, Tony and Loeffler, Elke (2013), “We’re all in this together: Harnessing user and community co-production of public outcomes” in C. Staite (Ed), Making Sense of the Future: Do We Need a New Model of Public Services? Birmingham: INLOGOV.