The Co-Produced Support Project

This project involved carrying out in-depth research with Barnet Council’s adult social care users, whatever their needs.

It is called The Co-Produced Support Project because it was be guided by our Steering Group of deaf and disabled people – many of whom will be using Council services.

Shaping social Care in Barnet

Inclusion Barnet have been awarded a grant by Trust for London to research and campaign for deaf and disabled people to have the best social care possible from the Local Authority.

We are carrying out in-depth research with Barnet Council’s adult social care users, whatever their needs.

It is called The Co-Produced Support Project because it will be guided by our Steering Group of deaf and disabled people – many of whom will be using Council services.

It is called The Co-Produced Support Project because we at Inclusion Barnet as a peer led Deaf and Disabled Person’s Organisation (DDPO) will be taking our research learning and our lived experience to the Council and work with them shaping adult social care services. .

Our steering group

Minutes of our first steering group meeting on the 2nd July 2021

The group is made up of members who have experience of disability including mental health issues and many are Barnet Council social care users.

We also have some professional members who have experience of Social Care, Co-Production and Disability research methodology.

The group will meet once every three months, and the group agenda, materials and minutes will be made available on this page.

About co-production

The 2014 Care Act made a number of changes to the way local authorities were to assess and provide social care. It brought a number of new responsibilities and duties.

One of those duties was the duty to co-produce adult social care policy. This is a very difficult duty to enforce, and there is always a danger that local authorities will say they co-produce but are simply consulting or researching users.

Co-production at its best is where users are involved throughout the process of policy development. Involved in finding what the problems are, involved in thinking about what solutions can address those problems and being involved in the decisions that then need to be made.

We think that the Think Local Act Personal ladder of co-production is a really useful way of thinking about the approach. This is our ambition on the project.

Next year we will be producing a conference on co-production activity across London. So watch this space!

The Co-Produced Support Project was funded by Trust for London.

Peer support in practice

Inclusion Barnet won funding from Disability Research on Independent Living and Learning (DRILL) in order to learn more about mental health peer support in April 2017. Our research focused on finding out more about the organisational values, structures and practices that best supported the implementation of successful peer support programmes. To do this, we looked at how organisations manage peer support workers and services, and how the working environment can be organised to promote and enourage the best quality peer support possible.

We worked alongside Inclusion London, Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, Real Lives and Barnet Voice for Mental Health. It was one of the first projects to be awarded funding from the DRILL programme, which is a five-year scheme led by disabled people and funded by the Big Lottery Fund.

Read our research report below:

Loading...

Taking too long?

Reload document

| Open in new tab

Download [935.37 KB]

Management Handbook

The Inclusion Barnet Management Handbook is a free resource to support leaders of Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisation (DDPOs). The Management Handbook also offers managerial insight to any team leader.

The Management Handbook is written by Aman Ahluwalia with Caroline Collier and Richard Banks. DDPOs from across London were consulted in the drafting of the handbook which focusses on the essential concepts that underpin many DDPOs such as the social model, independent living as well as being user-led and value-led. The handbook traces the history of DDPOs from their Civil Rights Movement roots and offers leaders information on concepts such as  co-production, to include people in decisions that impact them, to help them form a value-led strategy, consider reasonable adjustments for team members and more.

Management Handbook.pdf

Cross-cutting research

Inclusion Barnet has an ongoing partnership to deliver research for Healthwatch Barnet. These research projects usually focus on understanding more about disabled people’s experiences of accessing services, or elements of their lives that might be affected by the way services are designed.

We have written three reports so far, this includes finding out more about how people with learning disabilities experience domiciliary care, personal assistants and floating support workers; understanding more about the effects of rising support thresholds on people with mild-moderate care needs who do not qualify for long-term support; as well as better understanding the experiences of people who are experiencing mental distress and the process they go through when making complaints.

Cuts Impact Action Now (CIAN) Research Report

The learning disability team, People’s Choice, were involved in a joint research project with People First from 2012 to 2016 which was funded by Trust for London.  The research looked into how government cuts and changes to benefits and services have impacted people with learning disabilities in Barnet.

By undertaking this research we have shown how important it is for people with learning disabilities to have their voices heard and their experiences understood.

 Read the Cuts Impact Action Now Research Summary Report (28 pages).

 Read the Cuts Impact Action Now Research Full Report (155 pages).