1. I find "co-production" an interesting term when trotted out by care professionals. It can translate as including 1 or 2 carefully selected & poorly informed young people in care in focus groups to validate decision making by professionals. This can also be called "tokenism">
2. "Co-production" must evolve from those with power introducing mechanisms to engage & consult the care experienced community of all ages in all their diversity in policy & decision making, & ensuring through transparent respectful education that the community is well informed >
3. We need to have healthy & clear mechanisms nationally & locally for decision makers to engage the care community as equal partners,, not just using a few selected kids in care or careleavers to validate corporate decision making. We've had that for years >
4. Engaging the care community in decision making will improve service delivery & the care system. The care community are experts about care. However, if we are truly sincere, we first need a debate about what co-production means & how it differs from the more common tokenism.
5. When we have this solid foundation of respectful partnership between those who provide care & those who experience it, an environment will be created in which individual children can genuinely be involved in making decisions about their own care >
6. This reinforces the need for reflection about how language is used & understood in social work with care experienced people. So often, it means different things depending on which side of the care divide is speaking &who is listening. We can be divided by a common language.
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