Fullscope's Model for Co-Production

Co-production, for Fullscope, is a way of designing and delivering support for children, young people and their families (CYPF) which places CYPF at the centre of the development process, recognising them as experts by their own experience.

Fullscope envisions a county in which children, young people, and their communities are healthy, resilient and empowered around their mental wellbeing.

Our Mission, as a third sector consortia, is to effect a more accessible, relevant and equitable system to support children, young people and their communities with their mental wellbeing.

Co-production involves a process of working together, using CYPF expertise, experience, knowledge and capabilities to ensure the best outcome for them and others. 

We have developed a model for involving CYPF in co-production, as a framework for approaching task and finish projects and on-going participatory service design/development. 

Underpinning values and principles 

1.  All children, young people and families can express their views freely and these views will be given weight (United Nations 2009).

2.  We consider children, young people and their families to be important assets, with skills and resources.

3.  We work to break down the barriers between people who use services and the people running those services.

4.  We build on people’s existing capabilities.

5.  We include reciprocity (where people get something back for having done something for others) and mutuality (people working together to achieve their shared interests).

6.  We work with peer and personal support networks alongside professional networks

7.  We facilitate social change by helping organisations to become agents for change rather than being solely service providers.

Examples of co-production

At Fullscope, we are committed to including CYPF voice across our work, embedding co-production where possible within project design and delivery. Examples include:

• Our Voices, the youth advisory board for YOUnited, which is managed and supported by Fullscope in partnership with Ormiston Families.

• The self-harm project is co-producing a response to the issues around self-harm with local young people who have lived experience of self-harm.

• The training resources for the Branching Out project were co-created with children from Mayfield Primary School (Cambridge). A class of 9/10 year olds worked with the team over two days to share and test out ideas and reflect on the most important values the new training resources should convey.

It is important to note that co-production may not always be the most appropriate method of involving children, young people and families, for example, if time doesn’t allow for effective engagement and relationship building, or where CYPF will have limited power or influence. Wherever possible Fullscope works to the co-production model. However, we acknowledge that there may be times where involvement looks different, for example consultation, participatory activity and feedback: we will not call this co-production. 

Download our Fullscope Co-Production Model

If you would like to talk to us about our model, or opportunities to amplify youth voice, please email getinvolved@fullscopecollaboration.org.uk