Are you passionate about helping people to do things for themselves? Does the notion of co-production and recovery excite or intrigue you? Do you run a social enterprise? Are you a digital guru? An innovator working across Essex? Or perhaps all of the above? If so you might be interested in an immersive workshop on 29th January, in Chelmsford, Essex. A bit of background During 2016, Essex County Council (ECC).

“Co-production is what the Recovery College is based on – the ethos runs through the whole process. We encouraged people to share, and we shared ourselves too – talking about our lives and our experiences. People lost their mental health identity and became just people. I didn’t feel like a clinician. It’s very different to what I’ve experienced in mainstream services.” (Former Manager, Recovery College) ‘’I’ve realised that I have.

Consultation. Public Engagement. Codesign. Coproduction. These are not the same thing (and differentiating between them is vital in order to really do what it is you need to do, for the circumstances you’re in). But the critical importance of getting better at listening to and communicating with the public – whether for formal consultation (big C) purposes or more creative codesign – needs our attention. In this post, the wonderful @lesteph.

Is outcomes-based commissioning really happening (yet)? Are we equipped to actually do it?

In our document Listening, Learning & Telling Stories we make clear that it’s absolutely NOT ‘all about ethnography’. But ethnographic approaches, broadly defined, have been a key catalyst for innovation in the work we’ve been supporting in Essex. Want to know more? This is a cool little film made by our friends and partners Esro.

Read – Listening, Learning & Telling Stories – a new publication in which we share what’s been happening so far in our work to support radical new approaches to citizen engagement in Essex.

This week we’ve been at the Unusual Suspects Festival …a free-flowing smorgasbord of workshops, fostering learning and connections between the network of agents who are passionate about using new methodologies to drive social change and better outcomes for the public.

It was a real privilege to join West Essex Clinical Commissioning Group’s Board awayday this week, to which I’d been invited to bring a provocation around patient/citizen insight and ethnography. Whilst the brief family stories I shared on film and with quotes/photos were not primarily focused on health-related themes, CCG Board members needed no encouragement to grasp the implications for integrated commissioning of health and social care.

For us, listening (and really hearing) what people have to say about their lives and the public services they use is at the very heart of what we do. It’s one of the approaches we believe is right and necessary if we are going to change how organisations and professionals see the world, and consequently improve it.