Co-production is not just a word, it is not just a concept, it is a meeting of minds coming together to find shared solutions. In practice, co-production involves people who use services being consulted, included and working together from the start to the end of any project that affects them. When co-production works best, people who use services and carers are valued by organisations as equal partners, can share power and have influence over decisions made’.

On producing social services, co-production can be defined as:

‘Co-production is an approach where people, family members, carers, organisations and commissioners work together in an equal way, sharing influence, skills and experience to design, deliver and monitor services and projects.
Co-production acknowledges that people who use social care and health services (and their families) have knowledge and experience that can be used to help make services better, not only for themselves but for other people who need them, which could be any one of us at some time in our lives.

Theoretically, there are different definitions of co-production. Two of the leading scholars in this field, Victor Pestoff and Tacho Brandsen have worked on this topic for some time. Pestoff gives a simple definition which includes co-production alongside co-management and co-governance:

Co-production refers to an arrangement where citizens produce, at least in part, the services they use themselves. Co-producing citizens do not rely on financial or other inputs from public agencies to develop a new or improve an existing service. However, at the site of service co-production we frequently find public officials providing direct support to citizens, community groups or small non-profit organisations.

Co-management refers to a situation where different organisations work alongside each other to co-ordinate the delivery of a service or project. For co-management to occur, direct user or citizen participation is not necessary, but actors from different sectors and organisations use their respective resources to directly contribute in practical ways to the delivery of a specific project or service.

Co-governance is about the strategic planning of a service or a project. Actors from different organisations and sectors determine shared policy priorities and may translate these into strategic plans. Co-governance comes perhaps closest to what many regeneration partnerships are primarily engaged in. It is important to note that in the development and delivery of every project or service we are likely to find all of these three dimensions to some extent. However, each of these dimensions is distinct from the other. Directly co-producing a service is different from working closely with another organisation to co-manage its delivery. There is also a clear distinction between co-production and co-management, which are directly concerned with the provision of a specific service or project, and co-governance, which is primarily concerned with strategy and policy making.