At The Riverside Group (TRG), we've been working to make sure our residents feel heard and are engaged. To do this, we offered co-production training to our staff and residents through workshops, designed to build relationships and improve our services.  

Introducing co-production

We introduced a new role – co-production officer – to build local involvement and co-production at service level in our Care & Support (C&S) service. We recognised that one size does not fit all, and that formal opportunities for involvement across The Riverside Group aren’t necessarily accessible for our C&S service users.

To ensure colleagues and residents had a common understanding of the term ‘co-production’ and what it means in practice, we created a comprehensive training package and resources.

Colleagues and residents had involvement in designing the training, including:

• What co-production is.
• The barriers.
• The legislative context.
• Opportunities and inclusive methods of local involvement.
• How the training should be delivered.
• How long it should take.
• What kind of interactive exercises should be held.

The new officer developed the training and then piloted it with several colleagues, carrying out face to face visits, online surveys and Teams calls, before releasing it to all of C&S.