What is it about?
Much of the current discussion of user and community co-production makes strong claims for its potential to improve outcomes. How much is actually known about the level, drivers, and potential effects of co-production? In this article, some of the key claims made for co-production are examined and an assessment is made of how they stack up against the empirical evidence. In particular, some areas are identified in which practice must be cautious about the potential contribution of co-production, and where further research is needed.
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Why is it important?
These are exciting times for research into user and community co-production of public services and outcomes. As more policymakers, practitioners, consultants, and academics write about co-production (and meanings therefore become more diffuse and confused), the claims made for its potential become more fanciful. Consequently, the need and the appetite for more conceptual and empirical research are growing fast. For scholars, this is a chance to open up new understandings of how citizens relate to the state and, of course, to each other. For policymakers and practitioners, it is a chance not simply to understand but to change these relationships, as one step in a wider project—not just to pursue the state’s commitment to serving all citizens according to their needs, but also to ensure that all citizens have the chance to contribute according to their capabilities.
Perspectives
In spite of the current excitement about user and community co-production in public service organizations and in public administration scholarship, the evidence base for co-production is still relatively weak. Although there are already some surveys of the level of co-production in different fields and the characteristics of those involved, they are still few in number and very weak on evidence of impacts. Much more prevalent are case studies of co- production, of which there are now literally thousands — however, they tend to be strong on highlighting the nature and level of co-production and, to a lesser extent, evidencing specific short-term impacts—but weak on wider, longer-term impacts. Finally, only a small number of evaluations of co-production initiatives have so far provided stronger evidence on the wider and longer-term outcomes of co-production.
Professor Tony Bovaird
University of Birmingham
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: User and Community Co-Production of Public Services: What Does the Evidence Tell Us?, International Journal of Public Administration, November 2016, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/01900692.2016.1250559.
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