Generating 'good enough' evidence for co-production

Co-production is not a new concept but it is one with renewed prominence and reach in contemporary policy discourse. It refers to joint working between people or groups who have traditionally been separated into categories of user and producer. The article focuses on the coproduction of public services, offering theory-based and knowledge-based routes to evidencing co-production. It cites a range of ‘good enough’ methodologies which community organisations and small-scale service providers experimenting with co-production can use to assess the potential contribution, including appreciative inquiry, peer-to-peer learning and data sharing. These approaches have the potential to foster innovation and scale-out experimentation

The Twenty-First Century Councillor – Lessons from the Literature

The 21st Century Councillor research builds on the successful 21st Century Public Servant project (2013) and the University of Birmingham Policy Commission (2011) into the Future of Local Public Services. These projects saw a significant amount of interest from practitioners, identifying the need to pay attention to the changing roles undertaken by public servants, and the associated support and developmental requirements. During 2016 we have undertaken research into the 21st Century Councillor. North West Employers the Employers’ Organisation for the 41 local authorities in the North West of England) is supporting the work by facilitating access to elected councillors and organising regional events at hich findings will be shared. We are also undertaking fieldwork in other regions, and sharing the emerging findings with councillors in other regions, and with the LGA-SOLACE-PPMA 21st Century Public Servant steering group to ensure that the themes have resonance outside of particular regional contexts. This literature review is designed as a companion piece to the full project report in which we share analysis of the new empirical findings. Both documents are available from the project blog: http://21stcenturypublicservant.wordpress.com/