Co-production is more than consultation. When it is done well, people with lived experience shape the design, delivery and evaluation of the services they use. For social workers and social care practitioners, understanding how to genuinely work in partnership — to advocate alongside people, to centre lived experience in practice and to operate from a rights-based rather than risk-management starting point — is one of the defining features of modern, ethical practice.

The DCC-i Co-Production, Lived Experience & Advocacy pillar provides interactive CPD tools, advocacy frameworks and practice reflection resources that help practitioners develop genuine partnership skills. All resources are co-designed with people with lived experience of social care, mental health services, disability and advocacy systems, bringing real perspectives into professional learning.

What this pillar covers

• Co-production: principles, models and application in social care
• Advocacy in practice — independent advocacy and professional advocacy
• Rights-based approaches and the Social Model of Disability
• Lived experience as knowledge: working with and learning from people who use services
• Supported decision-making and empowering choice
• Partnership working with unpaid carers and family networks
• Applying co-production in assessment, care planning and review

Who this CPD is for

These resources are designed for social workers, social care practitioners, team managers, commissioners and anyone involved in designing or delivering services that are supposed to be person-led. Resources are particularly relevant for practitioners working in community care, mental health, learning disability and transitions services.

Learning built with people, not just about them

DCC-i co-production and lived experience CPD is developed in genuine partnership with people who have used services, campaigned for rights, worked as advocates and contributed to the design of social care systems. This is not tokenistic — their expertise shapes the content, challenges the assumptions and ensures the learning is honest about the gap between co-production as a principle and co-production as a practice. All programmes are BASW-approved and used by local authorities and NHS trusts across the UK.