Welcome to Kernow Directory. Organisations supporting adults across Cornwall are continuing to add their details. If you are an organisation, please visit one of our directories and click “Add a listing.”
Our information, advice and guidance pages are co-produced with people who have lived experience and will continue to grow.
Co-production means working together as equals. By working together, we make the best use of our resources and strengths. We find ways of doing things which benefit our community. In Adult Social Care, it is about ensuring people affected by disability and frailty have the opportunity to take part in and influence what happens to them. When co-production is done well, people feel heard. In practice, it enables people who use services to work together with:
those that commission
those that provide services
Co-production is an overarching principle that also includes the aim of ‘personalisation’. People who are eligible for support can work together with professionals to develop exactly the right care. They choose the activities and equipment to help them achieve their goals and live the lives they want.
Co-production works at two levels:
for individuals’ own support plans
to help guide the direction of adult social care and support provision in Cornwall
You can see more of how these work in these two short videos.
‘Nothing about you, without you’
Assets - We will treat people as assets
Capabilities - We will build on people’s capabilities
Mutuality - We will develop reciprocal relationships with people
Blur roles - We will blur boundaries between delivering and receiving services
Networks - We will encourage and provide help with peer support networks
Catalysts - We will facilitate working with people to develop their own support and to maximise their independence and reach their full potential
Cornwall Council have produced a People Commissioning Co-production Framework. It helps explain why they are doing co-production. It also explains about what co-production will look like and how they will measure the impact, to see that co-production is working.
Experts by Experience
Experts by experience are those who live with a specific issue such as:
condition
disability
specific life experiences or
protected characteristics
It can cover many things. These could be an experience of domestic violence, human trafficking or crime. It could mean life as a queer person, a person of colour, or a person who is or has been pregnant, and much more.
In Adult Social Care we have contact with many people. They are all experts on living with their disabilities, health conditions or illnesses. We also have contact with their carers. These people know far more about their condition than anyone else. They must be involved in decisions around their own support needs and life choices. They should also provide their input, on a wider scale, in shaping services for people who share a similar disability. The Council encourages input from people with lived experience in its decision-making processes.
Good communication
Providing current information, in the right places, for the right people to see. This means using accessible formats, for example Easy Read information with Photosymbols. It also means using translated or interpreted texts for those who don’t speak English as their first language. It could also include using audio, braille, large print or other formats for those with visual impairment. Sign language interpreters and subtitles for people with hearing impairment are also an option.
Events and meetings
Events and discussions with people who use a service, when planning for the future of a service, policy or strategy. Regular meetings when shaping the direction of a team within the department, for example services to support people in their own homes. Some of these meetings may be one-to-one and around an individuals’ own needs. Some meetings will be small focus groups, and others will be larger, more formal meetings, including training sessions.
There will also be chances to take part in recruitment, writing policies and strategies and more. These will sometimes include pay at an hourly rate, or repayment of expenses (mileage, electricity, Wi-Fi, etc).
We have a steering group for our co-production, co-chaired by David, who has a learning disability. This group helps the Council to design services that meet everyone’s needs. This is done through arranging opportunities for people with lived experience to meet with commissioners and other Council staff.