Co-Production: How can we manage expectations of our clients in co-produced projects?

Our groups work within a framework for example the arts group designs and evaluates the arts programme with different milestones through the year (plan, write a drama production and then evaluate it). Each time a group meets short, medium and long term goals are decided upon/discussed and progress towards is measured (formally or informally), actions/outcomes are then shared across the Centre to allow everyone to know what is happening in the groups. The goal setting, established framework and sharing of outcomes helps to manage expectations but it is something that we need to be mindful of.

When I was a consultant, I delivered a number of community consultation projects. One has always stayed with me from a small seaside town called Bridlington in the north of England. The charity that commissioned us was determined that the consultation should result in transparent decision-making: "This is what you've said and this is what we're doing about it." There was a lot of deprivation and very little budget, so we were careful to frame everything in terms of 'priorities' from the outset... Providing a long list of opportunities that couldn't be fulfilled would only have led to disappointment. The parameters for consultation and co-production need to be clear at the start. It may be that you want to change how you deliver services, rather than add new ones(!) and this needs to be communicated early on.

Thanks for all the discussions this morning!

This topic was raised in our group, and I think the most important take-away for me was the importance of setting the goal of the project right from the beginning, and clearly communicating this with the different groups. Habitat for Humanity had some great examples of this in Zambia.

I think this does raise a further question; who sets the goal of the project, and how can overall project goals be co-produced? Can they? What if the communities we work with are more interested in other forms of support (like livelihoods, health - or just cash) than housing?