How co-production is transforming adult social care in North Northamptonshire

29 June 2026

The way local people are helping drive positive change in adult social care is being celebrated during Co-production Week 2026.

Co-production Week is an annual awareness campaign championing the power of working in equal partnership with people using health and social care provision. 

To celebrate the occasion, North Northamptonshire Council is launching its first ever Co-production Impact Report, highlighting how people with lived experience – knowledge and understanding gained through personal life circumstance – are helping to shape adult social care services.

The report showcases a year of significant progress in embedding co-production into everyday practice, ensuring people who draw on care and support, alongside their families and carers, are at the heart of decision-making, service design and improvement.

Co-production is based on working together as equal partners, recognising that lived experience carries the same value as professional expertise. The report demonstrates how this approach is already creating tangible benefits, including easier access to services, improved information and greater involvement of residents in key decisions.

Over the past year, North Northamptonshire Council has established the Together for Care Forum, developed an Experts by Experience Register with 65 registered members, and increased opportunities for people to influence recruitment, commissioning, policy development and service improvement projects.

The council has also worked with residents to redesign the adult social care ‘front door’, creating a new single point of access, improve website content and develop an internal Easy Read service to make information more accessible for people with learning disabilities and autistic people.

Co-production is so important because it shifts the balance of power, creating equal partnerships between professionals and people with lived experience. This, in turn results in services that are more effective, person centred, and trusted by the people they are designed for. It ensures services are shaped around real needs rather than assumptions leading to better outcomes for everyone.Paula Sardinha, Expert by Experience

The report shows strong growth in participation over the last year, with attendance at the Together for Care Forum reaching 34 people and 32 Co-production Champions now supporting teams across adult social care to work more closely with residents.

It's amazing that such a diverse group interact, engage, empathise, share and discuss options that some of us would never consider. Only through coming together and sharing those experiences from that personal viewpoint, can we ensure change for the better. No opinion is dismissed, no opinion is a bad one, no suggestion is ignored.Jan Warren, Expert by Experience

The report also sets out ambitions for the year ahead, including increasing opportunities for involvement, reaching a more diverse range of voices, strengthening the Together for Care Forum and ensuring people are involved earlier in decisions that affect them. A key milestone will be the introduction of a new Adult Social Care Improvement Board, which will be co-chaired by an Expert by Experience, reinforcing the council’s commitment to genuine partnership working and shared leadership.

We are incredibly proud of the progress that has been made, but we also recognise there is more to do. Our ambition is to make co-production an integral part of everything we do, ensuring that lived experience continues to shape the future of adult social care and improve outcomes for residents across North Northamptonshire.Cllr Chris Kellett, North Northamptonshire Council’s Executive Member for Adults and Health Partnerships

Read the report in full or find out how to become an Expert by Experience on the council website.