Check points for prevention: Lessons from co-production with care experienced adults and young people

Background: Care experienced adults (aged 25 and over) in the UK face multiple inequalities, and have poorer lifelong outcomes relating to health, housing, education, and employment, amongst other domains (Glynn 2021). However, this group rarely meets thresholds for social care until they reach a point of crisis. IMPACT (Improving Adult Care Together) worked on a partnership project with the National House Project in 2024-25 to explore preventative approaches to support for adults with care experience in Fife Council and Coventry City Council.

 

Approach: Following IMPACT’s change model and drawing on the expertise of project partners, activities included collaborative co-production workshops with care experienced adults in Crewe, and local co-production workshops with young people in Fife and Coventry which culminated in a knowledge exchange between sites. Facilitators used a range of design tools, storytelling, and scenarios in these workshops to encourage the interactive appraisal of the current offers of support for care experienced adults, and an open discussion of what should be done differently.

Co-production in this project drew on trauma-informed and psychologically-informed practice, recognising multiple and intersecting identities of care experienced people. Participants were paid for their contribution to the work, which supported their involvement.

 

Results: Learning emerging from co-production in this project are (1) perceived hierarchy in evidence and how individual stories are valued in co-production, (2) the importance of accessible information presented in multiple formats, (3) the time needed to meaningfully engage with care experienced people to build trust, (4) acknowledging previous poor experiences of social care and/or research, (5) the motivation for involvement, (6) completing the feedback loop and (7) the vitality of trauma-informed approaches that ensure safe collaboration for all.

 

Collaboration in this project resulted in new developments in both Fife and Coventry. In Fife, young people identified the need for a specialist point of contact for care experienced adults to address barriers to accessing social care and preventative support. A new apprenticeship post has been funded for two years to pilot this idea, with funding for continued co-production to shape the project.

In Coventry, the first Strategic Care Leavers Workshop brought together cross-sector stakeholders to explore opportunities for care experienced adults over 25. Through the co-production workshops, young people were able to appraise the eight themes of the Care Leavers Offer locally. They identified that the communication of offers of support for care experienced adults as a priority for a review. Outcomes of the second strategic workshop in 2025-26 will inform ongoing change in Coventry.

 

Implications: Adults and young people with care experience have a significant contribution to make to co-design of both universal and specialist services. Professionals working in collaboration with these groups benefit from time, tools and support to ensure that co-production contributes to ongoing trust.

 

References: Glynn A. Understanding care leavers as youth in society: a theoretical framework for studying the transition out of care. Children and Youth Services Review. 2021;121.

IMPACT (Improving Adult Care Together). IMPACT Change Mode. https://impact.bham.ac.uk/our-mission/impact-change-model (accessed 14 October 2025)