From focus groups to co-production: Building a team’s confidence to work with its community

A shift in mindset

The Cleft Lip and Palate Action (CLAPA) is the national charity supporting, connecting, and championing the UK cleft community, bringing together people affected by cleft lip and palate so no one goes through their journey alone. They had set out a new five-year strategy with community engagement and co-production at its heart, a deliberate turn towards working with their community to understand its strengths, needs, and challenges, and shaping services around what they heard. They came to Habitus to build the confidence and the skills across their team to make that shift real.

Challenges

The team was already behind the idea of co-production, and everyone had some understanding of it, which was a strong starting point. What they wanted was a shared foundation, so that a team with varying levels of experience understood co-production in the same way, and the practical confidence to work differently: how to run a kick-off session that helps a group move into new ways of working, what to pay attention to in the language used when facilitating, how to get comfortable not always having the answers, and how to move a group forward when conversation gets stuck or slips back into a focus-group mindset. They also wanted the learning to spread, so the team could go on to build understanding and confidence among their wider colleagues.

What we did

Across the work, our focus was the same: helping the team make the shift from engaging their community to co-producing with it, and building the confidence and capacity to keep doing it themselves and to pass it on. Throughout, we walked alongside them, delivering the sessions with them, so they were practising co-production as they learned it.

Grounding the whole team in co-production. We worked with the team to build a shared understanding of what co-production actually is, so everyone started from the same foundation, and then focused on the practical craft of it: facilitation and language, running a strong kick-off session, getting comfortable with not holding all the answers, and moving a group forward when it gets stuck or falls back into old habits. We designed it so the team could go on to deliver a similar session for their colleagues, spreading the learning and the confidence more widely across the organisation.

Reaching the community more inclusively. We ran an activity-based learning session on engaging more broadly through co-development, how to build community and let the community lead, and how to build trust with more diverse groups through co-production and empowerment, including the smaller practical things, the look and feel of materials and the website, that help people feel genuinely welcome.

Volunteer strategy. We ran a series of co-development sessions to shape their volunteer strategy, working with volunteers and staff together rather than staff alone, building and leaving skills behind as we went, and strengthening the relationships between the organisation and its community. Co-creating the strategy this way became an engagement opportunity in its own right, a real piece of co-production, not just a plan for it.

Adult and family strategy. We supported the team to develop their adult and family strategy, bringing the same co-production lens to how they plan and shape support for the people they are there for.

How we made a difference

CLAPA came away feeling more confident, with a shared understanding of co-production across the team and the practical skills to work with their community rather than for it. Because we designed the work so the team could teach it onward, the confidence was built to spread across the wider organisation, supporting the engagement and co-production at the heart of their new strategy, and left them better equipped to reach and involve the more diverse groups they most wanted to hear from.

“Thanks again for the session, it was wonderful to be part of it. We are meeting regarding the future of our adult and family focus groups, and what amazing stories we have to share with the team, just from that one session alone.”

Results

• A more engaged client and volunteer community, brought closer through the work itself

• A volunteer strategy co-developed with volunteers and staff together, which became a volunteering and engagement opportunity in its own right

• A team with a shared foundation in co-production and the confidence to put it into practice

• Practical facilitation skills to run co-production sessions and keep groups moving

• The team equipped to deliver co-production learning to their wider colleagues, spreading capacity across the organisation

• An adult and family strategy developed with co-production at its heart

• Practical changes to make materials and communications more inclusive and welcoming

Gillian McCarthy, Involvement Manager: "What Habitus did really well was listen. They took the time to listen to everyone on the team, to really understand what we needed, and they tailored their suggestions, advice, and support around that."

Habitus has extensive experience helping charities build the confidence and skills to co-produce with their communities, and to shift from working for people towards working with them. For more information on how Habitus can support your organisation to embed co-production and strengthen community engagement, contact us.