Our Co-Production work in Staffordshire supports people with lived experience to have an equal voice when designing projects and services by engaging groups in the earliest stages of developing services and evaluation. 

Co-Production is a way of working that involves organisations sharing power and decision-making with the people with lived experience who access services and support.

Our advocacy facilitators engage with people through the following:

• meetings and sub-group meetings of the Disability, Sensory and Neurodivergence Community Board
• meetings and drop-ins at existing community groups across Staffordshire
• provision of clear and accessible information
• involvement in county council processes
• the Community Board website
• our Collected Stories videos and YouTube channel.

Asist are an independent organisation, working with the county council as a critical friend, while supporting and collating independent voices of people with lived experience. Council staff and service commissioners work alongside our advocacy facilitators to support experts by experience and facilitate groups to come together and work in co-production.

This work will enable the county council to make positive changes in Staffordshire while enabling disabled and neurodivergent people to be part of changes to local services in a meaningful way on the principle of ‘no decisions about us without us.’