Co-design and co-production of health services incorporates the perspectives of both staff working within the system and individuals with lived experience of system.  Ideally, co-design and co-production ensure the voices of people with lived experience are valued and are reflected in the choices made when designing and delivering services. In Australia, co-design and co-production of health services are becoming more commonplace, with some funding for services being dependent on the incorporation of co-design methodology. However, this process often needs to work within the constraints of a system which is bound by inflexible frameworks and practical need. These barriers can jeopardise an authentic co-design and co-production process which can result in a tokenistic, box-ticking exercise.

Using the personal experience of the authors, a focus of this presentation will be exploring the process and challenges involved with the co-design and co-production whilst working within the constraints of the health system. A further focus will be how the voices of lived experience can be utilised in the co-production of research and evaluation. As research is typically conducted by researchers using homogenised methods of interpretation and analysis, involving lived experience in the research process honours unique perspectives in how research is designed, and findings are analysed.

The experiences of the authors highlight the need for co-design and co-production to be an iterative circular process. Following the process of service development and implementation, the need for continued service improvement through co-designed research and evaluation can help to ‘close the loop’ and involve multiple perspectives at all stages.

Key learnings:

–  How to create authentic co-design and co-production which honours the service user perspective

– what does co-produced research look like

– what are the challenges associated with implementing co-design and co-production in service design and evaluation