Could there be some if not a lot of waste of money generally in councils — yes there is just like the NHS .

I will not name and shame but a council close where I work put in a cycle path that goes on for some miles, new tarmac , painted and signed.

Its a great idea , get people out on bikes enjoying the fresh air and keeping fit but is it a priority .

I agree with the view that co production should be something more prominent but its hit the buffers since you know who has been in power.

I just wonder what it is going to take for change to happen .

Its like I have a zombie government ( sorry it is Halloween ) which is breaking down and very short term . I have to agree with the views that nothing ever changes despite all of the reports and all of the findings and it has been this way since the Griffith report some two decades or more ago ( Community care and support ) .

Nothing ever changes ——— why .

Chronic underfunding is destroying our society. Until the whole voting population see that, nothing will change.

Most systems are imperfect because they tend to only favour the institution that implements the system and takes no account of anyone who has to use the system, even staff within the institutions let alone who who are not employed by the institutions, but need to engage for a myriad of reasons.

Any systems should have at its centre the persons it is there to support and that is not the organisation which implements, but those who have to use it.

So systems and strategies should be done by co-production, not co-production as thought by the institutions but real co-production. Here is what Think local act personal (TLAP) state, (https://www.thinklocalactpersonal.org.uk/co-production-in-commissioning-tool/co-production/In-more-detail/what-is-co-production/),

There is no point in creating systems or strategies where people who will be using or having to use the systems and strategies are not involved from the very outset and are allowed to be equally engaged. A new concept for many institutions for it requires to some extent a release of what they assume is their power. But by using co-production it could reintroduce some degrees of trust, which due to inappropriate systems has been sadly eroded, even if it was there to start with.

Trust is so important, the lack of which is so evident in the Hamas/Israel situations.

My own local authority, (LA) is using co-production to some degree and I am involved with other family carers in some areas of strategy and re-creating systems, but to a large extent the power is still with my LA for they will have the final word. In the co-production we are to some extent working with some senior managers, but not directly with Directors who will have the final say, with the authority of the Chief Executive.

Some co-production working groups have already been concluded and to a large extent what the co-production working group agreed was implemented for how long who can be sure. For any system implemented needs some degree of appraisal, but here again the original co-production group should be reconvened or if not possible to be as similar as possible. The reasons behind this is because the work produced is owned by the co-production group and not the institution and if possible patented to some extent legally.

Everyone is an expert to some extent and expertise should be welcomed and utilised but in many instances not, as to look at some systems they appear to have been created with no expert knowledge of how they could work practically only in theory. Theory is great but how it is put in practice is the real expertise for if it is inappropriate then the system will be useless, but useless systems are continued with due to the power, time and expense involved, but practicality should be a prime reason if not the most important.

Perhaps I live in a cloud or a time still to come, but it is so important that it does.

Well said Kryssi, spot on!