The value of co-creation with our target audiences

An integral part of the Essential Mix has been co-creation of intervention ideas with Essential Workers. The reason for this is because we know that the EW’s have more knowledge relating to how the interventions could work in their context or whether the interventions would be valuable to them. Most importantly, co-creation has allowed us to build relationships and to ensure that the EW’s are as much a part of the process and progress of this project as we are. Eventually when the interventions come into the field we hope that they will feel some sense of ownership of them. We have currently done co-creation with London Bus Drivers and LET Officers in Hammersmith and Fulham which have both been a great experience.

What we’ve done:

With both bus drivers and LET officers we have spent time workshopping intervention ideas, where we shared initial ideas and they built upon, challenged and expand our thinking via focus groups, intercept interviews and spending hours in the bus driver canteen chatting to drivers on their lunchbreak.

What we’ve learned:

Bus Drivers:

• Ideas that resonated with drivers were ones that helped to show them as humans and show their life behind the scenes at bus depots, or ideas that encouraged passengers to interact with them.

• Ideas that resonated less well were ones that left them open to public critique due to past negative interactions with aggressive passengers or interventions that made them solely responsible for interacting with passengers.

LET officers:

• Ideas that resonated with LET officers centred on ways to build trust with residents, or interventions that centred on giving them the confidence and training to interact more within the community.

• Ideas that did not resonate as well included those that took too much of their time away from the core function of their role.

Reflection

For us co-creation has been invaluable to discovering and choosing interventions ideas that fit in the context that they will operate in. We have been able to discover what it is that EW’s want and what particular difficulties they face within their role. It has also allowed us to form brilliant relationships and build trust, so that the EW’s feel that they are a part of this project and that their opinions are essential to the success of the Essential Mix. It has enabled us to make compelling arguments to senior stakeholders in mapping out our plans for the trial. Co-creation is something that we will continue to do in the other two strands of our project in Glasgow so watch this space!