In July, our founder and Managing Director, Ben, spoke at the Local Government Association and Sport England’s Councilor and Officer Development programme to talk about co-design for and with disabled people

 

The event aimed to help officers and councilors from local authorities across the UK to understand how they can influence individuals and the system.

 

Ben shared the story of how Beyond Empower came to be through co-design with a local person with lived-experience. 

 

The talk was less about the story and more about the conditions which have enabled it to help other people support these conditions in their place

 

And, here’s the three key points Ben spoke on and shared.

 

Create the conditions

 

Without really appreciating it in this way at the time, NHS Salford CCG and Unlimited Potential created the conditions to enable Beyond Empower to be.

 

This started with NHS Salford CCG’s Innovation Fund which, as well as funding, offered business case development support.

 

Opportunities and support like this, put across in the right way to particular people and communities, enables people with the lived-experiences and expertise to tackle some of the issue the system may be struggling with, or completely unaware of. 

 

So, how can your place create the conditions to enable people with lived-experience to decide solutions for their communities?

 

Amplify the voice of lived-experience 

 

Sometimes people with lived-experience need a bit of a leg up and endorsement to get work moving.

 

A good example of this is GM Moving’s Commitment to Inclusion networks in which disabled people and disabled peoples organisation have had a level of endorsement by a respected body in GM Moving.

 

This feels like it’s created a safe space and assurance for people within the system to come into the room to discuss issues faced on both sides and work towards solutions together.

 

So, how can system leaders provide a level of endorsement and support to those with lived-experience to create the conditions to enable them to work with those in the system and vice versa?

 

Ensure access

 

Engaging with people with different lived experiences may require the system working in a different.

 

This might be ensuring correct language interpretation, going to a space a particular community feels safe in or facilitating a session through imagery rather than words. 

 

The key point is doing the work beforehand to really understand the community you’re hoping to engage to ensure your engagement is appreciate and accessible to them. 

 

So, what are you doing to enable accessible co-design by the communities you’re looking to engage? 

 

Get in touch if your organisation would like support in co-designing for and with disabled people.