Co-production Implementation Group (HFCIG)

Nothing about Disabled people without Disabled people.”

The Hammersmith & Fulham Co-production Implementation Group (HFCIG) was set up in 2019 and includes Disabled residents, senior council staff and councillors. They are working together on a plan to encourage and enable co-production across all council departments, and the whole community.

What does the group do?

The group uses the Disabled People’s Commission report and it’s eight recommendations as the starting point for its work alongside the council’s strategic priority of ‘doing things with residents not to them’ and related objectives set out in the council’s equalities plan.

The group uses the social model of disability and a human rights way of working in all its work.

• Definitions of social model of disability and human rights way
  

  Social model of disability: this is when Disabled people are seen as people with impairments who are ‘disabled’ by the barriers in society. These barriers discriminate against Disabled people and push us out of society. It is the way society is run and organised that is the problem, not the Disabled person.

  Human rights way: the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities - this is an international agreement that the government signed up to, to bring about the full rights of Disabled people in the UK.

Who's in the group?

The membership of the Co-production Implementation Group (HFCIG) includes Disabled residents, councillors, including the lead member for Inclusive Community Engagement and Co-production and senior council officers including Tara Flood and Kevin Caulfield who job share the role of Strategic Lead for Co-production at the council. The group demonstrates the commitment in practice to working together.

Disabled residents

• Suzanne Iwai
  

  

  I came to live on White City Estate in 1999. I'm vice Chair of the White City Residents Association (WCRA) and a full time carer to my youngest child who is also autistic.

  I wasn't diagnosed until I was 62, yet I had always considered myself out of the loop, removed from the normal tempo of a sustainable career, or close relationships. I'm healthy except for this fast brain that misinterprets tone, motive and the direction of many social interchanges. I get lost inside new spaces and I'm always uncomfortable with the unexpected if I'm not in control.

  How do l survive? Quite well when I'm in advocacy mode, helping other autistic adults find a diagnosis portal or useful coping strategy apps and courses, or sharing my lived in experience with Autistica and the Alan Turing Institute as a citizen scientist. I'm also an Agent of Change, a women's network that's a conscious equality, inclusion and diversity programme.

  It's much easier and more effective to do co-production when you're part of a team because we can open more doors than working solo. You have a plan, a structure and the combined strength of everyone's lived experience to attract the attention of everyone on the other side of the door. And that includes you as you read this.

• Jane McGrath
  

  

  Jane McGrath has lived in Hammersmith & Fulham for 35 years.

  She worked as an account director at a leading public relations company. Jane has also worked as a film-maker and a lecturer in contemporary communications at University of the Arts, London.

  She became unwell in 2006 and has spent her time since then trying to reimagine health and social care. Jane has subsequently achieved an MA with distinction in digital media arts and a Millennium Award.

  In 2012, she won a Winston Churchill Travel Bursary to make a documentary in India about recovery from mental illness from a non-pharmaceutical perspective and in 2014 she became a North West London CLAHRC fellow.

  Jane is currently CEO of We Coproduce (West London Collaborative), a London based CIC that was incubated by local people inside the NHS. Her team is working with local people to deliver authentic coproduction and assets based community development, using the arts, tech and disruptive thinking to solve complex problems in health and social care.

• Faisal Yusuf
  

  

  My name is Faisal Yousef. I am 36 years of age and have been a resident of Hammersmith & Fulham all my life. I have a learning disability and although I am able to live quite independently I have a need for support in a number of areas.

  I have a good understanding of how it feels to be a disabled person and living in a world where there are still barriers for many of us.

  I am the chairperson of the Safety Net People First which is a local self-advocacy group, since it was first set up. I am also part of the Inclusion London initiative speaking up for the rights of disabled people and promoting a fair and just society where disabled people are seen as equals.

  I believe co production is a good way to work together to make changes. It means that people have an equal say about how services should be provided and which suit the needs of people.

Councillors

• Cllr Ben Coleman - cabinet member for health and adult social care
• Cllr Patricia Quigley - assistant to cabinet member for health and adult social care

Council officers

• Kevin Caulfield - strategic lead for co-production (job share)
• Tara Flood - strategic lead for co-production (job share)
• Lisa Redfern - strategic director for social care

Terms of reference

• Co-production Implementation Group terms of reference web page
• Co-production Implementation Group terms of reference Easy Read (pdf 772KB)
• Making meetings inclusive list web page
• Making meetings inclusive list Easy Read (pdf 328KB)

In 2021 a review was done and a number of recommendations were made to update and improve HFCIG and its ways of working. Recommendations included the need for HFCIG to refresh it’s Terms of Reference, have a bigger public profile and to organise opportunities to meet with residents to promote coproduction and to encourage more residents to get involved.