Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:09 pm on 7 May 2019.
I want to agree with what the Member has said about the co-production principles—the fact that in a co-productive model, people who use our public services are regarded as people who have assets to contribute rather than being problems to be solved. And by identifying people's strengths and the things that they bring to the table, we are able to design services that are not organised around the question that begins by asking people, 'What's the matter with you today?'—a question that inevitably focuses on people's deficits—but we start those conversations by saying to people, 'What matters to you today?' Because if we're able to do that, then we are able to draw their contribution into that conversation, and to design outcomes alongside those people that meet their priorities. And in terms of doing it locally, let me remind the Member of a visit that I made to Raglan in his constituency, where he was also present, to see that co-production principle in operation in the field of social care, where, instead of having a pre-determined list of visits to make with time set aside for each visit, the worker was able to speak to the people they were visiting and work out with them how long they thought a visit was needed, to be flexible because those needs change over time and to co-produce the service that they were receiving in a way that was really highly spoken of, both by the people providing the service but also, in the visit that I made that day, by residents in Raglan, who felt that they were genuinely involved in the service they were receiving, rather than simply the recipient of it.