key: cord-0072671-egwkj4ye
authors: Roesch-Marsh, Autumn
title: COVID-19 and Co-Production in Health and Social Care Research, Policy, and Practice: Volume 1: The Challenges and Necessity of Co-Production, Peter Beresford, Michelle Farr, Gary Hickey, Meerat Kaur, Josephine Ocloo, Doreen Tembo and Oli Williams (eds)
date: 2021-11-29
journal: Br J Soc Work
DOI: 10.1093/bjsw/bcab229
sha: ac7c561dc8ec9f97234f86bc27876b1270b080e6
doc_id: 72671
cord_uid: egwkj4ye

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servers, describes how Sikh individuals and organisations came together to provide support to those most in need during the pandemic and some of the barriers and racism they faced in this work. The chapter centres Sikh ways of knowing and doing community activism and support and illustrates how community-led co-production of services can be stymied by those with institutional power.

The second reason I will be recommending this book is that the topic of co-production is essential for social work, social care and allied helping professions. Deeply aligned with the core value base and social justice aims of social work, co-production is often cited but difficult to deliver (Pieroudis et al., 2019) . In their introduction, the editors explain that the aim of their volumes is to explore 'why co-production is valuable and how it can be done' (p. 4). They recognise that the term has been defined in various ways but explain that for them it is about 'bringing together citizens, communities, patients, and/or service users with those working in health and social care research, policy, and practice, and attempting to form equitable partnerships' (p. 5).

The book is organised in a series of sixteen chapters, some are examples of co-production in action, and others bring together a range of material to explore specific themes related to co-production during the pandemic. Helpfully, each chapter ends with a section 'What needs to be done.' This means that even the more theoretical chapters are grounded in practice and the doing of co-production. This will make the book more useful to those on the ground who are working to make co-production a reality.

Some of the chapters bring together wider debates and research evidence, while others are more about sharing opinions and experiences. Some might suggest this makes the work less rigorous. However, I feel this is another strength of the book which will make it particularly useful for teaching purposes. The book forces us to consider how existing power structures and hierarchies control the means of knowledge production. When reading the book with students I will be asking them to consider questions such as: What material do we find more convincing and why? How have particular types of knowledge come to dominate in social work? What are the strengths and limitations of different types of knowledge for practice?

The editors highlight how particular marginalised groups have borne the brunt of the pandemic, facing higher death rates from COVID-19 and further marginalisation as the pandemic has changed the availability of services and supports to those who most need them. They argue that this horrific context requires us now, more than ever, to engage with co-production in a meaningful way and I wholeheartedly agree. As the case studies in the book so beautifully illustrate, there is much dynamic co-production going on that we can learn from and build upon. I am grateful that the authors assembled in this volume took the time to share their knowledge and experiences with us, there is no doubt we have much work to do and this book will be an ally and a friend to all those committed to this work.

Breaking down the Barriers to co-Production

Senior Lecturer in Social Work, University of Edinburgh, UK https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcab229