Co-Production Lead (Adult Social Care and Housing Commissioning Service)

This permanent post sits in the Adult Social Care and Housing Commissioning Service at Somerset Council and sets the countywide strategy for co-production across both services. The postholder ensures people with lived experience, unpaid carers and seldom-heard communities shape how services are designed, commissioned and improved, and runs the boards and assurance framework that test this. The role spans the whole county with hybrid working from County Hall, so independent travel is a core requirement. Applicants must hold full access to a vehicle for work use.

What the job involves

• Lead and coordinate co-production across Adult Social Care and Housing, with oversight of quality, inclusion, impact and outcomes
• Develop and implement a countywide co-production strategy with clear standards
• Lead and strengthen strategic boards, partnerships, networks, forums and self-advocacy arrangements so lived experience shapes decisions
• Create an assurance framework and outcome measures showing how co-production improves commissioning, service design, practice and outcomes
• Advise, support and challenge senior leaders, commissioners, providers and operational teams
• Build trusted relationships with people with lived experience, unpaid carers, seldom-heard groups, VCFSE organisations and NHS and system partners
• Use feedback, research and insight to identify gaps, reduce barriers to participation and drive improvement
• Produce and present reports and assurance summaries for committees, boards, senior leaders and partnerships
• Manage funding for boards, partnerships, co-production projects and self-advocacy support, against agreed outcomes
• Build organisational capability through guidance, learning resources and training on co-production

What’s required

Qualifications

• Degree-level qualification or equivalent experience
• Evidence of continuous professional development

Experience

• Developing and implementing strategies or improvement programmes that delivered measurable change
• Leading strategic boards, partnerships, networks or forums and using them to influence decisions
• Working alongside people with lived experience, community networks and VCFSE organisations to shape services
• Managing budgets, grants or funding responsibly against agreed outcomes

Skills & knowledge

• Knowledge of co-production principles, including involving people whose voices are less often heard
• Influencing, facilitation and relationship-building skills
• Confidence giving constructive challenge to senior stakeholders
• Designing assurance frameworks, standards and measures
• Translating qualitative and quantitative insight into improvement action

Checks & eligibility

• Full access to a vehicle that can be used for work purposes

Other

• Ability to travel independently across the county as a core, regular requirement
• Confidence to work independently across a complex system while building collaboration

What’s offered

• 33 days’ annual leave plus bank holidays, with the option to buy additional leave
• Local Government Pension Scheme
• Flexible and hybrid working where service needs allow
• Health and wellbeing support, including confidential employee assistance
• Paid volunteering opportunities

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