The Co-Design Hub · Step 1 of 4
Been asked to ‘co-design’ something and not sure what that really means? This hub keeps it short. Four pages: what co-design is, how to run it, how to check you’re doing it well, and the tools and reading worth keeping. The aim isn’t to make co-design sound bigger than it is. It’s to make it clearer.
The basics
Co-design means the people most affected by a decision, service or system help shape it. That’s more than being asked for your views. It means being involved early enough to change the problem, the options, the decisions and what happens next.
In care experience, co-design means the people who live the system help shape the system. Care experienced knowledge is treated as expertise, not as a quote added at the end.
It also means being straight about power. If the important choices have already been made, the work might still be useful, but it isn’t co-design in any meaningful sense.
Good co-design depends on access, payment, clarity and follow-through. Without those, taking part tends to become selective, extractive, or both.
The usual way: experts define the problem and people react to the answer.
Co-design: people affected by the issue help shape the problem and the response.
The usual way: feedback comes near the end.
Co-design: involvement starts early and carries on through testing and review.
The usual way: power stays with professionals and decision-makers.
Co-design: power is shared on purpose, and the limits are named openly.
The usual way: stories are gathered as input.
Co-design: experience shapes the direction, priorities and decisions.
‘Nothing about us without us’ isn’t a slogan. It’s the minimum standard for this work.
The foundations
These are the tests that separate real co-design from a performance of it. Each one changes how the work is planned and run.
01
People should be able to change decisions, not just add to the discussion around them.
02
Care experienced knowledge should carry the same weight as professional and organisational knowledge.
03
If timing, format, language, cost or emotional safety stop people taking part, the design is failing before the session even starts.
04
Say what can change, what can’t, and where decisions really sit. Pretending everything is open is worse than clear limits.
05
The work should stay open to change. Testing and revising are part of the method, not a sign the project was badly planned.
06
Trust depends on continuity, fair treatment, and people seeing what happened after they took part.
Four pages
Each page does one job, so you can go straight to the part you need.
Step 1 · You’re here
When you need a shared definition, a clear comparison with consultation, and the first principles.
Back to the top ↑Step 2
When you’re planning a piece of work, setting out the stages, and choosing methods that fit where you are.
Open process & methods →Step 3
When you want to check your work against power, access, and the usual ways co-design gets watered down.
Open best practice →Step 4
When you need facilitation reminders, follow-up timings, and the outside toolkits, books and organisations worth knowing.
Open the toolkit →