Volunteer community groups partnering with local police to increase safety in their neighbourhoods; patients with chronic illnesses taking control over their health with the support of health-care professionals; young parents using online social networks supported by social workers to get guidance and share advice regarding their children's upbringing. These are all examples of user-centred collaborative approaches in service delivery (also referred to as "co-production" ) where citizens or service users design, commission, deliver or evaluate a public service in partnership with service professionals. In co-production, because at times users may take responsibility over the initiative for service development, the line between service delivery and policy making can be sometimes blurred.

In a time of increased budgetary pressure and growing demand for public services, these approaches can be a source of innovation leading to greater individual and community empowerment, increased user satisfaction and reduced production costs. The results of an OECD survey on service delivery indicate that for the majority of OECD countries that have adopted some forms of co-production, the objectives being primarily to increase the involvement of citizens and achieve better quality service delivery (60%) rather than to reduce costs (23%).

However, despite an increased focus by OECD countries on user-centricity, co-production as a form of service delivery remains developmental. Indeed, the majority of member countries have some experiences of co-production in one or more public service categories, but few of them (e.g. Canada, Norway, the United States, Finland, and the United Kingdom) have gone beyond piloting this approach to embed these schemes in the delivery of some public services.

Governments face several barriers to adopting co-production as a means of service delivery. A shortage of resources (42%), organisational resistance to change (36%), and lack of financial incentives (31%) are the most frequent obstacles identified by government officials. Additionally, there is still limited understanding and measurement by governments of the benefits and costs of co-production schemes, as also reflected by the scarce development of standardised business cases; 29% of respondents from OECD countries reported that they lacked evidence of the potential benefits of co-production.

Survey results suggest that the implementation of co-production may require a set of changes within public service delivery organisations. Leadership and commitment from senior public officials and the willingness to engage with users and citizens are identified as the top two levers leading to effective citizen and user input in service delivery. Clear accountability and financial frameworks (73% of respondents) are also identified as a critical factor of success, especially in more complex forms of co-production involving resource transfers to service users (e.g. self-directed budgets). Finally, as co-production alters the professional roles and responsibilities of traditional service providers, new skill sets and competencies for service professionals may need to be introduced across services.

Further reading

OECD (2009), Focus on Citizens: Public Engagement for Better Policies and Services, OECD Publishing, Paris.

OECD (forthcoming), Partnering with Citizens and Civil Society for Innovative Service Delivery, OECD Publishing, Paris.