Welcome to the Co-Production Partnership Bradford
This is where you will find out about the work going on in the Co-Production Partnership in Bradford and how it is working to give disabled people a voice in how services are developing. You can find out more about what Co-production is about further down this page.
We will be running events and developing a partnership board to give disabled people a voice. Information on our events can be found here, as well as reports from previous events.
The Co-Production Partnership is jointly managed by Equality Together and BTM. It is funded by Bradford Metropolitan District Council’s Health and Wellbeing department.
We also have our co-production updates available to download. Including Easy Read, Large Format and Audio files.
What is co-production?
Co-production is about ensuring that people who use services are given a genuine say in what they are and how they are run. It means going beyond consultation but including people who are affected from the start of the process as genuine partners.
Co-production is about giving people a voice and acting as a challenge to decision makers.
Co-production is about recognising that people have a range of views and experiences. It should ensure that those who are say less or are quieter are listened to as much as those who are confident.
Co-production is about there being a genuine and open conversation between partners. It is about making sure that people have realistic expectations about what can be achieved.
What’s happening…
We are currently working on these projects.
- Access to services – making it easier for disabled people to use services. To find out more click here.
- How do we know services are working well? Finding ways for people who use care services to say what works. To find out more click here.
- Neurodiversity and learning disabilities. Making sure that people who are neurodivergent or have a learning disability can be involved in shaping services they use. To find out more click here.
Events
Please click here to find out about some upcoming events in November 2025 that might be of interest to you.
Access to services
Disabled people can often face barriers when they need to use different services. We have worked with disabled people and service providers to see how we can overcome these.
Changing Places Toilets
We have worked with Bradford Council on the design for the new highly accessible Changing Places Toilets. People were very clear that they wanted them to be easy to use, and not feel clinical. After much discussion it was agreed that having one wall with a solid block of colour would make the toilet a nicer space to use.
There are now five new Changing Places Toilets in the Bradford District. These are at Bingley, Bradford City Park, Bradford Industrial Museum, Ilkley and Wibsey Park. These are in addition to the 11 which were already in the district.
To find out more about Changing Places Toilets and where they are, visit the Changing Places website Changing Places Toilets.
Training around living with visual impairment
One of the barriers disabled people face is that non-disabled people do not understand what it is like to live with a disability. The Co-Production Partnership has worked with BAVIP (Bradford Association for Visually Impaired People) to provide training for staff around visual impairments.
They have recently done training for staff at Bradford Royal Infirmary and managers at Bradford Council, with more sessions planned.
Our next step is to support people who are neurodivergent provide training as part of making Bradford a neurodivergent friendly district.
If you would like to help plan or deliver training on either visual impairment, neurodiversity or any other topic, please email willq@equalitytogether.org.uk or phone, text or WhatsApp 07432 264 881
Taxis overcharging wheelchair users
For a long time wheelchair users have said they were being overcharged to use taxis being operated by some taxi companies in the Bradford District.
The Co-Production Partnership has worked with disabled people to look further into this. We called 30 different taxi operators in the Bradford District. One person asked for the price of a journey and the other would ask for the same journey at the same time in a wheelchair accessible taxi. Although many companies would charge the same amount, other charged much more. In one case, the fare from Shipley to Keighley was £15 for the standard taxi and £30 for a wheelchair accessible one. This is not acceptable!
We have raised this with Bradford Council’s taxi licencing team. As a first step they will send a reminder to all taxi companies in the Bradford District that this is against the law. After this has happened, we will contact the taxi companies again and see if they are still charging more. If so, we will ask Bradford Council to take companies who break the law to court.
If you would like to work with us to make sure taxis are not overcharging wheelchair users please email willq@equalitytogether.org.uk or phone, text or WhatsApp 07432 264 881
How do we know services are working well?
When we use many services, whether this is booking a holiday or drinking a cup of coffee in a café it is easy to give feedback to say how good our experience was. This often is not the case if you use social care services.
We have been working with people who use different services to look at ways of getting feedback on social care services.
‘I statements’
One way we hope to make it easier for people who use social care services to give feedback is though our project on ‘I statements’.
‘I Statements’ are a sentence beginning with ‘I’ which people are asked if apply to them.
Some examples include:
- I am treated with respect and dignity.
- I live in a home which is accessible.
- I am supported to understand and manage different types of risks.
We have developed over twenty ‘I statements’ which look at different aspects of people’s lives. They can be asked to help see how well a service is working.
Although they are designed as a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ question, they can be used to start a conversation about how well a service is working for someone.
We will be working with the contracts team in Bradford Council to make ‘I statements’ part of their work in making sure care services are working well.
Other ways to say if services are working well.
We are going to be looking at other ways people who use care services can say if they are working well or not.
Our work so far has told us that giving feedback:
- Needs to be easy for people
- The question being asked needs to be clear to understand
- Using smiles and frowns faces was seen as a way which was easy to understand.
- Our feedback needs to make a difference.
Get involved
If you would like to get involved in our work on making sure people who use care services can say what is and isn’t working well, please email willq@equalitytogether.org.uk. Or you can call, text or WhatsApp 07432 264 881.
Previous Updates
Here you will find information and updates from previous co-production events. Click on the title to show the update.
On 4th March 2024 we held our latest district wide event for disabled people, their carers and people who work in services. This brought together almost 100 people to look at what the important issues are for disabled people in the Bradford District.
The Taking Co-Production Forward event had three aims. There were:
- To allow disabled people to say what is important within the Bradford Council social care commissioning priorities. Commissioning priorities are the things that the council want to spend its money on.
- To allow disabled people to say what the Co-Production Partnership should be doing for the next year.
- To bring together people from different backgrounds and organisations to allow people to talk together and listen to each other as equals.
The event brought together 90 people. These included disabled people and carers, people who work in services used by disabled people, as well as colleagues from Bradford Council and the NHS.
The day started with Wil Quick, Co-Production Co-Ordinator, outlining the work done so far. He highlighted the work of the four working groups: access to services; accessible information; day services and independence and choice.
This was followed by Holly Watson of the Adult Social Care Commissioning Team, who outlined the areas which Bradford Council within social care which Bradford Council were working on over the next year. Holly acknowledged that it was going to be difficult for services as Bradford Council was having to find substantial savings, including within adult social care.
The afternoon session was called ‘We are more than disabled people.’ This concentrated on what disabled people need to be included in our wider community. This looked at how disabled people can access things like work, health, housing as well as art, culture and leisure.
We finished the day looking at what the priorities should be for the Co-Production Partnership for the next year. People thought it was really important that more disabled people could be involved in what the Partnership does.
The key areas to be working on were seen as advocacy, transport and accessible information.
What next
Copies of the report will and key actions will be sent to the Social Care Commissioning team. A list of key points will be sent to other teams in Bradford Council, the NHS and other organisations such as the Job Centre and West Yorkshire Combined Authority.
Report
The report of the event is available in a variety of formats.
If you would like the report or summary in an other formats please contact the Co-Production Partnership. You can email co-production@equalitytogether.org.uk or call/ text or WhatsApp 07432 264 881.
- Full Report (PDF)
- Easy Read (PDF)
- Large Print (PDF)
- Audio Report (MP3)
The Co-Production Partnership has been asked to nominate a disabled person to be a representative on Bradford Council’s Health and Social Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee. (This is usually called HOSC for short).
Two people said they were interested. They each wrote a short statement about why they would be a good person to be on the committee. Each organisation whose role is to work with disabled people in the Bradford District was asked to vote for who they wanted the representative to be.
We are very pleased to announce that Ann-Marie Bentley was selected for this really important role.
Ann-Marie said “I hope I can help get our views as disabled people to more areas of the council in order to help improve accessibility and services for myself and my fellow people with disabilities. I will try my utmost best and thank you for choosing me.”
Ann-Marie is keen to visit groups to find out about disabled people’s experiences. If you would like her to visit your group please email the Co-Production Partnership.
The Co-Production Partnership will be hosting some events looking at how day services can work to meet the needs of disabled people across the Bradford District. We are working closely with Bradford Council on this project so we can shape how day services develop in the future. We are having a range of events to see how day services can meet the needs of disabled people in the future.
Our main event will be held on Thursday 24th November, 12.30 to 3pm at Cottingley Community Centre, LIttlelands, Cottingley, near Bingley, BD16 1AL.
Registration and a light lunch will be from 12.30 and the event will start at 1.
This will be an opportunity to look at what is currently working in day services, as well as what needs to be improved.
BSL interpreters have been booked for this event.
Please book your place to attend this event: coproduction-day-services.eventbrite.co.uk
Alternatively call or text 07432 264 881 to book your place.
Online
We are also holding an online session for people who find this more suitable.
Friday 18th November, 11-12.30, online via Zoom. Please book your place via coproduction-day-services-online.eventbrite.co.uk
Drop-in sessions
We are also hosting some drop-in sessions for you to give your views.
15th November, 1-3, Mayfield Centre, Broadway Avenue, BD5 9NP
16th November 1-3, Sight Airedale, 33 Scott Street, Keighley, BD21
Our first event was titled Building a Co-Production Partnership. 115 people attended. This include disabled people, carers, as well as people from a range of organisations.
The morning looked at what has previously happened across the district to give disabled people a voice in what services are provided. Much of this reflected on the work of the former Strategic Disability Partnership.
The afternoon was spent looking at how a Co-Production Partnership should work.
The aims of the Partnership are:
Make a real difference to disabled people’s lives day to day
and
Sharing power
The Partnership should work to the following principles:
- diversity
- inclusion and widening participation
- accessible
- relevant
- honesty
- leadership
A report of the event can be found at here (PDF) .
Our latest event was looking at some of the details of what is needed to make the Co-Production Partnership work. These were held over three events, in Keighley, Bradford and online.
What type of person do we want to be members of the Partnership?
We began by looking at what sort of person do we want to be part of the Co-Production Partnership board. Some common issues were mentioned frequently. These included that board members need to be able to communicate with the wider disability community, as well as needing a good understanding of the needs of disabled people. The idea around the need for there to be a wide range of people, reflecting the diversity of the communities in Bradford was also seen as important.
How will members of the Board be chosen?
There was also a discussion on how members of the board would be selected. People were given three ideas to discuss. The first idea was that once the working groups were set up, they would send people to be members of the board. The good thing about this is that it would focus on practical issues facing disabled people. However, it may mean that issues which the board aren’t looking at might be missed.
The next idea was that different disabled people’s organisations would each send a representative. This would give a wide range of view points, but would exclude disabled people who are not connected to organisations.
The final idea was that there would be a small panel of disabled people who would interview potential members of a Partnership Board. It was felt that this could ensure that there was broad range of disabled people, although many people would be put off by such a formal process.
People liked parts of each, and as we take the Partnership forward, we will take the best parts of each.
Priority areas for the Partnership
People were also given an opportunity to highlight which areas they felt the Partnership should concentrate on first. The four top issues which will the Partnership will concentrate on initially are: independence and choice; access to services; accessible information and day services.
A report from the September events will be written up, and should be available in early November.
Our latest Co-Production Partnership event is called Taking Co-Production Forward.
The event will bring together disabled people, carers and people who run and work in services. It will be an opportunity for people say what is important for them as we enter the next stage of our co-production journey.
The event will be held on Monday 4th March. It starts at 10.30am and finishes at 3.00pm. It will be held at Margaret McMillan Tower in the centre of Bradford.
We are trying to make sure the event is accessible to as many people as possible.
The venue has
- level access
- accessible toilets
- a hearing loop
- We have booked BSL interpreters
If you have other access needs please tell us when you book your place.
To book your place visit coproduction-bradford.eventbrite.co.uk
Digital Updates
In this section you will be able to download digital updates.
We also have updates in:
Audio Updates
Here you will find audio updates.
Large Print Updates
Here you will find large print updates.
Easy Read Updates
Here you will find easy read updates.