Activating the 'Big Society': Developing evidence on the underlying conditions for individual and community co-production

Co-production-professional and citizens working together to deliver public services- has long been a focus of attention and that attention will increase in an era of austerity and driven by ideas about activating the Big Society. Co-production comes in two familiar forms. The first is where individuals work to meet their own needs alongside professionals. The other is where individuals work collectively to meet the needs of their community through volunteering or engaging in joint action. This research looks at what drives citizen participation in these individual and collective forms of co-production through surveys in five local authorities in England and Wales. The level of individual co-production is substantially higher than collective co-production. Both forms show increased levels where people are more satisfied with consultation and when they have a strong sense that they can make a difference. Levels of individual and collective co-production did not vary much with socio-economic variables although greater age tends to be negatively associated with individual co-production but positively with collective co-production. Our main policy recommendation flows from our findings: public authorities need to do more to convince citizens that their actions will make a positive difference if they wish to see co-production levels increase.