Co-production and person-centred care in neoliberal conditions

Abstract

Person-centred care and co-production may seem to have the potential to work hand-in-hand, with co-production poised to support services in their aims of centring persons as equal agents in their own care. Equally, there seem inherent tensions in pursuing co-production in a socio-political climate that gauges the value of services in terms of a narrow sense of economic efficiency. This article explores those tensions, and what we argue is the false neutrality of neoliberal assumptions about value. We offer a critique of the possibility of achieving meaningful person-centred care, or meaningful coproduction, in such a context. We set out the commitments of person-centred care, and explore how coproduction might assist in the realisation of each of those promises - as well as the material and interpersonal conditions that limit and constrain both person-centred care and co-production. We invite the reader to consider a social model of co-production, in which the possibility of the equal creation of care may be realised.