Sponsoring a co-design process

Sponsoring co-design is different to sponsoring change

True co-design in healthcare is hard and may not work for the project you are sponsoring.

Find out more about co-designing with limited time, money and resources.

To find out more about sponsoring change projects, read the Redesign Sponsor fact sheet.

Co-design can’t be rushed, it takes time to build relationships

Building relationships with people who have lived experience of the problem you are trying to solve is key to co-design. As with any relationship, building trust and connection takes time. Consider whether the project you are sponsoring can build additional time into the initiation phase to enable the co-design team to really get to know and trust each other. This may include having an informal meet-and-greet before starting the project work, as well as regular informal check ins. By investing this time upfront, you gain longer-term benefits, saving time and money by avoiding implementing the wrong solutions.

Listen to your redesign or consumer engagement lead

When considering sponsoring a co-design project, this is a great time to have a conversation with your leads in this area. Most local health districts and specialty health networks have a dedicated redesign lead and/or consumer engagement lead. They may be able to advise you about whether co-design is a good fit for this piece of work, or whether a different level of engagement would be more suitable for your goals and organisation.

Often, collaboration is a great place to start if your team doesn’t have experience leading co-design.

For NSW Health employees only:

To find out who your redesign lead is, visit the ACI redesign local redesign leaders webpage.
If you’re not sure who your consumer engagement lead is, email the ACI Consumer Engagement team

Is your project co-design ready?

Here are some questions for you and your project lead to discuss together, before you decide that co-design is the right fit for your work.

Question	Response
Do we engage consumers well in our organisation? Great! You've got some good foundations set and might be ready to co-design. Focus on completing a different level of engagement well, such as consulting or collaborating, before jumping straight to co-design.	Yes No
Have we decided what the solution to our problem is already? It's hard to co-design when a solution, or deliverable, has already been decided. The co-design team needs room to design the solution themselves. Focus on a different level of engagement, for example you could consult or collaborate on solution options. Great! This might be a good project for co-design.	Yes No
Is there any scope for consumers and clinicians to co-lead decision making on this piece of work, without being overridden? Great! This might be a good project for co-design. If decision making can't be shared, this won't be a co-design project. Focus on a different level of engagement instead.	Yes No
Is our timeframe short for our scope of change? It's hard to do co-design well in a short timeframe. Focus on a different level of engagement instead. Great! This might be a good project for co-design.	Yes No
Do we have pre-existing relationships or previously recruited consumers who are the right people to be involved? Great! This might be a good project for co-design. Make sure you're including a diverse range of people in your co-design project, not just the usual, often-heard voices. Make sure you factor in some time for recruitment. It can take a bit longer than you might think, depending on the people you're wanting to involve.	Yes No
Has anyone involved in the project participated or led co-design before? Great! The team is more likely to succeed if at least one person has been involved in co-design before. The team will need some support with co-design methodology and processes. How will you help them access this?	Yes No
Do we have anyone experienced in facilitating co-design who can support the team? Great! The team is more likely to succeed if they have support from an experienced co-design facilitator. The team will need some support to lead co-design. How will you help them access this? Some ideas: Checking with your Redesign and consumer engagement leads about contacts External courses and coaches	Yes No or not sure
Are consumers and staff interested and available to be involved? Great! This might be a good project for co-design. Who can help you reach the right consumer and staff groups to raise awareness? If people are not interested and available to be involved, it may not be a problem worth solving.	Yes No or not sure
Is there budget available for this project? Great! This might be a good project for co-design. Co-design includes paying consumers for their time and expenses, and enabling staff to have time away from their normal duties to lead and be involved in this work. For more information about consumer remuneration, read the NSW Health Consumer, carer and community member remuneration guideline. Co-design includes paying consumers for their time and expenses, and enabling staff to have time away from their normal duties to lead and be involved in this work. If there's no budget available for these things, consider a different level of engagement. For more information about consumer remuneration, read the NSW Health Consumer, carer and community member remuneration guideline	Yes No

You can also use our organisational co-design readiness assessment

For more questions to help you plan engagement, review NSW Health’s All of Us planning questions.

About co-design

Co-design is a way to make things together, to improve something

A simple way to understand co-design is to break down the word:

Co	=	collaborative, cooperative, collective (together)
Design	=	a practice / process to make things
Co-design	=	making things together, to improve something

ACI’s co-design process has four key steps

Start up and engage
Frame the project problem, build the team and get ready for co-design.
Gather
Build understanding by learning from lived experience.
Understand
Make sense of what you have learnt, identifying the key touchpoints and opportunities to improve.
Improve
Create solutions; prototype, test and learn; adapt; implement and evaluate.

How to co-design a resource or publication

Many NSW Health staff choose to dip their toes into co-design by co-designing a resource or publication with consumers and staff.

The co-design toolkit steps and tools can help you develop a resource. A process to co-design a resource or publication over a series of four workshops is outlined below.

Example resource co-design process

Workshop templates

Use the four session plan and testing templates to help you develop your own process for co-designing a resource.

Solution design testing template (DOC 99.9 KB)

Sponsoring a co-design process

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