What's the relationship between Human Learning Systems and co-production?
/This article was featured in the SCDC Weekly - 15th January 2025
Human Learning Systems (HLS) offers a relational and learning-focussed way of working with the complex reality of people’s lives to support them to flourish.
A recent workshop held during Co-production Week Scotland explored how HLS can support co-production practice. Co-production is a way to design services that combines everyone’s strengths to improve outcomes and achieve positive change.
Human Learning Systems as an approach can help to rethink and reframe how services are designed and delivered, allowing people to come together and create services that work for them – whether they are delivering the service or benefitting from it.
This way of working allows the exploration of the multiple, interconnected and complex actors and factors that shape people’s lives. It mirrors co-design principles, with a focus on prioritising relationships, participation, building capacity and sharing power.
Like co-production, HLS is an ethical approach and can be viewed as a structure for developing the culture change that co-production requires. This can enable a shifting of decision-making structures and people being supported to use their voice to make meaningful change happen.
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