It is whether anything is different because they were. Co-production built into how things are designed and delivered, rather than consultation arriving after most of the decision is already fixed.
The intent is real. What is missing is a way of running it that survives contact with a delivery timetable and a budget.
People noticed. Going back to the same community a second time without acknowledging that is the fastest way to lose them for good.
This is the moment it is worth doing. Involvement before the shape is fixed changes the shape. Involvement afterwards changes the foreword.
Some of it will be fixed by statute, money or a decision already taken. Being straight about that at the start is what makes the rest credible.
The readiness workshop is not a formality. If the honest answer is that very little is genuinely open to influence, it is better to find that out before an invitation goes out than afterwards.
An honest look at what is genuinely open to influence, what is already fixed by money, statute or a decision taken, and who actually holds the power over each part. If very little is open, it is far better to know that now.
Sessions run through your forums, networks and partners wherever possible, because they reach people who already trust the invitation. The constraints are stated openly at the start rather than discovered later.
What people described is carried into the document that actually governs delivery, with a summary that is straight about what could not change and why. That last part is what makes people willing to come back.
It is not a consultation exercise with a better name. If the decision is already made and what you need is evidence that people were asked, I am the wrong person, and I would rather say so now than take the fee.
It is not a promise that everybody gets what they asked for. Co-production done properly involves telling people plainly what could not change and why, which is harder than it sounds and is the part that earns trust.
And it is not a one-off event. If the sessions happen and nothing in the specification moves, the work has failed regardless of how well the room went.
If you are weighing up whether this is the right moment, that is exactly the conversation to have before anything is committed.
Practical consultancy for public systems, commercial enterprises, founder-led organisations and community interest companies.