About the Pilot:
The Oxfordshire Care Co-op Pilot aims to understand and test how co-operative and co-produced models and approaches can fill gaps in the current market and solve challenges in the Adult Social Care sector in Oxfordshire and create more ownership and voice for both care workers and care users.
The project has been funded by Oxfordshire County Council and is being delivered by a partnership including: African Families in the UK, Community Catalysts, Co-operative Futures, Oxford Community Action and Prof Maria Daskalaki, Professor in Organisation Studies, Oxford Brookes University. The project is also supported by Owned By Oxford.
What we’ve done so far:
Participatory Community Research:
We’ve held three participatory community research sessions with those with lived experience of care and other key stakeholders working in the sector to contribute to mapping a baseline priorities and needs assessment. This will help us design the business with co-production at its heart. We’re also conducting market research and learning best practice from other care co-operatives. We will be sharing our findings in a report in Autumn 2025.
Learning from Care Co-operatives event:
We held an online webinar where three existing care co-operatives, Co-operative Care Colne Valley, North West Care Co-op and Equal Care explained how care co-ops work and shared their experiences of setting up a care co-op in their localities.
If you’d like to see the presentations, you can find them, along with other resources in the “What is a Care Co-op Section” below.
Next steps:
The next phase of the pilot will involve recruiting potential members and starting the process of setting up a new “pilot” care business using the co-operative model. We will be inviting interested care workers and users of care services to express an interest in becoming a prospective member. More details about what this involves in shared in the film clip on the left.
Express your interest here.
Stay involved
- Get email updates about the project – sign up here.
- Be part of the Whatsapp Community for broadcast messages – Sign up here
- If you have any questions about the care co-op pilot, send us a message to oxfordshirecarecoop@gmail.com
What is a care co-op?
- A business providing care services
- Is owned and controlled by its “members” – these members could either be the care workers or care users or both!
- Decisions about the business, such as pay or working hours, are made collaboratively by the members
- Any profits are reinvested in services or go back to the members.
There are already around 12 co-operatives providing adult social care services in the UK.
Some useful resources about care co-operatives can be found here:
- The Equal Care “Playbook” – a resource for groups wanting to start a care co-op
- Co-operative Care Colne Valley Toolkit – a resource including webinars on co-operative care
- Co-operative Care Colne Valley’s presentation from “Learning from Care Co-ops” webinar
- North West Care Co-op “Going under the bonnet” – four short films explaining how their co-op works
- North West Care Co-op’s presentation from “Learning from Care Co-ops” webinar
You can also find out more about what co-operatives are here.
Watch the “Learning From Care Co-ops” webinar Presentations
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