CAPITAL Connections Episode 4🎙️: West Sussex County Council Community Fund with Robert Whitehead and Dan Barritt

Episode 4 of CAPITAL Connections is here!

What happens when public services move beyond consultation and place trust, resources and decision-making power directly into the hands of people with lived experience?

In the latest episode of the CAPITAL Connections Podcast, Sara is joined by Dan Barritt, Public Health Lead for Substance Use at West Sussex County Council, and Rob Whitehead, Principal Research Officer at West Sussex County Council, to discuss the Community Fund, co-production, and the impact of lived experience-led initiatives.

Putting Trust into Practice

The Community Fund was developed to support people with lived and living experience to design and deliver projects that matter to them and their communities.

Rather than commissioning solutions from the top down, the aim was to give people the opportunity to identify priorities, develop ideas, and lead meaningful change themselves.

As Rob explains:

“We wanted to take these public monies and actually put them in the hands of the public, of people who had lived and living experience.”

The project was built around the principles of co-production, recognising that people with lived experience bring expertise, insight and creativity that cannot be replicated elsewhere.

More Than Consultation

Throughout the conversation, Dan and Rob discuss the difference between genuine co-production and traditional engagement approaches.

For them, co-production is about much more than gathering feedback. It means sharing power, building trust and creating opportunities for people to influence decisions from the beginning.

Rob reflects on the importance of trusting both people and the process:

“Have faith in your own words, have faith in the textbook definition.”

This trust created the space for people to develop innovative ideas, lead projects and build confidence in their own abilities.

The Power of Support

One of the key themes of the episode is that successful co-production requires support.

The Community Fund model enabled participants to take ownership of their projects while having access to guidance, encouragement and practical help along the way.

Sara highlights the impact this had on participants:

“People have really said to me they felt really supported, they felt that they can be creative, they felt safe, they felt trusting.”

The result was not only successful projects, but opportunities for personal growth, confidence building and leadership development.

Trauma-Informed Practice and Lived Experience

The conversation also explores the development of trauma-informed substance use training, co-produced by CAPITAL and Alcohol Change UK.

Dan explains the importance of understanding the relationship between trauma, stigma and substance use:

“We know that trauma is a huge catalyst and driver of dependence.”

While awareness of trauma-informed approaches has grown, the training aimed to go further by exploring the specific stigma faced by people affected by drug and alcohol use and ensuring lived experience remained central to the learning process.

The inclusion of lived experience voices helped bring the training to life, providing real-world context and helping professionals better understand how to support people with dignity, compassion and respect.

Looking to the Future

Both Dan and Rob emphasise that co-production is not always straightforward. It requires courage, honesty, flexibility and a willingness to learn.

However, they also agree that the outcomes make the investment worthwhile.

Reflecting on the journey, Rob shares:

“It might be scary and it might even be uncomfortable, but after you run a programme like this, you get so much more confidence around co-production.”

The episode is a powerful reminder that meaningful change happens when people are trusted, included and supported to lead.

We’ve got more conversations coming soon – stay connected and follow us!