WSCC Drug & Alcohol Partnership Evaluation Highlights the Value of Meaningful Co-production

The West Sussex Drug and Alcohol Partnership (WS DAP) has published its evaluation of the Community Fund programme, highlighting the impact of investing in community-led projects that are designed and delivered alongside people with lived and living experience.

At CAPITAL, we were proud to act as the Lived Experience and Recovery Organisation throughout the programme, supporting the delivery of a model that placed lived experience at the heart of decision making, project development and oversight. Reading the evaluation is a welcome opportunity to reflect on what was achieved together, the challenges encountered, and the important learning that can help shape future programmes.

A community-led approach

Between Autumn 2024 and Spring 2026, the Community Fund programme supported nine community-led projects through national DATRIG funding. The programme was designed to explore whether small-scale, co-produced projects could be delivered safely, accountably and in line with both national and local priorities for the West Sussex Drug and Alcohol Partnership.

The evaluation concludes that this approach was successful, finding that co-produced community-funded projects can be delivered safely and accountably while remaining aligned with statutory priorities. It also suggests that, with appropriate adaptation, the model has the potential to be replicated in other areas where lived experience is essential to improving services and driving innovation.

Meaningful co-production

One of the strongest themes throughout the evaluation is the importance of genuine co-production.

Rather than involving people with lived and living experience as a consultation exercise, the programme embedded co-production throughout project design, assessment, delivery and oversight. According to the evaluation, this helped ensure lived experience involvement was meaningful rather than tokenistic.

The report also found that participants experienced increased confidence, developed new skills, improved their wellbeing and built stronger social connections. These outcomes were supported by trusting relationships between statutory partners and CAPITAL, demonstrating the value of creating spaces where lived experience is recognised as expertise.

Alongside this, the evaluation highlights how the funded projects contributed across the partnership’s priorities, including improving access to treatment, supporting people with co-occurring needs, strengthening peer leadership, promoting housing stability and developing peer support networks.

Strong foundations for community-led work

The evaluation also recognises the importance of having the right structures in place to support community-led delivery.

Robust governance arrangements, independent lived experience review, regular oversight, staged funding and clear financial accountability enabled projects to be delivered within agreed budgets while supporting both participant wellbeing and effective risk management.

For us at CAPITAL, this reflects something we have long championed: meaningful co-production works best when people are trusted, supported and provided with the right foundations to succeed.

Learning for the future

Importantly, the evaluation also provides an honest reflection on the challenges experienced throughout the programme.

It identifies short funding timescales as a significant constraint, noting that building trust, developing partnerships and mobilising community projects all require time. Administrative and regulatory requirements also created barriers for some groups, while projects that relied heavily on one individual were naturally more vulnerable to disruption.

Rather than viewing these as shortcomings of community-led delivery, the report highlights opportunities to strengthen future programmes through earlier planning, improved readiness assessments, stronger partnership working and greater flexibility within funding arrangements.

Looking ahead

The evaluation offers valuable learning not only for the West Sussex Drug and Alcohol Partnership, but also for commissioners, public health leaders and organisations interested in embedding lived experience within service design.

It concludes that while co-produced community funding requires significant investment during its early stages, particularly in relationship building, governance and support, this investment delivers wider benefits through increased trust, stronger partnerships, community empowerment and improved system insight.

We are incredibly grateful to everyone who contributed to this programme. Thank you to the people who shared their lived and living experience, the community organisations that developed and delivered projects, our colleagues across the West Sussex Drug and Alcohol Partnership, and everyone who worked together to make this programme possible.

At CAPITAL, we remain committed to ensuring lived experience is recognised as expertise and that co-production continues to shape better services, stronger communities and more inclusive decision making. We hope the learning from this evaluation encourages continued investment in approaches that place people and communities at the centre of change.

We encourage anyone with an interest in co-production, public health and lived experience leadership to read the full evaluation and explore its findings.

Read and hear more:

View Full Report

View Written Summary

Drug & Alcohol Partnership Page

To hear more from those featured in the DAP work, listen to our CAPITAL Connections podcast where you’ll hear from Dan Barritt, Robert Whitehead, Javel Watt, Jo Ball and more.