Co-production of public services is an increasingly popular tool in public management, although it is still a new phenomenon in Poland. Despite the attention researchers give to co-production, some significant gaps remain. In this article, the author attempts to examine the legal possibility of implementing co-production by the Polish local government by local initiative and Solecki Fund. The article aims to examine how major Polish cities gathered in Union in Polish Metropolises used local initiatives. The next step in research is to find out how Solecki Fund is spread among rural areas according to statistical data. It is proved that only a handful of local governments in Poland are truly engaged in co-production. However, Solecki Fund can be shown as an excellent example of citizens’ engagement. It is presented a possible agenda on what can be done to make co-production more popular and used on a regular basis not only in metropolitan but also rural areas.

The co-creation/co-production paradigm received significant attention in the last decades from Public Administration managers, officials, and scholars as a viable tool to overcome the limits of the New Public Management framework. Some scholars recognise that co-creation can be the basis for building an alternative administration model called New Public Governance. Other research found that co-creation is an innovative practice in the social investment policy frame. A more recent EU research project examines the idea and practice of co-creation in public services informed by lived experience pilots in 10 European countries. This paper presents the Italian case as an example of an institutional configuration open to the citizens’ participation in the co-design of public services. The paper is organised as follows. In the first paragraph, we illustrate the recent development of the legislation concerning the participation of citizens and civil society organisations in designing and delivering public services and/or management of common goods. The second paragraph deals with a deep analysis of “grey material” and scientific publications concerning the history, evolution and future perspectives of the “Shared Administration” procedures. The third paragraph presents a case study of collaboration between citizens, Third Sector/Civil Society Organisations (TSO/CSO) and public administration at the local level (Municipality of Bologna). The conclusive paragraph summarises the key findings of our study.

The concept of Health Promoting Schools (HPS) aims to cause the desired changes in the health of the whole school community. Simultaneously, pupils are among the most important actors in the school setting. The successful implementation of the HPS idea depends on pupils’ active participation and contribution – which can be considered in the context of co-production services. It is based on the assumption that the effectiveness of services depends on broad involvement and appropriate contribution to their implementation not only by the organisers, but also by the direct recipients. Co-production can also develop in other phases: shaping the value chain, service planning, design, launch, management, delivery, monitoring and evaluation. Therefore, co-production builds support for planned interventions and creates a sense of co-responsibility among people involved in its development. Interventions that encourage stakeholder co-production are increasing, particularly in schools. The article discusses quantitative research results conducted among 500 school coordinators of HPS Programs implemented in Polish primary and secondary schools belonging to the HPS Network. So far, no research has been done in Poland on students’ co-productive behaviour as part of HPS programmes. Therefore, this article shows the potential of co-production approaches to promote health in Polish schools more effectively.