Reflections from the Ground: Insights from Key Circle Leads

To complement the thematic analysis and wider stakeholder interviews, we conducted a series of in-depth conversations with two key members of the Clapton Circle team: Luke, Team Starter and Pilot Project Lead, and Aga, Commons Organiser. As the central figures responsible for stewarding the project on the ground, they provided invaluable insights into how the core components of the model—Circles, Teams, Platform, and Commons—were implemented, adapted, and experienced in real time.

Across six hours of structured conversation, we explored each of the 43 Outputs in our Theory of Change, using three guiding questions:

1. What did you do?

2. What did you learn?

3. What are your recommendations?

Their reflections bring an operational and systems-level perspective to the evaluation. This section distills those insights and presents them in three parts, aligned with the organisational logic of the model:

• Circle Outputs: how local organising, volunteer involvement, and participatory governance were enacted;

• Team Outputs: how care teams were formed, supported, and experienced by those involved;

• Platform Outputs: how digital tools and systems helped—or hindered—communication, coordination, and transparency.

• Commons Outputs: the broader ecosystem of care involving volunteers, community partners, informal networks, gifting practices, and partnership strategy

Across these domains, Luke and Aga’s reflections surface crucial learning about what it takes to realise the ambitions of a commons-based model of care: the conditions that enable local ownership, the gaps that emerge when systems or tools don’t align with lived realities, and the value of trust, participation, and relationships in sustaining care beyond formal service delivery.

These reflections sit at the intersection of practice and strategy. They are deeply personal and politically instructive—capturing both the everyday decisions that shaped the pilot and the structural shifts required to sustain this work at scale. Taken together, they form a vital learning resource for anyone involved in designing, stewarding, or evaluating participatory care systems.

In addition to these strategic and experiential insights, their work also led to the development of two practical tools designed to support future practice:

• The Care Commons Organiser Role Description, which outlines the responsibilities and competencies needed to steward a local care commons

• The Co-Production Capacity Assessment Tool, which helps project leads assess whether potential partners are ready and equipped to collaborate meaningfully within a commons-based model

Both tools are included in the pages that follow and offer actionable frameworks for organisations looking to deepen shared governance, strengthen partnerships, and embed co-production into the fabric of local care systems.