Making Space crowned Care Innovation Challenge 2025 winners with the co-production Making It Real G.A.M.E

Published 13 October 2025

Making Space crowned Care Innovation Challenge 2025 winners with the co-production Making It Real G.A.M.E

We’re absolutely delighted to share that Making Space has been crowned winner of the Care Innovation Challenge 2025 at the Care Show in Birmingham!

Our Making It Real G.A.M.E, a creative co-production tool that brings the Making It Real framework to life, impressed judges and earned us the title of 2025 Challenge Winner, along with £1,000 in prize money and ongoing support from industry mentors and experts by experience to help us take the idea even further.

The Care Innovation Challenge, delivered by the National Care Forum, is a national incubator for bold and creative ideas designed to improve the future of care. Each year, the competition brings together innovators, care professionals, and people with lived experience to collaborate, co-design, and pitch new ways of working that make a difference.

Our team - including colleagues Keri Smith (Director of Development) and Rachel Horton (Regional Head of Operations), and representatives from our Making Change Group, such as Ben, proudly represented Making Space in this year’s final, introducing the Making It Real G.A.M.E to judges and Care Show visitors.

Keri Smith, said:

We’re over the moon to have won the Care Innovation Challenge 2025. The whole experience has been incredible, and I want to thank everyone who stopped by to say hello, play the game, and share their feedback. The enthusiasm from the sector has been amazing.

Winning this challenge means we can now take the Making It Real G.A.M.E to the next level, developing new versions, testing it in more settings, and helping even more people experience meaningful co-production.

This win is a testament to the passion and creativity of our team, and to the voices of people with lived experience who have shaped every part of this project. We can’t wait to see where it goes next.

The Making It Real G.A.M.E — short for Guided Approach to Meaningful Engagement — transforms the Making It Real framework into an interactive board game that makes co-production practical, playful, and powerful.

Through colourful boards, conversation cards, and shared reflection, teams explore what’s working well, what could be improved, and how services can become more person-centred. It’s designed to break down barriers, build genuine partnerships, and embed co-production in everyday practice.

Already recognised nationally, including as a winner of the Housing with Care Award for Tenant Co-Production, the game is being used across Making Space to strengthen collaboration between people who draw on care and the teams who support them.

Ben, a member of the Making Change Group who helped present the game at the challenge, said:

I loved showing people how the game works. It helps everyone talk and listen to each other. I’m really proud to be involved and that we actually won.

Rachel Peacock, CEO of Making Space, added:

We’re so proud of this achievement. The Making It Real G.A.M.E perfectly captures what Making Space stands for - partnership, creativity, and co-production in action.

To see colleagues and people we support working side by side to design something that’s making a real difference is inspiring. This award is recognition of what can happen when lived experience leads the way.

We’re excited to keep building on this success and to share the G.A.M.E with others across the sector.

Following the win, the team will continue developing the Making It Real G.A.M.E, including exploring a digital version, with input from mentors, experts by experience, and frontline teams, ensuring it reaches more services, communities, and care settings where it can make the greatest impact.

We’d like to extend our warmest congratulations to all the other finalists, the creativity, collaboration, and passion on display across the sector were truly inspiring.

Find out more about the Care Innovation Challenge here.

Click here to learn more about co-production at Making Space or to get involved, contact us at co-production@makingspace.co.uk.