We have been working with partners across the system to explore how we might commission more collaboratively; leveraging the value of the knowledge, skills and expertise of people who use services, carers, front-line staff, providers and commissioners.
What characterises current commissioning processes?
- Misguided regulation anxiety
Leading to a climate that reduces meaningful collaboration with providers and people who use services - An over focus on needs
Joint needs assessments often focus purely on the need of a cohort often failing to identify their inherent or potential capacity and asset base - Lack of useful, reliable and up-to-date local intelligence
This leads to localized services being designed and evidenced using national data which often fails to identify with local needs and aspirations - Risk averse commissioning reduces opportunities for real innovation
Often due to a lack of useful dialogue between providers and commissioners about risk and unexamined anxieties - Commissioning and procurement as a reductive process
This leads to localized services being designed and evidenced using national data which often fails - Short-term and static specifications and contracting
Limited opportunities for services to change in order to meet shifting needs of cohorts and limited maintained dialogue between commissioners and providers - Collaboration is weak
This leads to a lack of effective working between commissioners and providers and between providers and providers - Orthodoxy to create economies of scale produces static markets
This leads to commissioning not shaping supply chains or creating overly dominant prime providers - “We already do co-production”
Misguided or misleading translation of the core principles of co-production often leads to a lack of meaningful engagement with people who use services, their cares and families
Our definition of commissioning:
Commissioning is about enabling an effective dynamic with communities and individuals to understands their needs, their assets and their aspirations, in order to fund and guarantee effective, meaningful and efficient support
What charecterises a collaborative commissioning process?
- Assesses needs, aspirations and assets
Engages with people in meaningful ways in order to gather localized intelligence of needs, aspirations and assets - Is of real value and meaning to all
Engaging in a collaborative process helps providers to deliver better, more effective and innovative services and enables people who use services to shape the nature of support the receive. - Collaboration is the default
The practice of collaboration is the core process of all elements of commissioning, including the assessment, design, delivery and measurement. - Positive competition is used to drive collaboration towards achieving better outcomes
To enable a range of suppliers (including new suppliers) to compete together to define and meet targets that support better outcomes - Actively shapes markets
By ensuring better community intelligence, better processes of design and smarter governance, commissioning drives the options for supply. - Specifications are iterative and change over time to best meet the needs and assets
By ensuring better community intelligence, better processes of design and smarter governance, commissioning will drive the options for supply - Collaborative principles define and assess all interactions
All planning of processes and interactions are led by the 6 principles of co-production and their success is assessed against these also. - Outcomes and impacts are assessed dynamically, using diverse methods
Measurements of the success of services is continually made using a range of touchpoints and feedback options to ensure that measurement is informed by individuals that include; people who use services, families , carers and front-line staff. - Accountability panels to challenge and spread co-production
Accountability for upholding a co-production and collaborative led approach to commissioning will be distributed across panels made up to include; community members, people who use services, staff, service providers and commissioners. - Is a shared learning process that builds expertise and holds onto it
Risks and subsequent failures and successes are openly acknowledged and debated and all process act to build expertise and capabilities in how to best commission support.
To explore the commissioning model, please view the slideshow below: