Holding the commissioners feet to the fire

Many of you will have heard me talk of the growing importance and evolvement of the commissioning role in the provision of policing and wider public service provision.

I was therefore intrigued this week to read a speech by Dame Denise Platt DBE, Chair of the Commission for Social Care Inspection, to the National Commissioning and Contracting Conference in Derbyshire on the 10 July.

Dame Denise talks specifically about the commissioning of social care, but the cross over and applicability to other forms of public sector commissioning are marked.

The CSCI (Dame Denise’s organisation) defines commissioning as “The process of translating aspirations into timely and quality services for people which meet their needs, promote their independence, provide choice, are cost-effective, and support the whole community.”

She argues that people’s expectations will be a significant driver of the way services are commissioned and provided in future and that current ways of commissioning services will have to change.

The current process isn’t always well understood and is often confused with contracting and procurement.  Councils have invested resources to support quality assurance of services they have contracted – but much of their focus is concentrated on contract compliance which does not focus on outcomes.

Understanding people’s needs and aspirations – by actively seeking the views and perspectives of people of all ages, and by engaging fully with every community is, the CSCI think, the basis for effective commissioning. This marketing and market led approach to service creation, provision and delivery provides clear resonance with the Citizen Focus and Neighbourhood Policing agendas.

In more than a passing nod to frustration, she identifies that “Councils are under pressure to achieve ‘efficiency savings’ and this pressure won’t go away with the current spending review – but such savings do not always sit comfortably with strategic objectives for flexible, person-centred, high quality services. Systems are too often set up to ensure accountability to the Town Hall rather than the person receiving a service.” Here too are clear parallels with the current delivery of policing services.

Dame Denise also acknowledges the ‘place shaping’ role of councils that was set out in the Lyons Enquiry Report, service deliverers setting the local agenda for their communities rather than simply reacting to outside forces.

In her speech she sets out three key challenges for commissioners.

First, involving the public and people who use services.

The needs and expectations of people who use services should drive changes in the way they are commissioned and delivered. Commissioners need to make it a priority to find out what people want and need, and involve them in considering how services can be developed based on their lived experience – rather than on organisational systems and processes.

The next challenge is to encourage flexibility and innovation.

Commissioning requires greater flexibility between services than people currently experience – as well as more effective integration not just between services but also within them.

And finally, one of the biggest challenges is working out what effective joint commissioning will look like in the future.

Challenges for councils are greater than ever. They have to manage people’s rising expectations of higher quality services. To stretch the resources available to do different things.

Getting it right is going to require new ways of working and thinking. Using the commissioning process to make services better for people will depend on commissioners being willing to exercise their imagination and take risks, and think of their whole community.

All in all, a thought provoking speech which can be found in its entirety here