National Programme for Third Sector Commissioning

Public Sector Commissioning: Strategy and Oversight

Elected members and non executive directors play a critical role in the strategy for the involvement of 3^rd sector organisations in both planning and delivery of public sector services.

London Councils has IDeA funding to develop commissioning tools for elected Members in local government and non executive members in the NHS to build:

• Opportunities for joint commissioning of services from the third sector between statutory agencies
• Awareness of the opportunities and capacity of the third sector
• Enhanced knowledge of the commissioning process and
• Tools to enable assessment of delivery of local strategies and outcomes for success in building community services.

We are consulting elected Members and non-executive members in the NHS to redefine their commissioning needs. These findings will be used to develop a toolkit for their use in delivering commissioning in their local boroughs. An online survey is included in the link on the left.

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Our project will:

• Deliver interactive learning sessions for 50 councillors in local government, including non executive members of NHS primary care trusts in London in March 2010.
• Foster participation by  3^rd sector agencies in identifying key issues, capacity and opportunities
• Develop proposals, building on effective actions from the National Programme, that can support building capacity amongst 3^rd sector providers and generate new markets
• Consider the equality of opportunity and working in diverse communities and moving to the universal offer provided by local authorities and partners
• Review opportunities for meeting the current economic challenges
• Develop a model strategy for the development of third sector delivery of services including opportunities for diversification of supplier base to respond to demand from people using individual budgets and direct payments in social care and health for children and adults

The programme will emphasise the strategic role of local government and consider the opportunities for an enhanced role of third sector agencies in delivery of wellbeing, prevention, participation in LAA/LSP and personalisation.

The outcomes of the project will be:

• A programme for distribution and delivery to England including:
• A model strategy and tools to support effective commissioning and enable 3^rd sector providers to contribute to meeting priorities and provide contracted services
• Key questions and models for assessment of the local strategies that support engagement and deliver community based quality services.

We are consulting elected Members and non-executive members in the NHS to redefine their commissioning needs. These findings will be used to develop a toolkit for their use in delivering commissioning in their local boroughs. An online survey is included in the link below.

Take our survey

You can also find more information about the project on the IDeA website.