12 May 2009
Procurement revolution will come at a price
Rob Sykes and Sarah Wood
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Managing the commissioning process will require even more officer skills as budgets grow ever tighter, say Rob Sykes and Sarah Wood.
At a recent workshop attended by a mix of agencies, a clear message rang out.
Even before the economic crisis bites, commissioners are struggling to deliver the radical change in services which will meet users’ and carers’ needs.
There seem to be two issues. It has long-been recognised that providers and stakeholders should be involved with the process, not least because they have the most knowledge of current services and what is possible.
However, we were shocked to hear that in at least one health community, there is an increasing reluctance among providers to co-operate unless there are guarantees about the outcome of the commissioning process.
The second is not new, but may become increasingly important. We heard of providers becoming more sophisticated at managing the political process to protect their position.
It shouldn’t be a surprise that providers and stakeholders use the media and politicians – that’s democracy. The issue is, what should commissioners do about it?
Well, the first thing is to pay as much attention to decommissioning as to commissioning. You can have the best strategy in the world, but, if the first time you close a home to replace it with a community service, the media and political attention is such that you have to backtrack, the strategy will be lost.
As we move into a very difficult period for public spending, it has never been more important to have first-rate multi-agency commissioning, but in the past, commissioning has all too often been seen as a bureaucratic process which needs assessment, specification and procurement.
Commissioners will need to be robust at managing markets, ensuring providers are helped to change, and introducing new providers to stimulate innovation. In a world of individual budgets, they will recognise that new approaches to the market are required.
Most of all, they will recognise that commissioning is a deeply political process. It’s easy to involve politicians in developing and opening things – the real skill is working with politicians to manage the decommissioning process.
Rob Sykes and Sarah Wood are consultants for Caret
At a recent workshop attended by a mix of agencies, a clear message rang out.
Even before the economic crisis bites, commissioners are struggling to deliver the radical change in services which will meet users’ and carers’ needs.
There seem to be two issues. It has long-been recognised that providers and stakeholders should be involved with the process, not least because they have the most knowledge of current services and what is possible.
However, we were shocked to hear that in at least one health community, there is an increasing reluctance among providers to co-operate unless there are guarantees about the outcome of the commissioning process.
The second is not new, but may become increasingly important. We heard of providers becoming more sophisticated at managing the political process to protect their position.
It shouldn’t be a surprise that providers and stakeholders use the media and politicians – that’s democracy. The issue is, what should commissioners do about it?
Well, the first thing is to pay as much attention to decommissioning as to commissioning. You can have the best strategy in the world, but, if the first time you close a home to replace it with a community service, the media and political attention is such that you have to backtrack, the strategy will be lost.
As we move into a very difficult period for public spending, it has never been more important to have first-rate multi-agency commissioning, but in the past, commissioning has all too often been seen as a bureaucratic process which needs assessment, specification and procurement.
Commissioners will need to be robust at managing markets, ensuring providers are helped to change, and introducing new providers to stimulate innovation. In a world of individual budgets, they will recognise that new approaches to the market are required.
Most of all, they will recognise that commissioning is a deeply political process. It’s easy to involve politicians in developing and opening things – the real skill is working with politicians to manage the decommissioning process.
Rob Sykes and Sarah Wood are consultants for Caret
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