Transcript Recommending a Strategy

Love me tender?
Commissioning, procurement
and the third sector
Annie Gunner Logan,
Director, Community Care Providers Scotland
Fife Council Commissioning Event, December 2009
Definition of terms
“strategic commissioning is the term used for all the
activities involved in assessing and forecasting needs,
agreeing desired outcomes, considering options, planning
the nature, range and quality of future services and working
in partnership to put these in place…
“…it is not just about purchasing services from external
providers, although this is an important part of the process.”
Social Work Inspection Agency 2009
Spot the difference?
Commissioning
Support for people
What to purchase
Strategic
Partnership
On behalf of community
Outcomes
Best value
Slow pace of development
Low priority/budget
Procurement
Commodities
How to purchase
Specific
Competition
On behalf of authority
Efficiency
Best price
Rapid pace of development
High priority/budget
Spot the difference? Mk II
What is the nature of a social work or social care service?
 a key means of supporting disadvantaged citizens to make
their own decisions, manage their own lives, remain as
independent as possible and achieve outcomes that are
personal to them?
or
 a contract opportunity to be awarded following a competitive
tendering process, which must ensure that all service
providers are treated according to principles of fairness, nondiscrimination and transparency as laid down in the EU
Treaty provisions relating to procurement within the single
market?
Procurement: key issues







Terms of contracts
Tender evaluation criteria
Little (or no) involvement of people using services
Workforce implications
Exemption of direct provision
Terminology
No impact assessment
Ways forward

Set procurement activity firmly within a commissioning
strategy: then,
 Develop shared understanding of what it takes to provide a
quality service, and how that relates to cost
 Develop procurement processes which test capacity to deliver
 Standards for engagement with people supported by existing
services
 Proper consideration of workforce issues
 Work with authorities and other partners to explore
alternatives to tendering
“In accordance with our
principles of free enterprise
and healthy competition, I’m
going to ask you to fight to
the death for it.”
Monty Python and the Holy Grail