Commissioning Advice
Community and voluntary organisations play a vital role in delivering public services. When engaging with the third sector, departments need to be clear as to whether they are "shopping" (buying a service), "giving" (supporting a worthy cause) or "investing" (building capacity in the sector) and adapt their approach to funding accordingly.
The role for public bodies and voluntary organisations
So what roles can public bodies and VCOs play in the wider public service reform agenda? In its report Hearts and Minds, the National Audit Commission makes the following recommendations:
Local public bodies should:
- Engage local voluntary organisations in service planning, to benefit from their knowledge of clients.
- Engage voluntary organisations in designing commissioning processes that encourage a diverse supply base.
- Assess the impact of their commissioning practice on the size and diversity of their local supplier base, and the consequent prospects of securing improved value for money.
- Apply intelligent commissioning practice, thinking carefully about: the kind of services that they want to procure for a range of service users; the types of organisations that are likely to be able to deliver at an affordable price; how best to construct a commissioning process that will ensure that a variety of delivery organisations have the opportunity and incentive to deliver services, where they are well placed to do so, and that they receive funding in the most appropriate form.
- Improve how they measure value for money in public services, by shifting the current focus on inputs, outputs, and unit costs, towards long-term measurement of outcomes and effectiveness.
- Develop their financial management information systems to enable them to assess the value for money they secure from different providers and to assess the impact of their commissioning practice on the voluntary sector.
Voluntary organisations should:
- Improve their understanding of their costs and submit high-quality, fully costed bids for service delivery contracts that address commissioners' service objectives.
- Evaluate their own value for money and use that evaluation to make the case for service delivery through the voluntary sector to local public bodies.
- Work closely with local public bodies, regulatory organisations and improvement agencies to develop consensus on measuring value for money.
