Commissioning In Manchester
The Manchester Model
The Council's vision for improving outcomes for local people is clearly articulated in the Community Strategy 'The Manchester Way 2006-2015,' and the Local Area Agreement (LAA), both of which are fully owned and understood by local partners across the city.
The vision is informed by a robust understanding of local needs and priorities, based on the Manchester Partnership's annual suite of 'state of the city' reports and other needs assessments such as the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA). These needs assessment direct the development of commissioning intentions and the subsequent procurement activity within each of the partner organisations, and through the corporate business planning process for the purposes of the city council.
Building on these well established arrangements, the partnership now also has in place the 'Manchester Model' which is a consolidated version of commissioning models across each of the partnership organisations, and designed to work with already established structures such as the Thematic Partnerships. The model was tested for compatibility with World Class Commissioning in Health, DCSF approaches to commissioning in Children's Services, and Personalisation in Adult Social Care.
In creating the Manchester Model, a broad definition of joint commissioning has been taken, seeing it as applicable to all commissioning activity and consequently all spending. This means that joint commissioning is not restricted to pooled budgets and / or funds already earmarked for partnership spending but focused on joint decision making and shared outcomes.
Please select to view the Manchester Model.
Partners in Manchester City agreed the following definition of joint commissioning:
"Joint commissioning involves multiple parties with diverse skills and aligned priorities collaborating to deliver outcomes, to better meet the needs of communities. The process should ensure the effective use of combined resources to deliver against local priorities."
Awaiting M/C Model Graph
Illustrated above is the headline model for joint commissioning developed and adopted by partners in Manchester.
1. Duty to inform, Consult and Involve
This is at the heart of all the processes outlined above. The views and aspirations of users, stakeholders, local residents and providers should be the basis of the joint strategic needs assessment and further commissioning activities that follow.
2. Assess Needs
This involves an assessment of opportunity and of aspiration for communities. Currently, we have in place a Joint Strategic Needs Assessment, The State of the City suite of reports contain data at a local level, and a locality based JSNA is being also being developed. The ultimate aim is to produce a city wide needs analysis, which brings together all the needs assessments across the thematic areas.
3. Plan Services
The planning services phase is undertaken following the needs analysis, and requires thematic partnerships to map markets, identify key stakeholders and resources in order to pull together a thematic commissioning strategy and action plan.
4. Secure Outcomes
This stage identifies the mechanisms by which outcomes will be achieved. It focuses in the main on the operational support required. Part of this phase is about tendering and procuring contracts for service delivery which deliver value for money.
5. Monitor and Review
This stage relates to measuring the effectiveness of commissioning decisions. Using internal and external processes to demonstrate that integrated commissioning has improved outcomes and that Inspectorates and Government Offices help to performance manage the joint planning and commissioning process. It is important also to ensure overall performance is reported against LAA targets to the LAA Performance and Resources Group.
6. Improve
To encourage and stimulate the development of new solutions from providers both existing and new. For example, this could be achieved by changing or decommissioning services.
Building on the work outlined above, a Strategic Commissioning Group - with membership from across the Manchester Partnership - is working towards developing a Strategic Commissioning Strategy to strengthen the Manchester Model. The Strategic Commissioning Group is the mechanism by which commissioning intentions will be realised and delivered, and the group provides a support and challenge function to 'champion' commissioning works.
Commissioning has also been identified as a Partnership Priority Improvement area and has a dedicated Project Sponsor and Project Manager to progress this work. This is aligned with that of the Strategic Commissioning Group, and the project manager is a member of this group also, ensuring appropriate linkages are made. Progress of the project is reported to the Public Service Board.
A Third sector Guide to Commissioning in Manchester is being produced by the Manchester Partnership and will be available from July 2010.
These pages will be updated as the project develops.
If you would like further information, please contact:
Contact: Davinder Gill
Telephone: 0161 234 4060
Email: d.gill2@manchester.gov.uk
