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Guest Editor
Ian Poree
Director of Commissioning and Operational Policy for National Offender Management Services
Content
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Planning For The Future
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The Academy has now been in existence for two years and having achieved our initial goals we have turned our thoughts to planning our next 3-5 year objectives at a Development Workshop in November. If you have any thoughts or ideas on what you would like the Academy to provide please let us know via the forum. The forum has been a little slow getting off the ground but we believe this is a really useful tool for members to seek advice, air views and exchange ideas and we encourage you to participate and share your knowledge and experience. If you are not a member of the forum please send an email with your details to the Academy@justice.gsi.gov.uk
Our new programme of seminars got off to a good start on 24 September with Mark Davison, Public Innovator for the Centre for Public Innovation, who gave an interesting talk to 50 delegates on Investing in Outcomes. Mark’s article on this subject can be found inside, as can details of forthcoming evening seminars.
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Our website is continually being developed and we have just added yet more information which we hope you find useful. Please check out our Learning and Development pages where a list of organisations offering commissioning related training can now be found. We have also introduced a list of websites and web pages offering useful commissioning information and this can be found under our Commissioning Information section. Please go to the website at the address below to find out more.
We are pleased to report that work on the National Occupational Standard for Public Service Commissioning is progressing and news of this can be found on Page 5.
As always we welcome any feedback on our website or services. Please email your comments to the Academy@justice.gsi.gov.uk
Warm Regards,
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Editor's Comment
Thank you to our Guest Editor for this issue, Ian Poree, Director of Commissioning and Operational Policy for National Offender Management Services |
Ian Poree
Director of Commissioning and Operational Policy for National Offender Management Services
highlights, we must never lose sight of the importance of engaging those who have been the who and the how in helping design our systems and services at every stage of the process. This is why we have developed cross-sectoral user forums to help steer programmes such as SBC. Clive brings home the importance of listening not only to those who have experience of delivering commissioned services in this and other sectors, but also listening to those who advocate on behalf of the needs of specific groups within our sector to ensure the services we commission are just and inclusive as part of their measure of effectiveness.
I hope that you will find the articles stimulating and useful in your daily work as commissioners. It is ultimately the people, not systems, that make the difference in changing lives. To provide those working within probation, prisons and the vast array of public agencies, third sector organisations and families supporting and providing services to offenders with the rights tools to make a difference, is the real challenge for the ‘intelligent commissioner’.
Ian Poree, Director of Commissioning and Operational Policy for National Offender Management Services
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It is a pleasure to be asked to take on the editorial role for the Autumn edition of the Academy for Justice Commissioning bulletin at a time when the Academy is visibly going from strength to strength. The reputation of the Academy both within the justice sector and with senior commissioning colleagues across Whitehall continues to grow, standing as a brand for open, inclusive practical debate around the challenges we face and share as commissioners.
There is a well worn line that ‘if you always do what you have always done, you’ll always get what you always got’. This is a theme which runs through the contributions in the bulletin - a need to both understand and challenge the status quo if we are to provide transformational leadership as commissioners nationally, regionally and locally for services we provide with offenders on behalf of the courts, victims, communities and the tax-payer.
Just as the media now talks of the green shoots of recovery in the economy, so too the green shoots of getting our NOMS operating model ‘right’ to meet these challenges are also beginning to show. Since April, Directors of Offender Management (DOMs) for the English Regions and Wales have all taken up post and are already engaging with providers and stakeholders to undertake analysis of gaps in provision. We have published our strategies for competition and best value and commenced competitions around provision of unpaid work (Community Payback) and new prisons. We have sought to maximise our resources by successfully becoming a European Co- Financing organisation and already tendered for £50m of new services to prepare offenders |
for gaining employment - vital if we are to help them turn away from a life of crime. But least we forget that the outcomes we seek are ultimately local, we are well on track for all Probation Boards applying for Trust status by April 2010 and from April will have also embedded a new duty on Probation and other local agencies to collaborate to reduce reoffending through Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships as part of the Police and Crime Bill (2009).
My role as Director of Commissioning and Operational Policy for the Agency is to ensure that DOMs have the right tools, levers and support to commission for the outcomes we need. As the article by Ian Blakeman highlights, one such tool is the Specification, Benchmarking and Costing Programme within NOMS. This aims to help commissioners have a clear baseline for the complex range of services they will need to commission in order for us to ensure equity of minimum provision for the courts and comparable costings for those minimum services. This will allow commissioners to make commissioning decisions based on outcomes and cost rather than price. There are some that see a national programme such as SBC as being at odds with the stated goal of commissioning for local outcomes, but understanding the current system and its true costs through a commissioning filter is essential if we are to support commissioners in making some of the difficult choices ahead understanding gaps, needs and critically, given the current economic climate, what we might want to decommission. SBC is a tool to help commissioners decide the "What" of service delivery, not prescribe the "how" it should be delivered.
However, as the article by Clive Martin of Clinks so clearly |
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We reported in our last bulletin that, as a result of the scoping study the Academy commissioned earlier this year, Government Skills have undertaken the development of a National Occupational Standard (NOS) for Commissioning Public Services.
We are pleased to inform you that following this initial phase of research, the second phase of development work will commence in October 2009 leading to submission of the final NOS by the end of May 2010.
Why NOS
NOS provide a means of assessing competence or performance against a |
benchmark that is recognised nationally. They usually comprise of three key elements – knowledge, outcomes and skills – that an individual would need to demonstrate in order to show that they meet the required standard. By identifying and developing standards for functions within the Commissioning roles, the aim is to have a suite of standards that will span departmental boundaries and equip staff with transferable skills that will have a currency within and beyond the profession.
Participation
To ensure the NOS accurately reflects the commissioning functions across the public
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sector it is important that the consultants engage with a wide range of people from the various sectors working within the commissioning environment.
If you are interested in attending a project working group, or wish to receive further information / updates on the project please contact:
Biju Appukuttan
Project Manager – NOS for Commissioning within the Public Sector
1 Victoria Street, London, SW1H 0ET
Tel no: 0207 215 1384
Email: biju.appukuttan@government-skills.gsi.gov.uk
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| 'Good Commissioning' |
mentors. This might require us, for a while at least, to pay some attention to process as well as outcomes.
But there is much that we can build on to take the agenda forward immediately. This is what we would want to see:
• Commissioning engagement policies and practice that ensure commissioners overcome their nervousness about discussing service design with potential providers, as well as budgets that pay organisations for their time and expertise.
• Consistent means of building in the views of service users, front line staff and contract managers to inform the architecture of service design.
• Support for building national practitioner networks to capture practitioner expertise alongside ‘what works’ research.
• Clearer understanding of how commissioners can see ‘added value’ that particular organisations could bring.
• Better synergy across different pathways and through different funding mechanisms to support holistic delivery.
• A shared approach to the management of risk in transforming services and building this into the planning process.
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Commissioning offers us the real opportunity to radically transform the way in which we tackle reoffending. For it to work we need to start from the premise that its fundamental purpose is to transform service delivery and not to save money. If the latter is a consequence of commissioning, then all the better, but if it’s the starting point we might as well just carry on with the status quo.
For commissioning to be transformational it needs to set about doing its business in different ways than before; primarily changing the ‘top down’ model of decision making. It can no longer be ‘he who pays the piper calls the tune’ but rather he who pays the piper needs to understand what tune the audience needs, how it can be composed, what instruments are involved and who the conductor is.
This requires a different approach and dialogue. Firstly, it’s the users of services and front line staff that are fundamental in understanding what is needed. There is excellent practice in the voluntary sector and other sectors such as health, as to how users and staff can be |
involved in determining what is needed. If we are serious about commissioning we need the structures that will facilitate this dialogue. This will involve changing the culture to one that listens much more and, while this might be an individual characteristic of many professionals, it’s more difficult to find the structures and places where this happens. Would it be fair to say that while the shift to commissioning has seen the word added to a number of job titles, there has been little structural change to capture the information that is needed to make it transformational?
It is also understandable that new national initiatives, such as commissioning, need to have a single message that people can understand. This in turn leads to the focus that commissioning gives to outcomes and the belief that through effectively describing outcomes all the other parts of the service delivery chain will be taken care of.
This might well be the end state of a very mature commissioning process, but not where we are at the moment. There are other practices that we might want to encourage, but which current commissioning experience makes difficult. For example, minimal professional standards of staff delivering the commissioned services; services for women delivered by women; the wider development of specific services for different ethnic and racial groups; the use of peer |
| The Commissioning Approach within NOMS |
Ian Blakeman, Head of Service Development Group, NOMS
Commissioning Handbook will be available from early November. This will define what commissioning is in NOMS terms and how it will be carried out.
However, it is already clear that specifications will form the basis for commissioning. The DOM has to ensure the minimum service level stated in the specification is delivered, and can commission the options to the degree that is felt necessary to meet regional needs within the available funding. Since the specifications will state the what and not the how, the DOM can work with service providers to design more efficient ways of delivering a service, i.e. that cost less, use innovative methods or different services in order to try to improve the quality of outcomes.
How could it all work in practice? In July, Ministers approved the specification for the provision of Community Payback. NOMS is now about to run a competition for potential suppliers of this service to bid to be part of a national framework. If a DOM decides that the best use of public money would be to have a competition in their region, they can use the framework to get the best provider to deliver the Community Payback specification.
So in this model, NOMS sets the standard, decides what the outputs from a service should be, and ensures the best value for its money from providers, through competition if necessary. DOMS have a key role in determining the service that is provided, having first approved the specification, then been part of the evaluation panel for the framework, and ultimately deciding who provides that service in their region, and how it is provided.
It’s now time to see commissioning in action in NOMS.
Ian Blakeman, Head of Service Development Group, NOMS |
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Commissioning is at the heart of what NOMS does as it aims to deliver the best services at the best price. Commissioning principles have therefore begun to inform most of our decision making. However we recognise that many Government Departments take a different stance on elements of commissioning and that we need to learn from their experience while devising commissioning strategies that work for us. In addition to the more detailed NOMS approach outlined here, we are also working through the Office of Government Commerce to share and influence best practice and develop commissioning skills across Government.
For NOMS specifically, we realised that we needed to have a range of systems and tools in place so that we could make the transition to an effective commissioning organisation. In addition to the commissioning principles outlined elsewhere in this newsletter, we needed good regional commissioners with knowledge of the local landscape, a sound knowledge of offender needs, and what works in reducing re-offending. These regional commissioners need to have some idea of what level of service they are to commission and how the provision they get compares with what NOMS management expect, and other regions are getting.
In order to meet these needs and to address existing variations in service delivery, NOMS set up the Specification, Benchmarking and Costing (SBC) Programme, in 2008. Aiming to define the outcomes and outputs for all services funded by NOMS and delivered to offenders, defendants, victims and courts it will create a framework of costed service specifications so that any provider can deliver services under a contract or SLA. Service specifications will provide NOMS management with options so that it can determine which services should be delivered to which |
types of offenders, and what the outputs of those services should be – the “what” of delivery. DOMs will commission from providers in all sectors, who will determine the methods of delivery – ‘the how’.
There is a close inter-relationship between national level actions and those of the regional commissioners. For example national and local actions in developing the market to ensure competitions have a healthy bidder response; national level development of approved provider frameworks for specific services that can operate as call off arrangements as new providers are needed by DOMs; and the need to ensure that our policies on a sustainable market are strong and that we do not risk losing smaller providers through concentrating on large and easily engaged ones. The commissioning picture within NOMS is certainly complex.
What do we need specifications for?
Over the next two years more than 75 service specifications will be developed, setting out the outcomes and outputs required of each service. DOMS will use these as a framework, and in conjunction with their regional knowledge will determine the service mix needed in their region. Using best value guidelines DOMS will decide if a specified service should be tested against a wider market. They will then commission services against this backdrop, and determine which providers will deliver the service that best meets their needs through competitions within their region as necessary. In that way, provided they can meet the minimum requirement of the specification, they can use whichever provider represents the best value for public money.
The Commissioning Process
A handbook is being developed by NOMS which defines what commissioning should be and how it will be run in NOMS. The
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We are delighted to announce that Professor Christine Harland BA PhD FCIP has kindly agreed to speak at our 20 October evening seminar.
Christine is Professor of Supply Strategy and Director of the Centre for Research in Strategic Purchasing and Supply (CRiSPS) in the University of Bath School of Management.
The Centre for Research in Strategic Purchasing and Supply (CRiSPS) is a world leading centre for research and education in supply strategy and enjoys an international reputation for its ability to apply academic rigour to real-world issues and to influence policy. The centre has an unrivalled depth of research expertise in public sector procurement in addition to a flourishing portfolio |
of work examining the private sector.
Following an industrial career Christine lectured at Warwick Business School before coming to Bath. Her particular interests include procurement policy and strategy in public sector supply networks, the role of procurement in commissioning, and evidence-based procurement.
She is Co-Director of the research partnership with the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency on supply strategy in the health sector.
As a co-founder of the International Research Study of Public Procurement (IRSPP), Christine has led a team from CRiSPS in designing and running a unique international study bringing together leading |
Professor Christine Harland BA PhD
academics and practitioners from 30 nations to perform international comparative research.
In 2004 Christine was awarded the International Federation of Purchasing and Materials Management Hans Ovelgonne Award for research excellence.
For further information on CRiSPs please visit their website http://www.bath.ac.uk/crisps/
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| Investing in Outcomes |
Mark Davison, Public Innovator
obliged to collect.
Commissioners are likely to hold a portfolio of investments spread across different programmes and services held with different providers. Successful commissioners regulate their portfolio to see where performance targets impact on shared outcomes and how this supports a ‘service system’ for clients using lots of services.
Experience has taught us a few things in applying the investment model
Commissioners need to be clear about the results they want to see for their customers and express them in outcome language
Providers tend to produce better results when they are given the freedoms to do so…Service specifications that go into detailed and prescriptive provider activity are unlikely to allow this to happen
Providers and potential providers need to be supported to understand the investor model so that they can put in the best proposals
Performance monitoring needs to be a regular and collaborative. Providers need to feel able to approach commissioners for support if things are going off track
Incremental change towards an investor model allows commissioners to make judgements of its benefits against current processes
Mark Davison,
Public Innovator
mark.davison@publicinnovation.org
www.publicinnovation.org.uk |
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As commissioners of services we all want better results. As providers we want to deliver what we believe works in the best interests of our customers. Collectively we want to do this by making the best use of our resources. These resources – money, time, facilities, support – are finite and in many areas, including criminal justice, likely to be further squeezed.
So what we are looking for is the best return on our collective investment. A return measured in terms of human results – what has changed ‘in’ or ‘for’ the customer. Great investments are those that demonstrate longitudinal behaviour change, gain or satisfaction. For example sustaining non-offending behaviour, not just ceasing it for a period of time.
I believe an outcome-based investment model can help all stakeholders achieve this.
At CPI we have supported commissioners and providers to switch to outcome-based commissioning and performance management approaches across drugs and alcohol treatment, parenting services, children’s services and in social care. The basis of the model is straightforward, but it relies on commissioners and providers being prepared to change some of their behaviours and to be more collaborative.
Investing in outcomes calls for an alignment:
The outcome is the statement from the commissioner about the type of changes they want to see as a result of their investment. They may be aligned to wider organisational or even national outcomes. |
Performance targets are initially constructed by the potential provider. They should be a SMART target that sets out how
many customers will meet a specified point of change or action over a period of intervention. Using dialogue through the tender process and post-award the commissioner and provider agree and define the metrics of the final target(s) to appear in the contract.
Milestones are the performance management tool that allows providers to describe to commissioners the significant steps that a customer will go through on route to meeting the target. This allows providers to see at anytime how many customers are on track towards reaching their targets, and can help commissioners to support providers where they become aware that things are not going as expected.
Crucially we ask everyone to express their outcomes, targets and milestone in terms of the customer behaviour – not the activity of the programme or service.
Key to an investment model is the tendering process and performance management relationship. When making an investment the commissioner asks three questions which form the basis of the Invitation to Tender
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What are the results of what we are buying?
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What are our chances of success?
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Is this the best use of our resources?
Providers are asked to evidence through coherent targets and milestones, evidence base, organisational and staff track record and costings how they will deliver the best return on investment.
Performance management is based on tracking milestones and achievement against targets, as well as incorporating KPI and NI data that commissioners are |
| Lord Carter of Coles to speak at Academy Seminar |
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Lord Carter of Coles has been re-scheduled in our Seminar programme to speak on Tuesday, 17 November, 2009.
Lord Carter, Chair of the recently formed NHS Co-operation and Competition Panel (CCP) will be discussing this new review panel for NHS-funded Services and will also give his views on Offender Management today. |
Lord Carter’s Biography
Lord Carter of Coles, has had a highly successful business career and has also held numerous public appointments and advised the government on a wide range of issues.
He has chaired a number of Government reviews including The English National Stadium (Wembley), National Athletics, Criminal Records Bureau, Offender Management, Public Diplomacy, the Procurement of Legal Aid and Pathology.
In 1985, Lord Carter founded leading health care provider Westminster Health Care. He is now a private investor and director of public and private |
companies.
He was chair of Sport England from 2002 to 2006, board member of the London 2012 Olympic bid, Chair of the Home Office Audit Committee, Member of HM Treasury's Productivity Panel and non-executive member of the Prisons Board.
CCP Overview
The CCP seeks to bring together competition, consumer protection and healthcare expertise. It has authority to undertake inquiries into mergers, conduct, and consider appeals from disputes relating to procurement, and advertising and misleading information. |
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The Academy For Justice Commissioning
Monthly Evening Seminars
These events are free and open for anyone to attend and provide important context for
our work as commissioners & providers, open up networks of contacts and promote the
role of the Academy amongst participants from other sectors.
Please note that places are limited at these Seminars
To book your place please contact the Academy via email: academy@justice.gsi.gov.uk
Autumn / Winter Programme
The International Research Study of Public Procurement
Tuesday, 20 October
Seminar Featuring
Professor Christine Harland BA PhD FCIPS
Professor of Supply Strategy and Director of the Centre for Research in Strategic Purchasing
and Supply (CRiSPS), University of Bath School of Management
Increasingly the response to recession has led to the commissioning of public services to come under commercial scrutiny; professional procurement expertise is recognised as a vital contribution to commissioning decisions. However, complex service packages require different forms of evidence of value for money. Phase 4 of the International Research Study of Public Procurement (IRSPP4) reviews 30 nation’s responses to recession and the public procurement role.
In this seminar Professor Harland will examine evidence based commissioning that builds on the foundations of evidence based management, medicine and law. Whilst not providing easy solutions, she will consider the elements of value that require evidencing, and disicuss how commissioners might evaluate their decisions within a value for money framework.
Venue: Jolly Hotel St Ermin's. SW1 |
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Tuesday, 17 November
Seminar featuring
Lord Carter of Coles
Chair, NHS Competition & Co-Operation Panel
The International Research
Study of Public Procurement
Lord Carter has held a number of public appointments and advised the government on a wide range of issues, in addition to a career in business and is the inaugural Chair of the newly established NHS Co-operation and Competition Panel (CCP).
The CCP seeks to bring together competition, consumer protection and healthcare expertise. It has authority to undertake inquiries into mergers, conduct, and consider appeals from disputes relating to procurement, and advertising and misleading information.
Venue: Jolly Hotel St Ermin's. SW1 |
Wednesday, 16 December
Getting More From
Commissioning Budgets
Seminar featuring
Ken Cole
Projects & Practice Director, SPS Consultancy
All commentators agree that the public sector will be entering a tough financial climate after 2011/12. The scale of the changes is not yet known, but everyone will be required to re-think their position. In areas where demand is growing and securing the right outcomes is paramount, it will be the biggest challenge in a generation. Service delivery models will need to be questioned, cross sector working accelerated and new commercial techniques embraced if any negative effects are to be minimised.
In this talk, Ken looks at some of the models and ideas that might need to be on the agenda
Venue: St Stephens Club SW1
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The Academy for Justice Commissioning was formed in September 2007 to further
develop & enhance the knowledge, skills & relationships that are essential to the
effective commissioning of justice services.
Our aim is to create a centre of excellence for justice commissioning and
thereby having a demonstrable impact on serving the public, protecting the innocent
and improving confidence in our justice system. |
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Delegate feedback from recent
Academy Seminars
'Excellent speaker and interesting
content'
'The range of commissioning methods/elements that were discussed were very helpful and thought provoking'
'The subject matter was interesting and relevant and attendess were of a high calibre'
'A thoroughly stimulating and enjoyable evening'
Really good to have something like this organised for sharing across the sectors
The Academy Executive Group members are:
Christine Lawrie, Probation Association
David Griffiths, Offender Management System Strategy
John Graham, HMPS
Michelle Jarman-Howe, National Operations Group
Peter Hewitt-Penfold, Legal Services Commission
Patsy Northern, Estates Business Transformation
Richard Heys, Offender Management Strategy Directorate
Sarah Heys, Offender Strategy, NOMS
Stephen Shaljean-Tilley, National School of Government
Trevor Williams, Regional Director of Offender
Management – East of England
Contributions and feedback are most welcome.
If you are interested in submitting comments,
relevant information or an article for inclusion in a future edition please contact us at
academy@justice.gsi.gov.uk |
“The Academy provides an invaluable opportunity for those involved in commissioning to come together and share thoughts and experiences. Such networking opportunities are rare and the Academy is to be congratulated for this important initiative”.
Alan Cave
Department of Work and Pensions
April 2009 |
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Seminars held in 2008/9
What Does Economics add to
Decision Making
The Winners Curse – Structuring
Procurement
Challenging Delivery Models
Lessons Learnt on Regional / Local
Commissioning in Children’s Services
Spotting a Quality Supplier
Developing Community led Approaches to
Designing & Delivering Services
World Class Commissioning to
Improve Health Outcomes
Sharing Commissioning Experiences
Developing Commissioning Skills
Leadership across Public Services
Managing Competition
Third Sector Commissioning: the reality
Three Myths & The Magnificent Seven
DWP Commissioning Strategy
The Future Commissioning System
Lessons from the Ombudsman’s
Investigations
The Challenges of Collaborative Leadership
Investing in Outcomes
If you would like a summary of any of these
presentations, please visit our website
www.academyforjusticecommissioning.org.uk
or contact Janet via email:
academy@justice.gsi.gov.uk | |
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