Most commissioning problems aren’t caused by commissioners failing to follow the y2k commissioning cycle as best they can. They’re caused by commissioners being asked to create outcomes inside systems that are fragmented, defensive, underpowered, over-governed and short of time.

Most commissioning problems aren’t caused by commissioners failing to follow the y2k commissioning cycle as best they can. They’re caused by commissioners being asked to create outcomes inside systems that are fragmented, defensive, underpowered, over-governed and short of time. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/antlerboy_commissioning-adultsocialcare-systemsthinking-share-7480662115993899009-XgzB/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAADUV_eUBZSxZvFpx70OV050F6K5HM2MhTMo

Most commissioning problems aren’t caused by commissioners failing to follow the y2k commissioning cycle as best they can. They’re caused by commissioners being asked to create outcomes inside systems that are fragmented, defensive, underpowered, over-governed and short of time.

So, another checklist won’t help much.

What helps is a better conversation about the actual system you are in.

We’ve published the original adult social care-focused version of what later became The Public Service Transformation Academy Commissioning Compass: the Strategic Commissioning and Place-Based Systems Design Options Appraisal.

It is a self-assessment tool for asking harder and more useful questions:
– Where do we genuinely have room to act?
– Where are we pretending we have influence we don’t have?
– Where are governance, procurement, relationships, finance or politics narrowing what’s possible?
– Where are citizens’ own outcomes shaping the work, and where are we still trying to force them back into service logic?
– Where are we building capacity in the whole place, not just buying activity from providers?

This was developed for adult social care commissioning, but the questions travel much further than that. It’s not a maturity model, not a compliance tool, not a league table; it’s a way of making commissioning discussable as system change.

And given the state of adult social care, that feels like a better starting point than another round of heroic delivery language!

https://lnkd.in/enfrFApD

Use it alongside our Compasses, use it alongside the very good guidance recently released by the LGA. Let us know how it goes!

#Commissioning#AdultSocialCare#SystemsThinking#PublicServiceTransformation

See the compasses at https://www.publicservicetransformation.org/compass-understand-your-system/