Successful commissioning doesn’t happen in isolation. Discover how commissioning is about relationships and collaboration, and how constructive relationships are built on trust.
Every local authority or integrated system is structured differently to meet the needs of its communities. We’ve grouped stakeholders into two broad categories: internal and external. Partnership working starts internally, then branches out externally. This includes working with adult social care providers and coproducing with people who draw on care and support.
In practice, these boundaries are often less distinct, especially if you work across more than one organisation. For example, you might co-produce with colleagues who have lived experience or collaborate with internal local authority care providers. As you explore this section, consider the questions in relation to your own unique context and role.
Internal and external partners
Understand the roles of others so that you know who you need to work with closely, who to keep informed, and who to ask for advice. Meaningful collaboration comes from open and transparent communication between people. By respecting each other’s experience and what everyone brings to the table, you can develop strong two-way communication and find solutions to challenges together.
Internal stakeholders might include:
External stakeholders might include:
-
Health services, including primary care GPs, specialist services, hospitals and public health services
-
Regulators
- Other local government organisations such as district and borough councils and regional combined authorities
Top tip
Objectives, interests and accountability look different for everyone. When working in partnership, have a conversation about each other’s values and roles and responsibilities. Work through any assumptions, including assumptions about language. Jointly agree aligned goals for partnership work.
Feedback loops help to maintain engagement. Be open, and honest about what the barriers to innovation might be so that solutions can be coproduced, as without accountability partners lose trust.
We need to work in close partnership with operations, procurement, contracts, finance, care navigation and commissioning colleagues to ensure we work smartly and do not work outside of agreed policies and procedures.
Try to understand each other's roles and accept that each organisation will have their own agendas. If we all sign up to shared agendas then we will be able to make better progress on projects.
Mick Duffy, Commissioning Manager, Lancashire County Council
Working with adult social care providers
Working with adult social care providers is a key element of partnership working, market shaping, and the commissioning cycle. Not all social care provision has to be regulated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Only provision of regulated activities must be CQC regulated. For more information on CQC regulation, visit the CQC website. Depending on the support you commission, you may be working with CQC regulated providers and non-CQC regulated providers.
Adult social care provision in your area might be delivered by:
These organisations might also be supported by or represented by care associations or infrastructure organisations, such as CVSs (Councils for Voluntary Services).
Communication and collaboration are key to building positive and constructive relationships with providers.
Top tip
Voices from the sector can help you understand what the local area looks like, as well as what the current needs, challenges and successes are.
Spend time with providers (virtually or in-person) to understand their goals, to share your commissioning goals, and work together to achieve them.
Promote regular two-way dialogue through provider forums, contract management meetings, and other collaborative touch points.
Promote quality and encourage new ideas and innovations.
Commissioners need to ensure that any projects benefit operational delivery and take pressure off them where possible. If we get good joined up working this can result in better services for people who use services and their carers.
Mick Duffy, Commissioning Manager, Lancashire County Council
Coproduction
People are at the heart of commissioning. Coproduction means working with people who draw on care and support, families, friends, and communities as equal partners, asking questions and co-creating solutions together.
Quality coproduction means starting with an open conversation with people about what they need, rather than consulting people on questions which have already been set. With any new project or initiative, coproduction should start from the very beginning.
Coproduction can be the answer to questions of innovative and creative commissioning, but plan well ahead, meaningful and authentic coproduction takes time.
Levels of coproduction include:
Genuine coproduction improves decisions and creates services people recognise themselves. It builds trust, values lived experience as expertise, reduces harm, and ensures outcomes are meaningful and effective.
I use coproduction planning tools and feedback loops to make sure lived experience shapes decisions from the start.
Isaac Samuels OBE, Think Local, Act Personal (TLAP)
Top tip
Connect with people and communities through attending partnership boards, forums and community meetings. If these spaces don’t already exist, can you bring people, families, providers, and professionals together around shared outcomes?
Commissioners shouldn't be people sitting in their offices, disconnected from communities, repeating the same consultations without action, or living in 'ivory towers'.
Commissioners should be visible, relational, and focused on what makes a good life for people. Coproduction is about working with people and communities from the very beginning, not designing services first then seeking approval.
Person with lived experience who helped to develop this framework
Reflecting on ways of working
One important element of working with partners is to build trust by understanding how these relationships have been experienced in the past. Commissioning is relational as much as technical, and trust, visibility, and dialogue in all relationships is key.
To avoid ‘reinventing the wheel’, ‘repeating past mistakes’ or asking the same questions of stakeholders that have already been asked by your organisation or system, take some time to understand the history of each relationship.
Top tip
Question fatigue can weaken partnerships, if people have answered the same question multiple times and they can’t see the outcome, they disengage, so an openness to learning from the past can help develop trusting, open, and honest relationships.
Relationships are built on reciprocity and trust. I am my genuine authentic self in every part of my work – yes I have good and bad days, but I genuinely value the people around me as assets, especially those with lived experience.
Katy Ellison, Strategic Commissioning Programme Manager, Cheshire West and Chester Council