I have been hearing about, and talking about, more and more horror stories about failures in commissioning and procurement across local authorities and NHS partners: little or no co-design, little or late consultation (or worse, consultation after a decision has already been made), late decisions with no consideration of the impact on bidders, late payments, perceived lack of mutual respect, and barriers for smaller charities to access funding opportunities. Clearly the Surrey Compact isn’t the force it once was.
I don’t sense any malice here, by the way, just a lot of pressure (finance and demand) across all system partners, plus rapid and massive changes in staff and leadership across organisations.
I also need to point out that I don’t hear about it when things go right – which is probably the majority of the time – but I am definitely hearing about more things going wrong.
We are a skilled, professional, competent, knowledgeable, and expert bunch of unsung heroes, so when good co-design and collaborative commissioning come together, commissioners and providers can move mountains.
That’s why published guidance for local authorities to improve how they commission services is so welcome to me. Of course, the proof of the pudding is in the tasting, so let’s hope this tastes goooooood.
Have a read and let me know what you think.