Public Sector Commissioning Notes (002)
**Notes On ****Public Sector Commissioning ** Councils work within the parameters of the and as a result contracts that are cumulatively worth more than £25,000 go through a ‘tender process’, ie open competition. This means that even if lots of smaller bits of work are required (possibly from lots of different providers) over a long period of time, if the total of all of this work is more than £25K, then it will have to go out to tender/competition. Up to £10,000 it is possible to make an arrangement directly with a provider, on the basis of written quote (Request for Quotation – RFQ) – the Commissioner is required to gather 3 written quotes from different providers to ensure best value for money and the provider can then invoice for the work carried out.When you apply to a tender the decision about who gets the contract is based partly on value for money, ie who can deliver all elements required for least money but also about quality and you have to demonstrate your ability to meet some quality criteria. Some contracts are weighted 50/50 value for money and quality, others will vary.
It is important to be realistic about pricing so that your quality is not compromised. Whilst there can be a temptation to under-price in order to be more competitive, you still have to be able to deliver the service at the necessary quality and the Commissioner will not want to invest in something which could fall apart because it hasn’t been priced realistically because this would mean having to find alternative services for the clients, which is disruptive to them.
Some contracts include a weighting for social value, which is where social enterprises can deliver advantageously, however, it isn’t always explicitly used or weighted but worth looking out for. For tenders (over £25,000), information about your track record is requested upfront to help the Commissioners make an assessment about the ongoing viability of the business; this might include being asked to provide a copy of the last 2 years of accounts. The level of requirement is based upon the value of the tender and type of service required/contract being offered. New or small social enterprises might benefit from working with others when they don’ have much track record directly as this will help offer reassurance to the Commissioner and enable the SE to build their portfolio of work over time.
Collaboration is also good to help niche or specialist providers to enter into a contract or to help SEs who don’t have the scale to cover a wide geographical area. Eg several SEs and/or other organisations working together can offer full coverage in line with the contract requirements and with each organisation working to its own geographical area or delivering it’s own area of specialism. Opportunities for Social Entrepreneurs ‘Alliance’** **working: collaborating with other providers to deliver a whole contract, various mechanisms to facilitate this, not one provider is the ‘lead provider’ or ‘accountable provider’ but accountability for the contract is shared. Sub-contracting: delivering a specified piece or amount of work for a lead or ‘primary provider’ C****onsortium working: whereby several providers come together under a legal umbrella to deliver a contract together. It is necessary to set up a new legal entity for this. Grants: there are a small, and reducing number of grants available at a smaller scale to facilitate new areas of work, such as community resilience and not all are held by social care depts, sometimes through ‘communities’ teams. Sometimes time limited grant funding becomes available through EU funding streams and the Local Authority holds a co-ordinating role and encourages applications and sometimes they find small pots of funding to build markets in areas where they identify gaps. Spot contract****s: individual clients sometimes need a package of care that sits outside of normal contracts and local authorities have the ability to commission on an individual basis a package of care.
C****all off frameworks or sometimes you may hear referred to as ‘approved provider’ lists – sometimes these are used as mechanisms for spot purchasing and in these situations, providers are asked to demonstrate how they meet a range of quality criteria and then go on a list to be commissioned as and when the need arises for a client. The resulting list is usually used by social work staff making placements for people. There is no guarantee of business Direct Payments: people in most circumstances can choose either for the council to arrange and purchase services on their behalf or opt to have the money to arrange their own services, which is called a direct payment. This can be paid into a bank account or some Local Authorities can offer a card, like a credit card which is pre loaded that the client can use to purchase services with. Self Funders: The Local Authority has to be able to provide information about services to all people in their area, regardless of whether or not they meet their own eligibility for help and if Commissioners and social work teams are aware of your service, they may sign post enquirers to you and in most circumstances local authorities have directories of services available on line which providers can put some information into about themselves. In Cornwall this is called ‘. In Devon it is called . Data: Local Authorities have a wealth of useful information available to help social entrepreneurs to plan and demonstrate need for their enterprises, for example on funding applications. The Joint Strategic Needs Analysis ( and ) provides a wide range of information which can be filtered according to location and area of need and is available on Local Authority websites.
In addition, most Local Authorities produce a ‘Market Position’ statement or ‘commissioning intentions‘ document which sets out an analysis of the needs of their population against the supply of services available and where they seek to tender more services. An example of Devon County Council’s last Market Position Statement (in process of update) is available and Cornwall’s 2019-22 MPS is Top Tips **1)**Register with the procurement portal; ‘Supplying the Southwest’ (for larger contract opportunities). You can set the system to send updates about opportunities in certain locations and areas of business. The website address is: Many public sector organisations use Pro Contract to deliver their electronic procurement portal solutions, so it is worth looking up Pro Contract in your area. However, as the systems have different names, it is best to ask your local commissioners who they use and for a link to the site to become a supplier and receive notifications of relevant opportunities
- supplier information and guidance available.
**2)****Collaborate with others/more established, larger or complimentary providers if you want to apply for something but aren’t able to meet the full remit on your own or are new to the market, but be sure to develop clear working relationships, protocols and agreements to underpin these arrangements. 3)Don’t compromise quality for price but be competitive. 4)Register with free local authority data bases/service directories to promote your services to self funders and direct payment clients. 5)Let commissioners and social work teams know about what you are offering and share any good ideas for new services in case a pot of grant funding suddenly becomes available. 6)Engage local councillors who each have a small budget to support local causes with, often up to £10K per annum – local arrangements and variation will apply. ** **7)****Weigh up the amount of work (time and cost if entering into new legal arrangements like a consortium), required to apply for a contract v/s the likely return in terms of business that will come your way if successful. ** **8)****Use the mechanisms and forums that public sector commissioners operate to engage with service providers **in their area, to keep abreast of developments and trends. Ie: Most Local Authorities have a provider engagement or reference group which will either meet regularly and which helps them to consider the impact of commissioning & procurement decisions on the market, or whom are called together to discuss on an issue by issue basis. Some will engage virtually rather than in person. In Devon this is the and it is worth signing up to receive regular newsletters and invitations to provider conferences etc. In addition useful alerts and industry info are posted through this website; eg cold weather alerts for residential care providers, car parking exemptions for domiciliary care workers etc. **9)****Go along to market testing and market engagement events for opportunities **that you are interested in. Either in addition to, or instead of regular engagement activities, some authorities hold either ‘soft market testing’ or ‘market engagement’ events, to either help them to develop their thinking about how to procure an activity and consider the likely impact of their plans or to help them gauge how much of a market there might be for said activity. Usually once a tender opportunity is launched there is a market engagement event for people to ask questions about the opportunity and process before tenders (applications) are invited.
Top 10 commissioning terms
TOP 10 Commissioning Terms ITT – invitation to tender, basically the info pack about an opportunity to apply / a call for bids. Further explanation available ‘Lot’ – the discrete area of work being asked for in a tender, eg a Devonwide tender for mental health services may be broken down into geographical ‘lots’ or specialisms, like early prevention, crisis intervention etc. PBR – ie payment by results – usually get an agreed fee upfront and remainder on the basis of demonstrable results against agreed outcomes, within agreed timeframe. Further information/critique available ref impact in VCSE sector.Outcomes based commissioning – sum agreed against delivery of a range of outcomes to be demonstrated against agreed KPIs, not task focussed/prescriptive about how service is delivered. Individual Service Funds – a service user chooses a provider to manage their individual budget and co-ordinate their support. The personal budget is made explicit to the service user and family and they discuss with their chosen provider the sorts of activities and services that they require to meet identified outcomes. The provider will use the personal budget to either flexibly deliver a range of pre agreed outcomes either directly or by subcontracting. Enables flexibility to deliver in best interests of a client and facilitates greater levels of personalisation. Assistive technology framework** – framework through which to commission assistive technology products which may increase independence and prevent the need for more traditional support services or will augment and complement them. Most Local Authorities have a call off framework (see below) and it is worth asking how they commission their assistive tech products and services if you wish to sell to your Local Authority or Health Service.
Call off Frameworks – a pre-arranged or registered list of providers delivering a particular type of product, activity or service, which is used to make individual purchases to meet individual client need. Often you will have to have undergone some basic quality checks by either providing certain information (eg copy of insurance certificate, accounts, detail of policies etc) or even by responding to some quality questions about the ways in which you deliver your service to ensure that the policies, systems and processes in place keep clients safe and that the service is delivered effectively. Block contracts – an agreement between a provider and commissioner to deliver a specified service for fixed fee over an agreed timeframe, eg Clinical Commissioning Group issuing a block contract to a local hospital trust to deliver acute services. The personalisation agenda reduced the trend for block contracting in social care as it is inflexible and prevents diversity and choice of provision.
Individual commissioning (basically to enable personalisation – akin to spot purchasing) NB most LAs try to avoid spot purchasing these days as potentially costly and could lead to concerns being raised about competitive disadvantage and unfair procurement practice, (required to electronically tender and make opportunity widely available) and they can only spot purchase for total value under £25K over a timeframe. VfM – value for money Social Value **– the additional value or benefit to society that a provider can deliver, alongside the core activity being delivered.