Changing the Landscape for Commissioning Childrens Services in South East Wales Derbyshire, 3 Octobe

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Changing the Landscape for Commissioning
Childrens Services in South East Wales
Derbyshire, 3 October 2008
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Agenda

• Commissioning Background
• South East Wales Improvement Collaborative
• Aspirations and potential benefits
• Major elements of the work
• Strategic Benefits and Challenges
• Questions

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Commissioning Background

• Making the Connections
• Welsh Assembly Government Fulfilled Lives
• Social Services Improvement Agency Institute of
  Public Care
• Childrens Commissioning Support Resource
• Pre Placement Agreement / Individual Placement
  Contract
• Donald Forester
• Care is the right option for some children.
• Pan Wales Commissioning and Contracting Network

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SEWIC
Bridgend Vale of Glamorgan Cardiff Rhondda Cynon
Taff Caerphilly Torfaen Newport Blaenau
Gwent Monmouth Merthyr Tydfil
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SEWIC
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SEWIC

• Better outcomes for children and young people
• Better use of resources
• Re-shaping of services to better meet need

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Aspirations and potential benefits

• FROM
• Uncontrolled commitment to placements made by
  operational staff
• Based on variety of different mechanisms in
  different authorities
• Little focus on outcomes aspired from the
  placement
• Risks of using insecure, unmonitored providers
• At the mercy of the market re prices

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Aspirations and potential benefits

• TO
• Placements targeted on meeting needs and
  specified outcomes and targets
• Purchasing from providers on CCSR who have been
  comprehensively verified and who will be
  regularly monitored
• Each placement made via a competitive tender
  process from the verified providers
• Potential to inform Strategic Regional
  Commissioning

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Aspirations and potential benefits

• Improved Outcomes
• Competitive Pricing
• Better Value for Money
• Mature relationship with provider base
• Cost efficiencies of common processes
• Leads to regional commissioning potential

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Major elements of the work

• Provider Verification
• Individual Placement Tendering
• Provider engagement
• CCSR as the collective information resource

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Provider Verification
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Focus on Individual Placement Tendering at
Cardiff Council

• Aspirations benefits FROM -
• Too many children placed outside Cardiff
• 437 children placed in Foster/Res care, of which
  -
• 42 outside Cardiff
• 56 with external providers
• Not enough consideration of outcomes
• Case planning too often reactive same day
• Concerns about ensuring best value containing
  spend
• Weak strategic commissioning - desire to develop
  role of in house services absence of beneficial
  relationship with other providers

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Cardiff Council

• Aspirations benefits TO -
• Meeting the intentions of Towards a stable life
  brighter futures..
• Case managers ensure timely, needs outcome
  focused plans
• Greater control over spend assurance that
  better vfm is achieved
• Sufficient placements, regardless of provider, to
  ensure stability for children, produced in
  partnership

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INDIVIDUAL PLACEMENT TENDERING PROCESS
(Simplified)

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Focus on Individual Placement Tendering at
Cardiff CC

• Experience so far -
• Understood implemented by case managers some
  evidence of improvement in planning
• Sound pilot learning about what works what
  needs changing benefits for SEWIC
• Beginnings of greater transparency between
  purchaser provider regular forum
• In conjunction with CCSR, gathering of evidence
  to support strategic commissioning
• In conjunction with SEWIC, developing evaluation
  tool

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Aspirations and potential benefits
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Strategic Benefits and Challenges

• Information from projects has potential to inform
  regional commissioning strategy.
• Opportunity to build on CCSR functionality to
  become as the information hub and commissioning
  intelligence.
• Aggregate/evidence of low incidence, highly
  complex needs and commission.
• Aggregate demand and have common negotiation with
  providers.
• Close working of authorities to identify
  commissioning opportunities.

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Provider perspective

• Performance driven by organisational culture and
  stakeholder priorities.
• Deep source of intellectual property and
  know-how.
• Willingness to show what they can do QA and
  Marketing.
• Judge providers on a comparable basis where
  applicable against your own services.
• Spot purchasing is recognised as the most
  inefficient model of purchasing.
• The keys to success are
• Occupancy
• Long term stability
• Providers welcome not being asked to do the same
  thing many different ways.
• Communicate with providers, they can be
  innovative.

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Whats different?

• Starting from an undersupply
• Engagement with providers about the design of the
  process
• Recognition of need to partner and find mutual
  benefit for the long term
• Looking to improve transparency
• Efficiencies for all in 10 acting together

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What are the issues in working across 10
authorities?

• Letting go
• Giving up some control
• Trusting one another
• Sharing funding, and the basis on which to do it
• Different size, shapes and strategies

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What are the solutions?

• Need a real common problem to solve
• Leadership and vision
• Communication
• Now at the stage of formal sign up
• Grind through the detail
• Sensitivity to each authoritys existing deals
  and processes.

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Strategic Benefits and Challenges

• Consistent provider engagement.
• Why just SEWIC All Wales?
• Working effectively with CSSIW and ESTYN and
  Ofsted
• Business Skills/Capacity in social services
• Level playing Field Application of same
  verification and outcomes measurement of internal
  services.

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Questions/Contacts

• Rachel Collier. Rachel.collier_at_newport.gov.uk
• Wendy Carroll.W.A.Carroll_at_cardiff.gov.uk
• Andrew Rome. contact_at_revolution-consulting.org