Sector spotlight: The National Programme for Third Sector Commissioning
Sarah Wood, Director of the National Programme for Third Sector Commissioning, explains the programme and how third sector organisations can get involved.
The National Programme for Third Sector Commissioning was launched in June this year, following its inclusion in the Government’s Action Plan for Third Sector Involvement (Partnership in Public Services) published in December 2006.
The programme has three inter-connected strands of work:
- The training of 2,000 commissioners
- Winning the hearts and minds of central and local government and primary care trust (PCT) commissioners
- Improving the capacity of small to medium–sized (SME), community based, third sector organisations
2,000 commissioners
Calling for the training of 2,000 public service commissioners has attracted considerable press attention in the third sector.
We are keen that this strand of work should not be a ‘one-off’ training event for commissioners, but a sustainable network and sharing of learning between the public and third sectors over a period of time. We have begun to establish how the 2,000 commissioners will be identified, what the core skills and training requirements should be and who could deliver it.
It is important that the commissioners come from a range of backgrounds and with different experiences. Some will be elected members, others will be advisors or specialists in legal, finance and procurement issues. However the majority will be people who are responsible for deciding what, how and from where services are commissioned as well as holding the budgets for commissioned work.
Programme details will be finalised by the end of December, ensuring that training is rolled out between January 2008 and March 2009.
Winning ‘Hearts and Minds’
These activities will ensure the design and implementation of the programme works in conjunction with all central government departments, embedding the programmes key messages in the DNA of their organisations. A work programme will be tailored for each department, specifically reflecting how they are affecting the commissioning cycle.
The initial round of discussions with departments is well underway. Draft work programmes for each department will be completed by the end of December.
Improving bidding capacity in the third sector
This is possibly the most challenging area of the programme and much has been written on the subject. Although central government has allocated funds to address this issue, it still remains a very vulnerable issue in the third sector community. There are very real fears that as central and local government and PCTs struggle to find greater efficiencies, will savings be at the expense of the third sector?
An initial piece of research is taking place to identify what is available to SME and community based third sector organisations to support them build their capacity in bidding and winning contracts. The programme will seek to find what capacity building is required in this area and how best the gap – if there is one – can be filled. The aim is to have firm proposals ready for debate and decision by the end of March 2008, thus enabling the roll out of an agreed implementation plan from April 2008.
Contact us
We would like to hear your thoughts on the programme. If you have any comments or questions, please contact us via email:
Sarah Wood, Programme Director
sarah.wood@idea.gov.uk
Gordon Murray, Programme Manager
gordon.murray@idea.gov.uk
Siobhan Carroll, Programme Co-ordinator
siobhan.carroll@idea.gov.uk
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