Commissioning local breastfeeding support services

This DH commissioning guidance aims to assist commissioners and primary care trusts (PCTs) in providing coherent services that will promote breastfeeding and reduce inequalities, as set out in Healthy Lives, Brighter Futures: the strategy for children and young people’s health (Department for Children, Schools and Families and Department of Health, 2009, para 3.43), and to work with local Children’s Trust partners in delivering Public Service Agreement (PSA) 12.

It aims to: consolidate the case for breastfeeding care and support as an integral part of local strategies to improve child health and reduce health inequalities; signpost commissioners to sources of policy, practice and evidence; and set out some key considerations in relation to World Class Commissioning competencies within the three phases of the commissioning cycle.

It is recognised that commissioners will be operating in varied contexts - some will already have well-developed joint commissioning and Children’s Trust arrangements in place, while others will be at different stages of development.

Published October 2009, 58 pages

Conference: WCC Competencies - Personal Development Awareness

These events aim to support PCTs to develop their workforce and realise benefits for the organisation in the journey to becoming A World Class Commissioning organisation.

The programme will provide information that enables people and organisations to increase individual skills and raise performance to meet World Class Commissioning
Competencies.

Conference 26th June

Securing better health for children and young people through world class commissioning

This guide to commissioning will support commissioners in delivering the vision set out in the accompanying child health strategy, Healthy lives, brighter futures by (a) using the world class commissioning competencies and (b) aligning the commissioning cycles across agencies.

Published February 2009, 22 pages

The role of the Primary Care Trust board in world class commissioning

This DH document forms part of the wider WCC board development programme. It provides an update on the role and purpose of the PCT board in the context of world class commissioning.

This document aims to provide consolidated guidance on:

• the role and functions of the PCT;
• the role of the PCT board;
• the composition of the PCT board;
• the competencies and characteristics of a high-performing PCT board; and
• key sources of further guidance.

(Published November 2008, 25 pages)

How to Achieve World Class Commissioning Competencies

As part of the World Class Commissioning Programme, PCTs will be undertaking the first round of the Assurance System in autumn 2008. They will be assessed against the 11 competencies for World Class Commissioning. The purpose of this guide is to offer 'tips' to help PCTs progress to achieving the competencies.

Published October 2008, 53 pages

Strategy development and implementation: A literature review - ways of thinking about strategy for Primary Care Trust top teams to deliver world class

Although all of the world class competencies have a strategic dimension, two are perhaps most directly focused on strategy: Competency 1: ‘Are recognised as the local leader of the NHS’ and Competency 6: ‘Prioritise investment according to local needs, service requirements and the values of the NHS’. This review of the published literature on strategy is intended to provide an overview of the main approaches to developing strategy, how these can be applied in practice, and how the resulting strategy can be best implemented.

Published July 2008

Towards World Class Commissioning Competency

Towards World Class Commissioning Competency is a report produced for West Midlands Strategic Health Authority by the Health Services Management Centre, University of Birmingham.

This paper is intended to assist the thinking of those currently seeking answers to questions, such as: What are health care commissioners required to do? What knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours are required to do it well? Who (either within or beyond the NHS) is most likely to possess these attributes at the moment? How should these capabilities be developed and distributed in future?

The paper concludes that a one-size-fits-all approach to defining and developing commissioning competency is unlikely to be optimal, and reiterates that competency depends not just on knowledge and skills, but on values, motivation, and agency. This is an important message for those involved in commissioning at all levels of the system.

(Published December 2007, 24 pages)

Towards World Class Commissioning Competency

This paper is intended to assist the thinking of those currently seeking answers to questions, such as: What are health care commissioners required to do? What knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours are required to do it well? Who (either within or beyond the NHS) is most likely to possess these attributes at the moment? How should these capabilities be developed and distributed in future? The paper concludes that a one-size fits- all approach to defining and developing commissioning competency is unlikely to be optimal, and reiterates that competency depends not just on knowledge and skills, but on values, motivation, and agency. This is an important message for those involved in commissioning at all levels of the system.

(Published December 2007, 24 pages)

World Class Commissioning

The Department is transforming the commissioning health and care services in the NHS to drive unprecedented improvements in patient outcomes. We worked with commissioners and their partners to develop a vision for world class commissioning and a set of 11 organisational competencies. Delivery of this vision will take place within an assurance system. This will improve performance and development, and reward commissioners as they move from their current position towards world class standards.

Inclusion or control? : commissioning and contracting services for people

This paper seeks to critically assess the impact made by the introduction of commissioning and contracting as a new culture of social care in learning disability services. It offers an evaluation of the growth in importance of the user as consumer. Does the commissioning and the contract process give users with learning disabilities a greater influence over their services and ultimately their lives? It is suggested that far from empowering people with learning disabilities to have a say in the services they want, the emerging culture of business contracts and new public management transfers power firmly back into the hands of professionals making the decisions. Social work practice is changing in response to major shifts in social trends and at the behest of market values. Traditional models are being rejected and the challenge for social work is to adapt itself to operate within a competency based paradigm.

British Journal of Learning Disabilities, Concannon, Liam December 2006, vol. 34, no. 4, p. 200-205