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APPG for Complex Needs – A Call for Evidence on Social Action
Commissioning
‘[There should be] A willingness to commission small scale peer-led projects over a timescale large enough to allow for experimentation and organic growth, while accepting that the risk of failure will be far greater than would be the case in the commissioning of other larger service providers.’ Build on Belief evidence
Social action can be part of the commissioning process itself. CFE Research acknowledged nervousness from both professionals and experts by experience and the tendency for commissioners to be risk averse, but emphasised what can be gained by involving people with lived experience in commissioning: • Better service user engagement • I mproved services that better respond to people’s needs • Opportunities to learn and develop • Better use of limited resources Nacro also told the APPG, ‘people with lived experience have unique knowledge of how services should be commissioned, designed and delivered
to ensure effective engagement and appropriate outcomes’. MEAM suggest that commissioning and procurement teams should meet directly with people with lived experience to help them better understand the needs of the people that they are producing service specifications and contracts for. However, professionals need to ensure that enough time is built into the commissioning cycle to allow for involvement to take place. An example of commissioners and service users working together effectively is Revolving Doors’ Commissioning Together project. It investigated how to improve the service experiences of people with mental health issues and complex needs in two London boroughs. Service users were trained as experts by experience to conduct peer-led
research with offenders to find out about their experiences of current services. Service user groups met directly with health, housing, criminal justice and social care commissioners and they worked together on needs assessments, service evaluations, new service models, pathways and procurement and quality monitoring. Key to the project’s success was commitment from both sides and the work resulted in the decommissioning of one service, with a new mental health service funded in its place. Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner Martyn Underhill told the APPG that people with complex needs highlight the problem of separate services as they can require many types of separately commissioned support. The Dorset Mental Health Acute Care Pathway was coproduced with providers, service
