Commissioning is not the purchase of care, but the public duty to secure the conditions of an ordinary life.
Author: Vinesh Kumar
This essay argues that commissioning is not the purchase of care, but the public duty to secure the conditions of an ordinary life. For people who cannot exit a poor provider or voice a complaint, particularly those with learning disabilities and long-term mental health conditions, citizenship has to be held by someone they trust.
The condition that makes this possible is stability: continuity of relationships, judgement close to the work, and community around the person.
England's procurement-led architecture cannot reliably protect these conditions. Commissioning has to become stewardship of a local care ecosystem, and the duty to secure an ordinary life has moved to those who hold public money and public lives.
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The essay has also been published on Vinesh Kumar's website here.
The publisher is Vinesh Kumar. The Conditions for an Ordinary Life © Vinesh Kumar 2026.
Deinstitutionalisation, Inclusion, intellectual disabilities, social care, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Paper
