Commissioning and Community Sourcing

Chris Howells and Chris Yapp are experts in commissioning and local government. In this critical paper they show that the UK has made damaging mistakes in the development of commissioning. Instead of interpreting European legislation correctly, and in the interests of the local community, government has encouraged a damaging approach that undermines local community development.

The authors argue that the tendency to commission services at too large a scale has led to a "‘hollowing out’ of local communities in terms of a loss of skills, reduction in employment opportunities, weakening of support for community organisations and inhibition of the ability to develop local solutions for social care."

Instead they show that the law can be used to promote what they call 'community sourcing' - purchasing services in ways that make the local community stronger. The paper sets out a series of steps local government and NHS commissioners can take to reverse this damaging trend.

Dr Simon Duffy, Director of The Centre for Welfare Reform, welcomed this paper:

"Although there may be problems with the state directly providing all services the solution to this problem is not to shift these services into the hands of private corporations with no connection or commitment to the local community. This important paper offers the means to bring money, skills and leadership back home - where they belong."

Download the paper here: http://bit.ly/com-mission