The Centre of Excellence will involve the development of tangible and measurable ‘products’ to enhance the capacity and capability of commissioners.  These include:

• Understanding the needs of the local population so that the PCTs can individually and collectively assess their own particular strengths and weakness and explore the benefits of working with other agencies on some elements of the commissioning cycle
• Equip commissioners with a good understanding of changing needs, based on robust, easily accessible data. This includes knowledge of marginalised and disadvantaged groups
• Enable local people the chance to contribute to problem solving which enhances their public confidence in their PCT and the NHS and social care as a whole. It also delivers greater accountability and trust between commissioners and communities from increased engagement of communities in decision making
• Identify areas for service development based on the needs of that community– both individually and collectively and from within the NHS, social care and independent sector alike
• Implement a cost benefit analysis so that the specification for integrated health and social care services is developed in affordable manner on a year by year basis
• Identify new areas for service improvement that can be successfully executed and which provide more accessible, responsive and targeted services based on local experience and needs

For communities

• A greater voice and input into the design and delivery of local health and social care services
• Reaching the hard to reach in the community
• Increase in skills confidence and self esteem for individuals and stronger social capital within whole communities
• Greater local ownership and commitment to local services and an increasing understanding of change, and confidence in the way services are planned
• Increased better interaction and engagement of services, better insight into their own conditions and needs and better health and social care outcomes
• Support to communities in setting up social enterprises to deliver elements of health and social care services

Connected Care fits with the Government's drive to promote independence, greater choice and higher quality support, as set out in the White Paper “Our Health, our care, our say, a new direction for community services”, (Department of Health, 2006). It also links to the government priorities around tackling poverty and social exclusion, based on a firm understanding of the aspirations of each local community. 

World class commissioning carries a growing expectation on commissioners to demonstrate that resources are invested on behalf of their communities, and to build local trust and legitimacy through the process of engagement with their local population. The Centre of Excellence has developed a background paper on community based commissioning and World Class Commissioning. 

Towards World Class Commissioning (Word, 41kb)

Connected Care and links with government agendas
Connected Care fits closely with the Government’s drive to give local people and local communities more influence and power to improve their lives as set out in the White Paper ‘Strong and Prosperous Communities’ (Department for Communities and Local Government, 2006).    The White Paper states the need to create strong, prosperous communities and to deliver better public services through a rebalancing of the relationship between central government, local government and local people.

The Green Paper on Adult Social Care (Independence, Well-being and Choice, Department of Health, 2005) saw that there were considerable challenges in improving the design and delivery of services alongside the task of improving the strategic commissioning of services.  Connected Care was cited as an innovative model of service delivery.   Primarily a model for delivering health and social care support in the wider community context, Connected Care is seen by government as a model of delivery with the potential to bridge the gap between health and social care while ensuring that local communities are directly influencing and assisting in the redesign of services.  The White Paper, in turn, cited Connected Care as an example of commissioning responsive services in the poorest neighbourhoods.

The new duty to carry out a Joint Strategic Needs Assessment represents a significant development towards narrowing the gap between commissioners’ decisions and the priorities of local communities.  The commitment to undertake a JSNA, outlined in the White Paper, Strong and Prosperous Communities, and reinforced in the Commissioning Framework for Health and Wellbeing, sets out a series of measures to enhance collaborative working between communities, local authorities and their NHS partners.  

Guidance issued by the Department of Health on carrying out JSNA locally stresses that community engagement is an essential element and that the process of engaging with people and communities to understand their needs will in itself have a positive impact on meeting people’s health and social care needs.  Turning Point Centre of Excellence’s model of community engagement, Connected Care, is cited as a useful tool and resource to support the JSNA.