Modernising Commissioning green paper

The Government are consulting on how to improve the way they work with civil society organisations and what this means for public sector commissioners at all levels.

On Monday 6 December the Office of Civil Society published a consultation document called Modernising Commissioning: Increasing the role of charities, social enterprises, mutuals and cooperatives in public service delivery the green paper outlines plans to "create and promote new opportunities for citizens, communities and public service workers to set local priorities, steer local public spending decisions and deliver services in more targeted and responsive ways”.

Questions focus on how commissioning can be reformed to support the Coalition Agreement commitment to enhance the role of civil society organisations in running public services:

• In which public service areas could Government create new opportunities for civil society organisations to deliver?
• How could Government make existing public service markets more accessible to civil society organisations?
• How could commissioners use assessment of full social, environmental and economic value to inform their commissioning decisions?
• How could civil society organisations support greater citizen and community involvement in all stages of commissioning?   

The Social Investment Business believes that it is essential that the needs of community groups, charities, voluntary groups, social enterprises and other SMEs are considered across the piece and not solely for areas currently considered the remit of charities or voluntary groups. There is scope for civil society organisations of all sizes and experience to be involved in public service delivery, but to achieve this civil society organisation must be strengthened and local communities empowered.  

The timing of this consultation is very tight – comments are requested by 5 January 2011 and responses received will feed into the wider Public Services Reform White Paper, which will be published early in the New Year. 

If you would like to comment on the document, please submit your comments directly to ocscommissioning@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk. As we will be doing further work on commissioning in the new yea, any comments you can share with us at policy@thesocialinvestmentbusiness.org would be very helpful!