You are here / Home / Planning & Commissioning / Current Alliance Activity
Current Alliance Activity
Involvement in Commissioning
The Alliance seeks to organise the involvement of third sector organisations in the planning, shaping, needs analysis and outcome evaluation functions of commissioning.
We see as priorities:
- Improving communication between senior commissioners or commissioning boards and wider partnership boards identifying need and demand, reviewing commissioning plans, shaping service specifications, and holding the commissioners or providers to account.
- Development of resources and capacity amongst third sector providers, e.g. shared service arrangements (consortia), continuous improvement and fitness for purpose (acquA).
Interest Groups
The Alliance runs two interest groups for members, public sector commissioners are sometimes invited. These meetings provide the opportunity for members to debate issues and report decisions made by partnership boards they sit on as Alliance representatives.
Children’s Interest Group
Older Persons' and Disability Interest Group
Representation
The Alliance plays a prominent part in organising third sector representation in Herefordshire. Representation is to speak or act for another, e.g. your organisation and or other organisations and/or service users or particular communities
Public sector organisations will often seek wider support or challenge from stakeholders and partners to ensure their plans or services are informed by a range of perspectives with the aim of achieving better outcomes for individuals or communities. A well organised third sector can offer representatives with an authoritative voice, using their experience and knowledge to design and deliver more effective services.
The Alliance will work with our members and other local infrastructure organisations to achieve inclusive third sector representation as recommended in the Review of Third Sector Engagement with the Herefordshire Partnership, in particular the proposed Engagement Model.
See our current List of Representation Groups and contact the Alliance if you would like to become a representative and/or speak to a representative about a particular issue.
Personalisation and individual budgets (IBs)
What does it mean?
inControl, the national campaigning charity, describes personalisation as enhancing ‘the ability of disabled people to lead their own lives and make full contributions as citizens…’.
They list ‘six keys to citizenship’:
1. Self-determination: the ability to control your own fate and make decisions for yourself.
2. Direction: a unique sense of purpose by which to identify your role within your community.
3. Money: the means to independently meet your needs without being dependent on others.
4. Home: a place of your own in the community where you are seen to belong.
5. Support: being able to offer others the chance to help and be useful to you.
6. Community Life: to make a contribution to the community by your meaningful presence and participation.
Personalised services should involve:
- People leading the planning and commissioning of their own support, with a range of help available
- The offer of a budget to each individual so they can purchase their care or support
- Much more flexibility and choice about how their budget is spent.
People can choose to continue with in house services, in which case social care manages the budget on their behalf. They can also have a mix of in house services and purchase some support and services themselves. *
An individual budget (IB)
This is a sum of money passed to an individual so they can purchase their care and support (but see note above*). Potentially an IB may be made up of a number of funding streams brought together; in Herefordshire it is:
Adult Social Care
PCT Continuing Care Funds (eligibility permitting)
Independent Living Funds (eligibility permitting).
The government’s IB Pilot Programme encompassed the following funding streams: Supporting People, Independent Living Fund, Disabled Facilities Grant, Access to Work, and Integrated Community Equipment Service. None of the 13 pilot sites actually took in all of these funding streams however and it remains to be seen when these funds are offered as IBs in Herefordshire.
Implications for Alliance members/public service providers
Ambitious roll-out targets in Herefordshire (30% of adults receiving social care by 2011), if realised, will bring a significant change to the commissioning environment. An open market of individual purchasers/IB holders will replace commissioners and seek to expand their choice to enable personalised support.
Herefordshire Council Adult Social Care Directorate has proposed to work with Alliance members over the two-year transition period and has indicated the steps that it wishes providers to take, e.g. unit costing.
Service providers will need to market themselves positively, adapt their services and workforce to the multifarious requirements of individual customers, ensure they are listed on service catalogues, unit cost their services, and ensure they have adequate invoicing and record keeping procedures.
Training and awareness
The Alliance will respond to the requests of its members and organise sessions throughout 2010 to support the transition to personalisation. Please let The Alliance have your suggestions for training/awareness and keep a look out for session dates.
Members' Property Available
Members can advertise their property requirements here. If you require property or have space to offer, send details to info@allianceherefordshire.org.uk.
Click here for a summary of Members' property available
Research
The Alliance published research in March 2006 to determine what is meant by 'joint commisioning' for all sectors and to determine how voluntary, community and other not for profit organisations could best engage in strategic planning and joint commissioning in Herefordshire. It identified a number of actions which need to happen if the third sector is to fully engage equitably in the planning and commissioning of services.