Prioritisation in Commissioning - Alumni Workshop insights

The Prioritisation in Commissioning workshop was attended by members of the IPC Commissioning Certificate Alumni Network.

Colleagues shared their experiences of prioritising commissioning roles and responsibilities. They also heard about the development of a prioritisation tool in West Wales to support commissioning decisions and investment across an integrated health and care system.

The presentations were delivered by guest speaker Dr Kevin Pett (the Programme and Change Manager at the West Wales Care Partnership) and IPC colleagues Amy Harmsworth, Caroline Dowson, John Wilkinson and Jonathan Gardam.

The break-out discussions encouraged participants to consider their commissioning roles and offer advice, prioritising:

• capacity to plan and horizon scan
• public resources.

As a result, Commissioners highlighted that they face a challenging environment, with ongoing budget pressures and time-consuming procurement processes making it hard to be strategic.

Ideas to overcome this included:

• Delegate things you can to others, and trust your teams and colleagues
• Empower your teams to take on delegated tasks
• Brainstorm and problem solve with your team
• Plan the week, and allow for yourself to have focus time and remain strict with this time
• Manage up more effectively
• Get buy in for priorities by aligning with corporate and partner aims and objectives (walk in other’s shoes)
• Be prepared to challenge whether things are truly urgent by asking ‘what will happen if this is not done?’
• Move towards more longer-term strategic (block) contracts and commissioning partnerships.

If you would like to know more about how IPC can support your organisation to develop a prioritisation tool or other processes to support system based commissioning arrangements, please contact Jonathan Gardam and John Wilkinson.