New perspectives on Market Facilitation: Provider Commissioner Relationships

Good working relationships between commissioning and care provider organisations are crucial and they have become even more so since the Covid-19 pandemic, cost of living crisis and the need to work in partnership to ensure that outcome-focused, high quality support and services can be designed and delivered with the best use of resources.

In this briefing paper, we explore the importance of working relationships and trust by firstly revisiting a paper we wrote in 2009, Perspectives on Market Facilitation, which examined how commissioners and providers of social care viewed their relationships at the time, and explore what, if anything, has changed since then.

Based on our experience of working with both commissioning and provider organisations throughout the UK, the paper offers our own perspective on how the current commissioning climate has influenced these relationships and provides a new perspective on how the 'right' engagement activities can positively impact on having good working relationships and trust.