IPC Alumni Network

Alumni Network Launch

IPC is celebrating 20 years of successfully delivering adults’ and children’s commissioning courses to over 2,000 people from social care and health organisations across the UK. To build on this - and as a thank you to everyone who has participated - we have launched a new Alumni network.

This is an opportunity to grow your network and connect with fellow Alumni from across the UK. You can challenge your perspectives on the latest topics and trends and develop and share professional skills and ideas with like-minded peers.

All known alumni of the IPC Certificate in Commissioning and Purchasing for Public Care who gained an accredited pass or higher will be contacted directly about events or key information. If you do not receive our emails, and you believe you are an Alumni, please complete the following verification form and we will contact you.

Alumni Commissioning Conference November 2022

November 2022 Alumni Conference

IPC hosted the first Alumni Conference on 28^th November 2022 at Conference Aston Hotel Birmingham. The event was incredibly well attended by over 70 Commissioning Course Alumni from all over the country.

Some of the feedback included:

“It was great to meet colleagues & hear about course developments”
“The breakout sessions were small & intimate and provided a real opportunity to learn through peer experience”
“It was interesting to hear about what commissioners are grappling with and how much we are prepared for the future”
“It was good to reach out to members outside of my immediate network, especially those who have really embraced coproduction”

IPC also launched a new online Alumni Forum which will further our aim of developing a commissioning community for our Alumni.

IPC launch Alumni Forum January 2023

IPC are delighted to announce the launch of an exclusive online forum for the Alumni network of IPC’s commissioning course!

This members-only forum will enable our Alumni with a commissioning practice remit, to connect, discuss and share information across the country.

The forum will cover topic threads such as:

• Integrated or collaborative commissioning;
• Adult Commissioning;
• Children’s commissioning;
• National legislation and research;
• Contract Management and monitoring;
• General procurement

Plus, as a taster we will be posting all the materials from our recent IPC Commissioning Alumni Conference, as well as announcing some of our upcoming 2023 online webinar programme.

Members of the IPC Commissioning Alumni Network who gained an accredited pass or higher in the IPC Certificate in Commissioning and Purchasing for Public Care, will receive an invitation to sign up to the online forum.

We look forward to supporting our colleagues and watching the network grow.

Alumni Workshop series

We are delivering a series of Workshops (listed on the Events page). Each virtual workshop, led by one of our IPC consultants and guest speaker(s), will focus on a particular commissioning topic or issue.

We are currently working on our 2023 series of workshops which will be announced in the New Year.

Our first workshop was held in January and was aimed at adult commissioning course Alumni on the topic: Setting a Fair Price for Social Care Services and the feedback was excellent.

Our second workshop was delivered in April 2022 and was led by Chris Watson see his latest publication on ‘Personalising Commissioning – an Overview of Individual Service Funds’. One commissioner said, “I really liked the mix of presentations from both commissioner and provider viewpoints and the interaction and opportunity for discussion was great.” More insights from the workshop can be viewed on our website here.

More recently we hosted the workshop entitled “Show me the way to go home”, lessons and next steps for effective Discharge to Assess and Home First systems. Philip Provenzano, Assistant Director, and Melanie Henwood, Associate Consultant shared some of the good practice and lessons learnt by systems across England by drawing on the findings from a number of recent projects reviewing D2A arrangements as highlighted in their recent briefing paper.

New approaches to commissioning children’s residential care - Thursday 6th October 2022 14:00-16:00

This workshop will be relevant for both health and social care colleagues with a focus on outcomes and best practice for children and young people, who have an interest in contributing and hearing from others around this topic.

John Wilkinson, Associate Consultant for IPC, alongside guest speakers Liz Perfect (Head of Strategic Partnerships, Barnardo's) and Wendy Williams (Assistant Director for Integrated Children and Families Commissioning, Gloucestershire County Council) will consider the current national context and challenges for children residential care, and provide overviews of example innovative practice happening in this field to tackle such challenges.

Our final autumn workshop will be held 8th November 2022 and the topic is 'Modern Slavery' led by Agnes Turnpenny from IPC who has produced a number of reports on this sensitive topic area. More details to follow please visit our events page.

We send invites to commissioning course Alumni for these free and exclusive events, so please check your email and new workshops are posted in the events section of our website.

If you do not receive an email, and you believe you are an Alumni, please complete the following verification form and we will contact you.