Commissioning & Procurement

What is commissioning?

Commissioning is essentially a structured way of deciding how and on whom public money should be spent. Commissioning is a cycle that involves:

Assessment (or reassessment) of need Identifying resources
Planning how to use the resources
Arranging service delivery through a procurement process
Monitoring and reviewing service delivery

You need to know about commissioning if

You / your organisation provides a service and you are looking for funding from public bodies
You want to influence services with / on behalf of your members
You, or your organisation, have a personal interest as a service user or carer

Keep up to date

The new government means that there will be significant changes over what is commissioned, how it is commissioned and by whom.

To keep up to date visit the CLB e-news service
There will be regular articles and updates to download from this page as the government’s plans take shape.

For more general advice the following support organisations offer information

NAVCA has a Commissioning and Procurement Unit with a wide range of resources and information on the NAVCA website

NCVO also have a range of information - a good start to show you what the process should look like is their Commissioning from the VCS: step by step

There are useful resources on commissioning on the LVSC website

Locally Bromley Children’s trust (see below) has also produced a glossary as part of its strategy.Bromley Children's Trust Commissioning Glossary [34 KB]

There are complex legal rules. NAVCA and NCVO have produced a very useful book with the help of Antony Collins Solicitors - Pathways through the Maze – A guide to procurement law

Links and other information

“Personalisation” of social care now has a big impact on local commissioning. Please see the new page at www.communitylinksbromley.org.uk/pr/personalistion. There is information about this on the council website

You might also want to see information about the Big Society and the Localism Bill in our Policy Review section which will change how commissioning works by providing more community involvement in decisions and also a right to bid to own premises and a right to challenge to provide services

The Compact has provisions regarding funding including commissioning. There are some specific links in the downloads section but also more on our Compact page

Below are links to the council website where their current plans and strategies for different client groups are available and what is known about NHS commissioning.

Current local commissioning plans and strategies:

All local commissioning should be based on identified needs. This is done through the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment see the current edition - Bromley JSNA 2011
Bromley Council Adults commissioning
Bromley Children & Young People’s Partnership – commissioning strategy and plan for 2011-14

NHS commissioning

NHS commissioning is due to change radically in the next couple of years. Subject to legislation now before Parliament from 2013 GP Consortia will commission most NHS services. See

In the mean time responsibility for NHS commissioning is with South East London cluster of PCTs based on a Quality Improvement & Performance Plan (QIPP) and also some clinical improvement areas. More detail is available in the downloads area.

For more information contact

Stephen Blann - Policy and Networks Officer
Working days: 4 days per week, (usually Monday - Thursday) T. 020 8315 1907 E. Stephen Blann or
Julie Hunt - Funding Information and Advice Officer
Working days: Monday - Friday
T. 020 8315 1915 E. Julie Hunt

Download more detailsed articles

Some Compact resources on Commissioning

	Guide: How to find your Commissioner (PDF 575KB)
	Make Procurement Work for you - by using your Compact (PDF 207KB)
	Commissioning Guidance for Public Bodies (PDF 1.18MB