Issue - meetings

Report of the Director of Commissioning (60 mins)

The Director of Commissioning introduced the report which updated members on the commissioning process and set out a commissioning timetable for future reviews. The report was intended to facilitate a discussion by members to determine what information they need at future meetings to ensure that the council delivers its ambition to be a commissioning council and how it will measure its success.

In the discussion that followed, members thought that the exercise to prioritise potential commissioning projects was useful and highlighted areas for further investigation.   They questioned why the three commissioning projects currently in progress were not included in the table as it would have been interesting to see how they were assessed. As this committee was concerned with carrying out scrutiny of the commissioning programme at an overview level, it needed information on costs of each commissioning project and potential savings so that these could be monitored. They would also seek reassurance that commissioning exercises were operating in a consistent way using the appropriate guidelines.

The scope of any commissioning exercise should be kept as broad as possible with a focus on partnerships and there was also a need to think outside the box. Housing was given as an example where the council should not think of itself as just a housing supply provider but should be tapping into the community priorities arising from new legislation and the commissioning health service agenda.    The council should also be alert to opportunities for its services to be commissioned by others or take on new responsibilities. A good starting point would be some of the targets in the corporate strategy where the council was not currently directly responsible. There was a question as to how the services identified as part of a low carbon commissioning exercise would be picked up.

In response, the Director of Commissioning acknowledged that these low carbon initiatives needed to be housed within the commissioning programme. She advised that the member working group looking at housing would indeed be looking at welfare reforms and potential partnership working with health providers. Leisure@ had already identified some opportunities for GP referrals and this was a good example of commissioning in action.

The Cabinet Member Corporate Services highlighted that a review of scrutiny had been initiated to ensure that the council’s scrutiny arrangements were in the best position to support a commissioning council.

Resolved that the committee should receive a further update in six months time