Personalisation: implications for commissioners

Commissioners and public bodies are responsible for implementing personalisation. Below are some key issues that commissioners need to consider to make sure that personalisation is implemented in a way which provides the best possible outcomes for service users, their carers and families and the wider community:

Shaping the market and meeting need
Building effective partnerships with voluntary and community organisations (VCOs)
Outcomes and outputs
Commissioning for the community
Resources and publications

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Shaping the market and meeting need

Commissioners are fundamental to ensuring personalisation provides maximum choice and control for service users, their carers and families by shaping and supporting a market of diverse local services to meet their needs.

Commissioners can gather information on local need and use this to inform their commissioning strategies, identifying any shortfalls or gaps in provision. Commissioners are also well placed to make this information available to providers so that they can respond accordingly and can support the development of new services and innovation where appropriate. However, it is also important that commissioners continue to support existing services where they are working well and seek out those harder-to-reach providers that are providing essential support: getting the right balance and mix of services is crucial to ensure the needs of local people do not go unmet and that the market is sustainable.

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Building effective partnerships with voluntary and community organisations (VCOs)

Making personalisation work in practice will require building genuine partnerships between commissioners and providers, service users and their carers.

Commissioners will need to share their strategies for the implementation and continued roll out of personalisation and wherever possible seek to involve providers, service users and their carers in planning for personalisation and identifying priority areas (co-production).

VCOs and providers are likely to need particular support in adapting their business models, administration and finance processes to meet the operational challenges of personal budgets and understanding likely changes in demands for services. Service users and their carers will need to be made aware of how personalisation might affect their current services and may need particular support understanding and navigating their way through the new system. Commissioners can utilise the strengths of VCOs to support people through this transition process and help them make the most of the opportunities presented by personalisation.

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Outcomes not outputs

Personalisation means thinking about the whole needs of the person and delivering services in a holistic way to improve people’s overall wellbeing. Where commissioners continue to specify and procure services there will need to be a shift away from task and output-based models towards outcomes-based models which understand, reflect and measure the full impact service providers have. This means not only looking at how a service can meet the needs and improve the wellbeing of individuals but also recognising and acknowledging their other benefits, such as how they might support the carers and families of service users, improve local employment opportunities, or involve the wider community.

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Commissioning for the community

Commissioning for personalisation does not just mean commissioning for individual service users but commissioning for the whole community.

Personalisation will require investing and commissioning universal services that help us all lead fuller lives as citizens and improve our health and wellbeing, such as transport, leisure and learning opportunities. Such services are not only an integral part of the move towards prevention and providing greater choice and diversity in how people wish their support needs to be met, but also provide an opportunity for engagement and involvement in the local community.

Commissioners can, where appropriate, encourage peer support and support people to come together to commission their own services, for example through the development of new mutuals and user-led organisations. Commissioning for the community will also mean developing a strategy for information, advice and brokerage services that will be essential for personalisation to work effectively.

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Resources for commissioners

Below are the latest resources, toolkits and case studies to support you in commissioning for personalisation.

Commissioning for Personalisation: A Framework for Local Authority Commissioners
This report considers the broad commissioning challenges posed by self-directed support and personal budgets. It develops a definition for commissioning for personalisation and establishes a set of key principles to underpin commissioning activity. Includes some best practice examples collated from Individual Budgets pilot sites, In Control sites and other commissioning organisations.

Access The personalisation tool kit for a range of resources and tools to help you transform your systems, processes and commissioning strategies for personalisation. Includes how to contract for personalised outcomes, an example of an Individual Budget contract, and an example Individual Service Fund Level Agreement with a provider.

Commissioning for Support planning and Brokerage: A resource tool
This resource tool will help you identify what brokerage resources are available in your local community and develop a commissioning strategy accordingly. Gives a method for how you can map brokerage services in your area, identify gaps in provision and work with local people to set priorities.

Commissioning for personalization: from the fringes to the mainstream (PDF 259 KB)
From interviews with politicians, civil servants, local authority managers, frontline staff, service users, trade union representatives and others; this report describes what is involved in delivering personalisation.

Transforming the market for social care: changing the currency of commissioning from outputs to outcomes (PDF 196 KB)
Learn from a project undertaken by the Institute of Public Care, five local authorities and a provider organisation to develop an outcomes-based approach to procuring and purchasing services. There is more information around developing the market on the Think Local, Act Personal website.

Practical approaches to market and provider development (PDF 182 KB)
Explores what is meant by market shaping and details a framework for understanding and planning market shaping activity.

Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) At a glance briefing 06: Implications for Commissioners
A quick guide to personalisation for commissioners. Considers the changes in commissioning practice that will help bring about a transformation of public services. SCIE has a number of additional resources on personalisation in its adult social care pages. Another useful briefing for commissioners is Commissioning to develop and sustain user-led organisations (ULOs).

Self Directed Support in Lancashire: An interim Report (PDF 562 KB)
Find out about one local authority’s experience of implementing personalisation, including integrating the personal budgets system and working with service users and providers to transform services.

Person centred Planning: advice for commissioners (PDF 1.26 MB)
Read this report by the Department of Health for guidance on how to commission for person-centred services by working with both service users, their families and carers to co-design and develop provision.

Care Funding Calculator
Think Local, Act Personal provides a free toolkit for adult social care commissioners of Learning Disability, Physical Disability and Mental Health residential and supported living placements. It helps make best use of resources by establishing a 'fair price for care', alongside securing improved outcomes for individuals.