Nice People; Terrible System: CCPS survey of providers experiences of commissioning and procurement
In 2017 CCPS surveyed providers to understand their experience of commissioning and procurement over the preceding year. Sixty- eight providers of varying turnover, size and geographical reach gave their experience with twenty- five providers sharing a specific example of a recent procurement process and its’ effects.
Method: a small- scale exploration of provider experiences only. The work comprised a short survey (n=68) a collection of case studies (n=25) and a small focus group (n=4) to test out emerging themes.
Findings included:
Strategic commissioning: The majority of respondents (83%) described their overall involvement with commissioning as ‘consultation’ with very few (17%) describing something close to involvement and none approaching co-production.
92% of respondents had tendered for a contract in the last 12 months. 44% had withdrawn from a tendering process and 18% had handed back a contract in this period.
Withdrawal from tendering was due to low hourly rates, TUPE issues and (particularly for small to medium organisations) the complexity and time required to tender. Of the 18% who had handed back a contract this was because the contract had become financially non-viable.
