For public sector partners

Commissioning from the third sector

How public bodies in Fife can commission services from third sector organisations in a way that is fair, transparent and sustainable.

Commissioning from the third sector works best when providers are involved early, outcomes are clear, full costs are recognised and agreements last long enough to plan around. FVA supports commissioners and providers on both sides: helping public bodies design processes that the sector can take part in, and helping organisations understand and respond to them.

We have worked with Fife Health and Social Care Partnership on how it commissions from the third sector, and we run the forums through which providers hear about and shape commissioning developments. The project below is an example of that work.

Reimagining third sector commissioning (a Fife Health and Social Care Partnership project)

Introduction

Fife Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) currently invests over £10 million annually on grants to the third sector so that vital services can be provided to support people in Fife to live independent and healthy lives.

The Reimagining Third Sector Commissioning Project aims to make sure that the health and social care services we fund reflect the HSCP strategic priorities and needs of local people.

We are working with partners in the third sector to make some fundamental changes to the way that we approach commissioning to make sure that when we make decisions about funding they are transparent and based on the lived experience of people receiving services. Through the project we want to strengthen and develop our tools and processes to ensure that the HSCP, third sector and supported people work collaboratively to plan services and use the resources we have to build capacity and respond to local needs and challenges effectively.

Please note, services funded via the Drug & Alcohol Partnership are excluded from the scope of this project.

We have published key documents and updates on the right hand side of this page.

Project Vision

To have an outcome focussed approach to commissioning which supports all partners to work effectively together to create innovative, sustainable, support solutions, aligned to strategic priorities and local needs.

What's next?

We are looking for providers with an interest and expertise in measuring outcomes to form a Short Life Working Group. If you are interested in getting involved please contact Nicola Broad for more information
We will be holding provider workshops to look at the Service Level Agreement template and developing supporting guidance
We will be planning our next round of provider workshops to focus on monitoring and evaluation
We will be providing information from the mapping exercise about the services available across our localities.

New opportunities for the third sector to participate in the project

We are developing workshops so that that we can discuss potential changes to the Service Level Agreement template. We want to make sure that the document supports our ambition to focus on lived experience of people using services and that it is easy to complete, update and monitor. We will publish more information about this very soon.#

Fife's Third Sector Health and Social Care Forum

All third sector organisations will have regular opportunities to hear about the latest developments, and to contribute queries and suggestions, through FVA's Third Sector Health and Social Care Forum which is open to all third sector organisations operating in Fife - contact Eloise to find out more. The Project Coordinator will be in attendance to answer any questions you may have.

If you have any queries or issues, you can contact us here at FVA, your Link Officer or the Reimagining Project Co-ordinator, Nicola Broad at any time.