‘What is the impact of commissioning

on

Services in the voluntary and

community sector in Lancashire?’Bren Cook

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment for the

degree of

Master of Arts in Community Leadership

April 2015

The School of Education and Social Science

University of Central Lancashire

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Plagiarism

I understand the nature of plagiarism, and I am aware of

the University’s policy on this.

I certify that apart from the contributions of my

supervisor, the empirical work and its analysis reported

here, were conducted entirely by myself. If there are

any occasions when I have used the words of others, I

have acknowledged them by the use of quotations marks and

I have cited the source; otherwise the text of the report

is written in my own words.

Signature: ..............................................

....................................

Date: ...................................................

........................................

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Dedication

This dissertation is dedicated to my wife Lorraine, the person that I most want to sit by Semerwater with.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank:

Yasmeen Ali, my dissertation supervisor, and Ridwanah

Gurjee, the MA in Community Leadership course leader for

their patience, support and coffee.

My fellow MA student colleagues for travelling along this

journey with me.

Everyone that took part in the research for being open and honest.Gavin Turnbull for sharing some work with me which helpedkick start the MA fund. Runshaw College and the Community Social Care Team, Jackie McCartney and Alistair Jewell for their support, humour and coffee.

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Table of Contents

Plagiarism 2

Dedication 3

Acknowledgements 4

Table of contents 5

Abstract and Introduction 6

Background and context 6

Methodology 8

Findings 9

Overview 9

Chapter 1 Literature Review 12

Chapter 2 The Methodology 27

Chapter 3 The Findings 36

Chapter 4 Discussion 45

Conclusion 62

Summary 63

Evaluation 64

Future Work 65

Conclusion 66

Reference List 67

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Appendix 1- Interview and focus group questions 73

Appendix 2-Thematic Analysis Data 75

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Abstract

Commissioning and outsourcing services has becomede rigueur for local authorities as their budgetsreduce and efficiencies are sought for. Often thevoluntary sector is a vital source of organisationsthat can deliver services to communities. Thisdissertation seeks to explore the question of theimpact that commissioning has on the voluntary andcommunity sector in Lancashire, England. Evidencehas been gathered through interviews and focusgroups from the commissioners, the commissioned andservice users. A thematic analysis leads to acritical discussion about the commissioning system,democracy, accountability, complexity and thedestabilisation of the voluntary and communitysector. The dissertation makes recommendations toremedy the situation and calls for a radicalrethink of democracy at a local level and therebychanging the perception of commissioning from anoutsourcing mechanism to a dialogue betweenservices and communities that will shape how socialneeds are met.

Key words: Commissioning, democracy, voluntarysector, community, outsourcing, dialogue,complexity

Introduction

‘I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the peoplethemselves ; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise theircontrol with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them,but to inform their discretion by education’

Thomas Jefferson, Letters of Thomas Jefferson

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Background and Context

On Friday 21st December 2007, just after 4.30pm I placed

the final draft copy of the ‘Lancashire Children and

Young Peoples Strategic Partnership Joint Commissioning

Strategy’ on the desk of the Head of the Policy Team.

That was my deadline. The gist of the document was that

if we wanted different outcomes for children and young

people then we had to do things differently. A senior

member of the Audit Commission once told me you had to

turn the system on its head; it need less power to say

‘no’ at the top, and more power to take action at the

frontline. The strategy document opened up possibilities

for local multi-agency teams of professionals to engage

with communities through universal services with acute

emergency services ready to tackle the urgent and high

risk. Health and social care budgets were to be aligned

and eventually pooled, with in-kind resources coordinated

seamlessly. A joint strategic intelligence and

commissioning unit that handled the technical, legal and

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ethical elements was mooted and Interagency governance

was ready to roll out across the county. All this was

done in accordance to the Every Child Matters- Change for

Children Programme (HM Government, 2004) and the

Children Act 2004 (Legislation.gov.uk, 2004). However,

the strategy was never fully implemented and I never knew

why.

This is the motivator for this research. After 15 years

since the death of Victoria Climbié I wanted to know how

had things changed in the world of commissioning and how

it is impacting on the voluntary and community sector, if

at all. My involvement with that sector has increased

since 2011 and the two interests meet together in this

research.

The question that the research is adressing itself to is:

‘What is the impact of commissioning on services in the voluntary and

community sector in Lancashire?’

Methodology

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My objectives for this research are: 1. To discover what

progress has been made in commissioning practice 2. To

discover if the voluntary sector is more or less secure

within the current commissioning regime, and 3.To

critically examine socio-economic and political

implications of commissioning for local government

democracy in the 21st century. I took a personal stance to

approach the research in a way that complied ethically

with University standards, and also so that the research

would have as much validity as possible.

I have deliberately limited it to Lancashire for

pragmatic and practical reasons, which include

accessibility to sources of evidence, knowledge of the

organisations, and of the political context. I chose

four organisations to be represented, which was for

practical reasons and realistically being able to fit the

interviewing into the time available for this research.

The four organisations that have provided participants

for interviewing are two local authorities and two

voluntary organisations. The local authorities differ in

size, scope and function, whilst the voluntary

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organisations are of different scales; one being a local

community based charitable incorporated organisation and

one national charity. This gave a contrast and

opportunities for different perspectives and themes to

emerge. I used the same set of questions for the

organisational to allow for a consistency and equality of

opportunity across the individuals. A focus group of

service users took part to act as a quasi control group

providing a recipients viewpoint as opposed to a

professional organisational view. Given that they are

recipients of the commissioners ‘products’ it was

important they had a voice in the research. The type of

services that the commissioning under question were not

specified as I wanted those interviewed to have maximum

scope to answer questions, however, the two voluntary and

community sector organisations were social and community

services for a wide range of people in the community.

This was important to make the research relevant to

community leadership. The methods used to generate

evidence included; interviews using consistent questions

and the findings were thematically analysed, this means

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identifying patterns or themes in the data. This approach

was chosen so as to enable multiple sources to contribute

and for the collective themes to be identified. This

description of the methodology will be dealt with in more

depth in chapter 2.

Findings

This research shows that things are far from right in

local government. Gemma Tetlow (2015) from the Institute

for Fiscal Studies when being interviewed on BBC Radio 4s

More or Less programme claims that if plans do not change

the reduction in budgets, such as local government, will

be 41% over the period between 2010 and the end of the

next parliament in 2020. It is no wonder then that

things in local government are not at their best and some

services near crisis point. However far from finding

radical new effective ways of commissioning very little

change had taken place apart from there was doing more of

the ‘wrong things righter’ (Seddon, 2008, pp.10-11). The

findings clearly show a detrimental impact on the

voluntary and community sector.

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The findings fall into three main themes: Criticism of

the process and the experience of commissioning; the

destabilising impact on the voluntary and community

sector including service user experience; and the failure

and flaws of the commissioning and democratic system.

More detailed findings and theoretical discussion about

these categories are to be found in chapters 3 and 4.

Overview

This dissertation contains four chapters, which start

with chapter 1- a literature review that explores

writings on local government, commissioning, the

voluntary sector, global neo- liberalism and alternative

possibilities to the existing regime. Chapter 2 is a

detailed description of the methodology used in this

research, any theoretical underpinnings and a reflective

comment on the experience. Chapter 3 unpacks the findings

and the evidence generated by the research. This chapter

is a distillation of the interviews and the focus group.

It describes the evidence as refined by thematic

analysis. Finally chapter 4 discusses the implications of

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the findings for the future of the voluntary and

community sector as well as for democracy itself.

The paper will be pulled together in a conclusion that

will gather together the strands of the project to make

recommendations for future research and practice.

In this dissertation I want to show the complex task of

society trying to organise itself in ways that are

meaningful and successful, to deal with its functions. I

would argue it has never been an easy thing to do and has

always been a contested space. However, postmodern

society is feeling more complex and harder to navigate.

Tofler (1971) predicted this phenomenon over forty years

ago and it seems we may be suffering from ‘future shock’

as we search for a solution to social problems. One piece

of learning stands out for me from this dissertation is

the interconnectedness of all things. As I talk about

Lancashire commissioning it is not difficult to connect

it to globalised neo liberalism, or free marketeers. When

I talk about local voluntary organisations a line can be

easily be traced to a nationwide democratic deficit. Yet

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there feels like a disconnection or fragmentation between

those that make decisions, and those that have to live

with their consequences. Instead I want people to explore

better ways of experiencing community or services that

have democracy, people, and congruency with the public

good at their heart.

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Chapter 1

The Literature Review

Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.

W. B. Yeats, 1865 – 1939 The Second Coming

No worthwhile consideration of the written word regarding

commissioning can begin in such a narrow way as to exclude

the fundamental relationships between the citizen and the

state. Therefore this exploration of literature will start

with a broad brush by briefly examining the nature of the

governed and the governing, thereby contextualising the

relationship as framed by history, before turning its gaze

upon how local government has shifted the methods of how some

of it’s functions are provided or secured since the

Thatcherite settlement of the 1980. Contemporary practice and

ideology will be examined and key writing on current

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approaches to commissioning will be subjected to an exegesis

that is intended to inform the research findings and

discussion of the question ‘What is the impact of commissioning on

services in the voluntary and community sector in Lancashire?’ The value of

this starting point is to show how the relationship between

the governed and the governors is a space that cannot be

assumed to be constant or without dispassionate self-

interest.

The geographical scope of this research will eventually be

limited to the boundaries of Lancashire as it became after

the 1997 local government re-organisation. This is to bind

the whole discussion within a manageable space (HM

Government, 1996). However the writings on the relationship

between the citizen and the state will, at first, be

necessarily broad in both time and space, before examining

the political and economic backdrop to the emergence of

contracting and commissioning.

This review of literature will begin by pegging the start of

modern governance to the influence of Jeremy Bentham and how

an element of his thinking touched on defining the powers of

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government and the citizen. Brunon-Ernst (2012 chp 1) puts

forward the notion that Bentham suggests that to guard

against despotism there needs to be groups acting as checks

and balances against each other. Whilst the judiciary, the

executive and the legislator are all bounded within one

entity they hold and manage the scrutiny of each other with

the electorate, theoretically at least, able to hold all of

them to account. Interestingly this mutual observance has

echos in the Panotican concept that Jeremy and Samuel Bentham

used to design prisons in which everyone, guards included,

felt they were being observed though it’s origin comes from

the overseeing of Russian building workers. This panoptoscism

served to manage behaviour through the perception of constant

vigilance. As Bentham was a major influence on the emerging

system of modern governance there is no surprise in detecting

the thread of utilitarianism thoughout the project.

It is worth acknowledging that this is only the beginning of

representative democracy (for some) and the the Local

Government Act 1894 saw the crystalising of a system which

still has many of the same components today. Whilst other

legislation has come and gone, according to Redlitch and

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Hurst (1970 pg103-105), the essential elements remain. They

carry on to say that despite almost two century of

development that has taken place within and to local

government, the essential ingredients, and to some extent,

executive functions and roles would be recognisable to

someone from over 150 years ago. Abel and Sementelli (2007)

suggest that an absence of a public philosophy leaves public

administrators with moral challenges. This tends to lead to

reluctance to articulate morals and values that underpin

policy development allowing for a degree of an unspoken

hegemony that maintains the status quo, including the

relationship of tax payer to tax-collector and the tensioned

balance between the burden and the benefit.

It is this relationship that is to be explored next through

an examination of texts that tend to postulate a view that

may be described as either post modern or post- postmodern.

Darrow Sphecter (2010) explores the Weberian and Marxist idea

that the players within the public sphere rather than

divesting themselves of power that would bring about a

participative democracy, instead, weave around themselves a

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bureaucracy that embeds authority within a set of

professional or political elitist clubs. An erosion of

genuine political accountability neatly creates a space that

disenfranchises the masses and alienates them from

governance. Sphecter further describes how Kant takes an

ideological stance that infuses the public sphere with a

moral imperitative that is eroded as power-seeking self

interest overides principle, a dynamic to be exacerbated by

captialism. Kant required both rationality and a freedom to

exercise reason for a successful public sphere, attributes

that he did not see in women, children or the salaried

masses. Instead a professional, ethical impartiality was

needed to mediate within the public sphere of a modern era.

Habermas, according to Sphecter, argues, using his own view

on a Marxist perspective, that there is a danger that a

liberal democracy can be undermined by capitalism and a

growing gap between the governed and the governors through

lack of a discursive space.

After the Second World War how both economists and government

perceived public service was significantly different to how

they have been seen since the mid 1970’s. Taking the ideas of

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the economist John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) governments

both sides of the Atlantic took to managing the economy by

investing in major projects that facilitated job creation and

hence people’s ability to engage within an economy. Despite

an age of austerity Government invested in Public Services

and national infrastructure (Seddon, 2008).

The Atlee based consensus that began with the Labour

Government in 1945 and lasted until the mid-1970’s were

hallmarked by Keynesian economics and the public ownership of

such utilities as coal, gas, railways, airlines, electricity

and the Bank of England. Public services were created such as

the National Health Service and the Welfare state.

Beveridge’s council houses provided council housing in an

emerging ‘land fit for heroes’. This new economics provided

jobs and jobs, in turn, fueled the economy and enabled a

golden age of public service development (Morgan, 1988). This

sense of a progressive society was about to change with

consequences for the post war Atlee consensus. To draw in

this broad exploration of the development of local government

it is safe to say whilst the history of municipality has its

roots in the utilitarian influenced early part of the

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nineteenth century, that the relationship between the

emerging liberal capitalism and the enfranchisement of the

masses remain at odds with each other. There is no finer

period of history to illustrate this tension than the

Thatcherite settlement of the nineteen eighties and nineties.

Fleeing from Nazi Allied Austria, Friedrich August Hayek

settled in Britain. Hayek working for the London School of

Economics (LSE) and latterly transferring to Peterhouse

College in Cambridge set about sowing the seeds for a

resurgence of a new liberal economics that would eventually

influence key economic thinkers and politicians including

Milton Friedman, and Margaret Thatcher in writings such as

‘The Road to Serfdom’, and ‘The Constitution of Liberty’. A

member of the Mont Pélerin Society, Hayek was the ‘midwife’

to the emerging monetarist, free market, small states and

neo-liberal hegemony that would begin to dominate capitalism

towards the end of the 20th century (Tebble, 2010).

Chomsky (2003) observed that as the world economy slowed and

the mid-seventies came along the economic shift from Keynes

to Friedman took place. In his book ‘Free to Choose’

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Friedman, also a member of the Pélerin Society with Hayek put

forward his thesis that big Government was bad and a free,

unfettered, market was good. Intervention by Government along

the lines of fixed interest rates were swept away for free

trade and monetarism. For some this represented a freedom

from from the tyranny of Keynes and for others it opened the

door for smaller government and a redistribution of control

and wealth into private and corporate hands (Eamonn, 2011).

Supported by an unpopular President in the shape of Ronald

Reagon, Friedmans ideas saw the dismantling of workers rights

and labour laws at home, and a foreign policy that created

enough devils around the world to fuel the USA’s, almost

Orwellian, impirical ambitions and raise the status of Reagan

to an American saviour. The American neo-liberal hegemony had

come of age.

In 1979 Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister of a

Conservative Government that lasted 18 years. What followed

during her period of office, and into the Major Government,

Stoker (1996 pg 1-21) describes what happened to local

government as a brutal showing of political power. Funding

systems were centralised to control spending, the private

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sector was invited in to work in partnership taking over some

of the key functions that had remained the same for over a

century. Structures changed or removed and by 1997 there were

80 fewer local authorities. New managerialism abounded, how

services were provided and by whom changed, as well as

delivery, culture and accountablity. The Conservative

Government was a reforming government and brought in

centralised changes with little consultation, depending upon

‘experts’ to roll out value for money and accountability for

almost all aspects of government expenditure. Stoker claims

that both the Thatcher and Major years saw a hyperactivity of

initiatives. Only New Zealand matched the UK for this frenzy

of change. This fervour isn’t a coincidence or a random

poltical whim as it was driven by the ‘New Right’

philososophy of the free market, neo liberal economics of

Friedman, Reagan and Thatcher. In a subsequent chapter of

the same book Stanyer(1996 pg. 237-247) argues that the

impact on the disinvestment in local government, the

insistence of central government that the private sector is

involved in either infrastructure or elements of services led

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to fragmentation, deformation of policies, deformation

through recruitment and through subsidiarity.

Wilson(1993) continues this theme by writing about how the

free market further encroached on public sector finance in

the 1990’s. The public sector has always procured items and

some elements of services from the private sector however it

was the Thatcher government that politicised the process

through the introduction of compulsory competitive tendering

(CCT). The Local Government Act 1992 opened up compulsory

‘contracting out’ or at least traditional serivices competing

directly with the private sector to deliver services. The

free market had arrived for some sectors. They describe the

objectives of this exercise as; the private sector being

involved in public sector delivery would drive up quality and

value for money; In house services would begin to consider

cost and quality ; public sector staff’s undertakings would

be transferred to any new organisation thereby making the

public sector appear smaller which was a new right

ideological motivator; the pay and conditions of staff could

be eroded, and theoretically, the exercise would save money.

A further objective would be the professionalising of the

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voluntary, community and faith sectors who would have to act

more like businesses if they wished to be considered for

serious contracts. Wilson concludes that despite some 33% of

expenditure being contracted out there was little evidence of

improvements in either efficiency, effectiveness or economy

for those services that were now outside the aegis of local

government and any real quality control. In addition

additional regulation and accountability structures would be

needed to ensure the quality, all of which added to the real

cost of the Thatcherite CCT project. The whole exercise was,

at best a patchwork affair and usage of competition varied

highly depending on the political hue of the local authority.

This first fragmentation of provision in a free market was,

as Seddon (2008) suggest, the first incursion into a whole

world of complexity starting with the notion of choice.

Choice became a political slogan in the late 1980’s and rolls

on into the post 2008 banking crisis age of austerity and

embedded itself in a UK political hegemony starting life as

cold war ‘game theory’. Game theory, developed at the US RAND

Corporation, and rests upon the notion that people will act

only in their own self-interest. This is the assumption

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underpinning the whole quasi-internal market developed by

Thatcherism and subsequent policy was designed along these

lines. Seddon describes how the Major Government continued

with the Thatcherite programme of reforming public services

not only bringing about internal provider changes but also by

managing the expectation of the public.

The Citizen’s Charter, before being replaced by New Labour’s

outcomes frameworks and myriad of targets, set the tone for

the citizen to become a consumer of services and an object of

the managerialism of postmodernism. The emerging contract

culture was extended to take in the citizenship making the

relationship with the state one of ‘customer-ship’ (Drewry,

2005).

Seddon (2008) returns to the theme public sector reform by

describing how New Labour Government targets created entirely

new cultures, new sources of waste, result and accounting

failures, driving down of costs, reduction in staff morale

and worsening services. He argues that the flaw of this

approach lies in the underlying assumptions of the Game

Theorists and the overriding pessimism of the disciples of

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Milton Friedman. The flaw lies in the problem of having to

control the costs of human failure and imperfection. Until

this hegemony is countered them the neo-liberal consensus

will remain.

It is now worth shifting focus and looking at writings

relating to players outside of local authority sector but

with a stake in the public service space, namely the

voluntary and community sector.

This sector is described in a report on an inquiry into the

‘Future of Voluntary

Services’ by the National Coalition for Independent Action

(2015) as a way of expressing activity created by citizens

that sits in a liminal space outside of the state that is

motivated by compassion, care and a wish to improve the world

around them. The argument continues that this group of

entities should not be a replacement for public services but

in addition to them. These organisations do not have to

exist. Their very value is in the ungoverned nature of the

liminal space in which they do exist and any attempt to move

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them into other public or private sector scapes fundamentally

alters their nature, purpose and activity.

The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (2014)

[NCVO] states that there are some 161,266 Voluntary

Organisations in the UK as of 2012. The collective income is

around £39.2 billion of which (for larger organisations) 39%

comes from commissioned or contracted work. This figure isn’t

true for all organisations as it ranges from 17% for small to

medium organisations to around 4% for micro-organisations.

The mix of income seems to vary widely depending on the

nature of the organisation, its supporters and its purposes.

Expenditure in this sector in 2012 was in the region of £38

billion with governance costing £1 billion; the cost of

raising the funds was at £4.3 billion; grant making cost £5

billion and the charitable activity outgoing was at £32.7

billion. However the sector is a complex one which is

reflected in the NCVO’s attempt at describing the range of

organisations from charities, voluntary organisations, non-

profit sector, to community groups and organisations. These

figures represent a significant attraction for ‘marketeers’

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and are therefore, of interest to the subject of

commissioning.

Billis and Harris (cited in Rochester, 2014:2) describes a

major shift in the very nature of the voluntary and community

sector from an independent, pluralistic, creative, flexible

sector to a more prescriptive service dominated sector that

takes on projects and a more formal way of operating. This

change affected culture, staffing, training, and the very

raison d’être of the voluntary organisation world.

Yet this ripe market is still emerging in Lancashire with the

Chair of the Third Sector Lancashire M. Wedgeworth (2014)

declaring, in an end of year report, that whilst strategy is

emerging there remains a practice gap, uncertainty and new

provider networks emerging on the horizon. It is interesting

to note that the sector is involved in developing a

procurement strategy yet no mention is made of the emerging

new models of commissioning, nor any critique of the age of

austerity with the voluntary and community sector having to

transform into quasi businesses. National charities have been

accused of scooping up the contracts left behind after

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privately owned companies have won the lucrative outsourcings

meant to save the tax payer money. Seemingly there are moves

back to insourcing formerly outsourced services because the

dream of a leaner and fitter private sector is just that, a

dream. Yet the solutions seem to remain in doing more of the

same over and over again without much learning or change

(Ryan, 2014).

Hailing commissioning, and moreover, joint commissioning

between the monolithic NHS and Local Government as a way of

generating efficient and effective action creating services

that were seamless in their delivery the Department of Health

(1995) published a practical guide for project leaders in the

ways of joint commissioning. This document laid out the key

themes that were to underpin government initiatives such as

Every Child Matters, which will be discussed shortly. Joint

working, population needs assessment, and the commissioning

cycle were described with a note of reforming optimism.

(Department of Health, 1995)

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It is worth examining literature that frames the question

about commissioning in Lancashire within the context of Every

Child Matters, as joint commissioning was a key plank in

children’s trusts arrangements. This government initiative

has been chosen as it provides a rich vein of material

pertinent to the question and the findings. The death of

Victoria Climbié, an eight-year-old girl tortured and beaten

by her great-aunt and her boyfriend Carl Manning, led Lord

Laming (2003) to establish a public inquiry into the

responsibility’s and causes of this tragedy. Lord Laming

identified in his report that there was significant and

catastrophic flaws in the whole children’s services system

that meant that Victoria’s last year of life and the horrors

it contained went by undetected until it was far too late.

Lord Laming condemned the failure of the system to act

identifying the way the contemporary service as being

fractured, with little or no lateral communication across

departments, disempowered staff, poor practice, and woefully

inadequate leadership and management.

From this tragedy came ‘Every Child Matters (2003) which

called for, amongst things, a wholesale reform of the way

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that services for all children were delivered. Laming had

identified a need for systemic reform. The resulting Children

Act 2004 placed on the statute books several changes to the

system, however the major innovation that is pertinent to

this research, and indeed was the inspiration for it, is the

legislative requirement to establish children’s trust

arrangements. A key element of the function of a children’s

trust was integrated strategy that involved pooling budgets

between, the health economy, social care and education. When

referring to this function the Department for Children,

Schools and Families (DCSF) states in the statutory guidance

that: ‘Strategic planning and commissioning arrangements are central to the

cultural change that is required across all services.’ (Department for

Children, Schools and Families, 2008. Pg. 16)

The Lancashire Children and Young People’s Strategic

Partnership (2006) published a consultation document that

points towards a radical vision for commissioning. It

describes a creative use of resources including evaluating

and, if necessary, de-commissioning services to meet the

needs of communities. It meant exploring new models of

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practice, service configurations and approaches. The document

alludes to the culture change described in the statutory

guidance. The research project will examine these elements in

particular in the findings.

Whilst much work was done to introduce a radical agenda

through ‘Every Child Matters’ it is worth examining a good

practice guide from Lancashires policy unit covering most

aspects of the County Council’s work and aimed at reshaping

the relationship between the Council and the voluntary,

community and faith sector [VCFS]. ‘Getting it right

together’ pulls back from the visionary statements of

‘Thinking, planning and acting together’ and describes a more

traditionally contracting and procurement approach that pulls

back from grant making to a procurement focus. This document

points to a more traditional contract, tendering and

procuring aspiration at odds with different aspirations from

other parts of the organisation. The research project will

examine this tension in some detail and explore if the

evidence points to any resolution of this imbalance

(Lancashire County Council Policy Unit, 2007).

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Having touched on a recent history of policy within

Lancashire it is appropriate to examine literature offering a

glimpse into the latest approaches and even possible future

developments. Moving to explore contemporary thinking behind

the Coalition Government of 2010-15’s notion of commissioning

it is valuable to look at the ‘Commissioning Academy’

established by the Cabinet Office through the Department for

Communities and Local Government (DCLG). This body was

established with the aim of transforming local government,

‘To deliver the next phase of efficiencies, executives will need to lead diverse teams

to design service delivery, to influence external parties and shape and manage

markets. They need practical skill and judgment, access to the latest thinking and

confidence and courage to deliver radical changes’ (Department for

Communities and Local Government, 2013 pg.02) and, according

to the National Coalition for Independent Action (NCIA), to

reveal: ‘ The nature and scale of the Coalition Government’s political project –

ideologically driven - to degrade rights, entitlements and social protections, and to

privatise public services that cannot be abolished is now laid bare.’ (Ryan,

2014).

Yet within the text of the Commissioning Academy Framework

Document by the Cabinet Office (2013) there is a declaration

36

that future commissioning must include co-design, co-

production, systems thinking and to make sure that the

process is not simply about procurement and about driving

costs down. This research will give some insights into how

far, in Lancashire this ambition is being fulfilled and what

affect is being felt by the voluntary sector.

To illustrate an alternative attitude to experiencing local

government; ‘The Cooperative Councils Innovation Network’

(CCIN) (2014) in their ‘Contribution to Labour Party

Innovation Taskforce Final Report’ outline five principles

that could underpin a new approach to local government. They

are: power sharing and decision making with communities; a

focus on social outcomes and strengths rather than deficits;

relationships are crucial in developing social capital; democratic

accountability; and a new way of thinking about welfare by

concentrating on social equity. The report goes on to explore

these principles in detail and describes the implications of

this stance. The quality of this thinking is only matched by

its credibility born of the work being produced by a network

of councils around the country. The relevance to this

37

particular study is that it demonstrates what is possible

given the political will and imagination.

No literature review into commissioning would be complete

without touching on participatory budgeting (PB),

commissionings' very close and highly democratic cousin with

its potential to break away from the enlightenment models of

local governance. Wampler (2007) describes the benefits of PB

as creating a transparent space that would both improve local

government performance and improve local democracy. PB shifts

the focus of decision making from within the council chamber

to the community space. It acts as a people’s university

leaving a legacy that is transformative. Wampler describes

the process of enabling citizens to make informed choices

with probity and openness giving an analysis of PB’s

efficacy.

Within 100 days of the new Parliament in 2015 Government

Ministers are expected to implement the spirit of Blond and

Morris’s (2014) report ‘ Devo Max- Devo Manc: Place Based

Public Services’. Essentially giving Greater Manchester

devolved powers and budgets to transform its city region

38

along the more radical end of the local government spectrum.

They talk of a systemic change with co-location, an end to

siloed services, and genuine localism. This is to be achieved

through the devolution of the entire local government budget

combined with the equivalent health budget. It represents an

interesting departure from doing things the same old way and

expecting different results. There are lessons in this

approach that will be relevant to this research project and

its conclusions.

Returning to Seddon (2008) for some final words about the

current zeitgeist of the regime and machinery of the public

sector. His solution would be to get rid of the whole

bureaucracy and system all together. He views it as a madness

to keep the arrangements as they are now. Far from being

ordered he is arguing that the system is already anarchic and

out of control. It would be better to scrap it than fix it.

The prizes he offers for this solution are the total

elimination of the waste that is inherent in the system by:

saving time and money by stopping the writing of

specifications and detailed contracts; removing the high cost

39

associated with inspecting (and getting ready for it) by

abandoning it; reducing the very high costs of getting

specifications wrong and, finally, reduce the waste of time,

energy and effort through demoralisation of staff. Seddon is

arguing for nothing less than the transformation of

institutions, as did Paulo Freire when he wrote:

‘The truth is, however, that the oppressed are not “marginal's,” are not people

living “outside” society. They have always been “inside”- inside the structure, which

made them “beings for others”. The solution is not to “integrate” them into the

structure of oppression, but to transform that structure so that they can become

“beings” for themselves.” (Freire, 1993 pg.55)

Chapter 2

The Methodology

‘Research is formalised curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.’

Zora Neale Hurston

This research is looking at a relatively new system that

is; local authorities, particularly in Lancashire, acting

as commissioners rather than providers. It seemed

40

sensible to engage with the research in an open

exploratory way that required a degree of pragmatism as

described by Creswell (2007, pp.19-27); that is utilising

a range of ways of collecting information and data with a

degree of flexibility to respond to new data. This

approach led the research to address the problem, namely

what impact is commissioning having on community facing

services? Creswell develops this theme describing the

intended approach of this research as a constructivist

form of grounded theory, which takes complex, and multi

layered realities and allows the researcher to discover

the key learning behind the findings. This is also true

of an interpretive paradigm, which underpins this

research. Essentially a strand of existential-

hermeneutic-phenomenology, the interpretive paradigm fits

the type of dialogical or discursive research and

thematic approach used in this research (Morgan, 2011.

p.1).

This has implications for the role of the researcher. The

design of the methods have been chosen to maintain a

level of objectivity, though it has to be acknowledged

41

that ultimately this is an interpretative piece of

research and the researchers values may play in a part in

the determining the findings despite efforts not to.

This research does not claim to take a positivist or a

post-positivist scientific view nor an

advocacy/participatory paradigm as these positions are

rejected as neither world view meets the flexible nature

of this inquiry nor needs to involve participants in the

analysis of the findings. The thematic data analysis was

completed after all the evidence had been collected. In

the same way a participatory community approach, as

described by Creswell is not broad enough to take in

where the question of commissioning could go, therefore

this too is rejected.

The practical process of the inquiry was carried out in

early 2015. It took the form of interviews with senior

personnel from the organisations mentioned earlier. The

participants were approached because they are in

positions of knowledge and influence and known to me.

The questions remained the same for the commissioned and

42

the commissioners and they were framed in as neutral a

way as possible. This provided an element of consistency

though supplementary questions varied as replies needed

clarification or further discussion. This approach

provided equality in the interviews that generated

evidence that was comparable and contrastable and

contrastable in the analysis. The value of this is that

it lends a loose objectivity to the process contributing

to the overall validity. There is, however, an issue

regarding organisational confidentiality, in that there

is only one upper tier authority in Lancashire namely

Lancashire County Council. Any reference to this level of

government will inevitably disclose this organisation.

Individual confidential views were protected and

criticism was generalised. By way of a solution the

organisational staff are referred to as ‘the

commissioners’ and ‘the commissioned’ and collectively as

‘the interviewee’s’. This will hopefully put the emphasis

on the ideas and not the individuals in question. This

issue has been flagged up in the Research Ethics

Application Form.

43

The service user group will be dealt with in a slightly

more discursive manner and the questions will be tailored

to the groups understanding. The questions were focused

on receiving or accessing services and their qualitative

experience. This approach has been chosen to illustrate

that service user experience may or may not be effected

by the method chosen to secure the service. It is

anticipated that the group will not focus on the

technical nuances in commissioning but their own

experience of receiving a service. The group was made up

of self-selecting volunteers from a HE course at Runshaw

College. The self-selecting nature of the group meant

that their answers tended to be open and honest with no

self-interest other than wanting to contribute to the

research.

The people involved in the study will all be in a

position to discuss the subject from their lived

experience. (Aked & Steed, 2009). This research was

designed to discover if there is any waste in the system

and point to other ways of securing and delivering

services to the public. It was anticipated that there

44

would be discussions about bureaucracy, organisational

interest or inertia, the challenges of measuring

outcomes, payment by results, cash flow, contracts and

power play. It was anticipated that there would be

unexpected results adding new and fresh knowledge in an

unpredictable fashion thereby enhancing knowledge and

informing the research.

An analysis of the research was carried out, in the first

instance, using a thematic approach before further

analysis or an interpretation of the findings was

discussed. This approach was chosen to determine the

common or contradictory themes that come out of the

research consistent to the overall paradigms underpinning

the work (Braun & Clarke, 2006).

The Research Design and the Process

The research project design was governed by several

practical parameters including time, practicability and

access to interviewees. More importantly, however, the

validity, the quality of data and objectivity all played

a role in the shaping of the project.

45

It was decided to use lightly structured interviews with

open questions and three focused questions using a scale

(see appendix 1). This process allowed for free answers

with the follow up, more focused scale questions that

would corroborate their conversational responses (Knight,

2002, pp.52-53). All participants signed a consent form

and the interviews were conducted according to the UCLan

ethical research regulations. It was explained to the

interviewees about the level of confidentiality and their

right to withdraw from the process. The criterion used to

choose the right interviewees was devised to get a

representative sample of the types of organisations that

are involved in commissioning in Lancashire. The research

needed a small/medium voluntary/community sector

organisation; a large/national voluntary/community sector

organisation; a district council and the county council

to cover the range and types of organisations involved.

In addition it was relevant to have a focus group of

service users to act as a quasi-control group to compare

their experience and perception with that of the

46

organisations. It was anticipated that this might show up

any difference between perceived practice and reality.

The design of the interview process began with the

question 'What is the impact of commissioning on services in the

voluntary and community sector in Lancashire?’ Sudman and Bradburn

(1982, pp. 1) suggest that stating that a questions

meaning can be altered by the exact wording is obvious

though the effort put into scrutinising them is sometimes

ignored. Therefore the wording of the research question

went through several iterations in its development. It

was important that the question was open in its scope but

also bounded in focus. ‘How does commissioning impact on

organisations?' was rejected as being too broad and all

encompassing. ‘What’ allows a respondent to be

descriptive which then enables either an acceptance of

the answer or an opportunity to probe further. The phrase

‘impact of commissioning’ doesn’t allow for a neutral

position to be taken and encourages the proposition that

something is happening because of commissioning…that

there is an ‘impact’. The research needs to be relevant

to the subject of community leadership therefore how

47

commissioning is impacting up the ‘voluntary and

community’ sector anchors the question in a field of

knowledge before bounding it within the geographical area

of Lancashire. Each word in the question was chosen to

fulfill a particular function that enabled the

interviewees an opportunity to contribute to the research

finding.

It was decided early on that the main question would be

broken down into 5 sub questions (see appendix 1) that

broke down the main question into areas of interest to

the overall research. One question about ‘experience of

commissioning’ allowed commissioners, as well as the

commissioned, to answer reflexively. Juxtaposing this

question was one about ‘how would you improve

commissioning’. This is a forward facing question

enabling the interviewee to evaluate where they are now

and where they saw commissioning in the future. It allows

them to speculate and be critical. The three questions in

the middle about ‘ideal commissioning’; ‘values

underpinning commissioning’; and ‘describing successful

commissioning’ were designed to enable a theoretical

48

discussion about organisations, their congruence and

success criteria all of which would reveal insights about

commissioning and its impact through the analysis of

findings.

A separate set of six questions was created for the focus

group of service users. The questions were: What services

or organisations have you used over the last 5 years? In

that time have you noticed any changes in those services

or organisations? If so what? Would you like to have your

say in those services? If so how? How effective were

the services in meeting your needs or requirements?

The questions were refined and used in a focus group

session in February 2015. The four participants were

volunteers from a college in Lancashire and had all been

recipients of local services in the last five years. The

session was video recorded and a transcription made from

the session.

The organisation interviews took place in January 2015

and each one was audio recorded. Each interview was given

49

a code number and made anonymous. Each recording was

transcribed.

The transcriptions of the interviewee’s were thematically

analysed. This means breaking down the interviewee’s

answers into their key elements and relevant patterns

identified and codified (Dey, 1993, p.31). These elements

were entered into a spreadsheet that allowed for the

comparing and contrasting which in turn identified the

key themes and commonalities. It also highlighted areas

of difference. The scale-able questions were collated and

subject to the same thematic approach as described above.

The process of the analysis was a reductive one; the

initial data set, in the form of interviews, contained

around two and a half hours of conversation, which then

was reduced through transcribing, and the key themes

extracted. This was further refined into the findings

chapter. This reduction is an essential part of telling

the story behind the research question (Richards, 2015,

p.66)

50

The same process was used with the service users

comments; however there was a high level of consensus in

the group and this is highlighted in chapter 3.

Comment

Maintaining an open mind and approaching the research

results with a degree of objectivity was important so as

not to project any preconceived perspectives on the

outcomes. However one of the refreshing surprises that

the research methods showed up was the amount of critical

discourse that it enabled. The emphasis on

confidentiality was helpful and the questions helped the

participants to explore the subject for themselves, as

well as for the piece of research.

In terms of community leadership this model of research

can, and is, used in a community engagement context. A

recent project in Cambridgeshire on behalf of

Cambridgeshire Count Council, Tobacco Free Futures and

Our Life used community members to interview other

members of the public. The public health service wanted

to explore the reasons behind the high smoking figures in

51

Fenland. Our life used a ‘community explorers’ model of

inquiry. Questions were devised, interviews took place

and a thematic analysis was done. The resulting report

makes recommendations for action and gives valuable

insights into how the council could move forward in

tackling the issue. The main difference between the

explorer model and this research is the participatory

element in the Our Life inquiry throughout and especially

during the thematic analysis. The reporting is less

critical and theoretical, however, there are similarities

in the two models and therefore this research method has

relevance and resonance to field based practice (Our

Life, 2015).

The value of engaging community members in creating their

own research projects is a discovery coming from this

project and the Our Life experience. It seems

unreasonable that research methodologies should belong to

the academic world of science, education and industry.

For communities to be able to take the tools of critical

thinking and make sense of the world for themselves is an

act of liberation. Such activity would, as Freire (1993,

52

pp. 112), help people to live in the fullness of praxis

that would enable them to understand the causes of their

own reality. An ability to discover a path to the deeper

knowledge of reality around you, with others, helps

communities to become ‘beings for themselves’ and begins to

change the institutions around them that keep them as

‘beings for others’.

A phrase, originally attributed to Francis Bacon (1597),

was used by Thomas Jefferson (1817) to illustrate what is

at stake for communities when he said ‘...knowledge is power,

knowledge is safety and knowledge is happiness’ (Monticello and the

University of Virginia, n.d.).

53

Chapter 3

The Findings

“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is todiscover them.”

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)

It remains a surprise to discover that a group of people

can, through conversation, weave a tapestry of thought

with similar but distinct threads. These threads build

into a pattern made up of colours and themes that when

looked at from discrete distances draw a picture that

tells a story and captures a truth. The findings within

this research seem to have some of these properties in

that a divergent group of people from different places

and organisations, with differing roles, non-the-less

present some common themes that will inform a discussion.

This chapter will lay out the thematic analysis of the

research findings. It seems reasonable that the findings

are described in terms of the common themes, as well as

any areas of opposition. Any discussion will be limited

54

to clarifying context and meaning so that a picture will

be built up for exploration in a subsequent chapter.

A place to start would be the views of people that have

in the past received a service and their reflective

experience within a focus group. The four people that

volunteered to be interviewed were all women living

within the greater Lancashire boundary all had received a

service within the last 3 years ranging from health

visitors to housing and mental health services. When

asked about identifying any changes to the services all

but one were critical about the services describing a

lack of consistency, relevance and dialogue. The type of

response that they seemed to get from the services was,

in their view, conditional upon the severity or urgency

of the reason why they needed the service. One of the

group felt that the service she received was heavily

influenced by a national profile safeguarding case that

meant that she received more attention than she felt

necessary or warranted because of managerial over

sensitivity. She rated this service as low in her view of

55

effectiveness. Others in the group described a mismatch

between their expectations of the service and the

responses they received. This is illustrated by the

experience of one of the women needed re-housing that was

met with a universal ‘look at the website’, from advice

centre's and the housing department. She described a

mismatch between her urgency and ‘the system’ that

generated other problems. Another of the group spoke

about being offered medication as an automatic first

response for her mental health issues. However, two

mental health crisis interventions were described as

appropriate and helpful. They rated highly on the service

users view of effectiveness. It is worth noting the

difference between routine and crisis responses for a

later discussion. All the group members mentioned not

being treated holistically as a whole human being in the

round and being met with standardised responses. When

asked ‘Do you feel you can influence the services?’ there

was a consensus that without significant campaigning

little could be changed or influenced. They had a

56

definite sense of not being consistently or

systematically listened to.

The interviews with the members of organisations pick up

and develop some of these themes providing clues as to

the reasons behind service users varied experience. The

four organisational members touched on similar themes

that will be explored next by starting with looking at

the evidence around the values that underpin

commissioning from their organisational viewpoints.

The group of four was split evenly in terms of

commissioners and the commissioned with the two

commissioners differing in their view of the values

underlying commissioning. Trust that built good

relationships around resources was important to one

commissioner, whilst the other stated that the values

they saw were “not good” being target driven for a

political end that change as elections come around. This

approach was described as incongruous given that

organisational behaviour did not match the espoused

values. The officers from the commissioned organisations

57

offered a different response with both saying that saving

money and short termism is the real value to local

authorities with the subsequent effects of squeezing and

destabilising employment, providing moral challenges, and

upholding a free market ideology that inevitably

compromises standards. It is worth noting that, whilst

values have come up in other responses there was no

expressed consensus about a set of values that could be

readily identified as belonging to the commissioning

process, other than the two commissioned organisations

both said that it was all about saving money.

The discussion on values led into the views of the

commissioners on how ideal commissioning would take shape

through taking a line on the resourcing of services. Both

Commissioners take a radical view in that one wants to

look at a ‘total resource’ approach that meant putting

the whole resources available to a locality on the table

for consideration, whilst the other wanted a locality ‘

reboot’ and to wipe the board clear, starting over to

deal with intractable problems that have been around in

58

some localities for a long time. For the commissioned

organisations their responses came from the opposite end

of the spectrum in wanting to be part of the design of

locality services and contribute to a total resource

discussion, stating that unless the third sectors

creative and flexible delivery mechanisms aren’t part of

the process then opportunities are missed and wasted. All

four participants talked about co-production, co-design

and community engagement as a way into having a dialogue

that produced activity that what was needed and delivered

in appropriate ways within communities. Yet all of the

participants said that there was little community

engagement; with three of them saying that the level of

co-production and co-design is non- existent or low. One

of the interviewees didn’t know the level of such

activity.

All four interviewee’s raised the issue of outcomes and

outputs in at least two distinct ways. Firstly the

‘commissioned’ group felt that the current pieces of

commissioned work they have are inappropriately measured.

59

They describe confusion between outputs and outcomes plus

an incongruity between the rhetoric of outcomes and the

reality. One of the ‘commissioned’ group felt that the

whole process of measuring they type of work his

organisation was commissioned far was unrealistic, and

led to the (resisted) temptation to hyperbolise the

required evidence for success. For the commissioners

group the challenge was an equal level of ambiguity but

from the point of view of having to set the required

outcomes. Both commissioners put the 2010-2015 ‘Age of

Austerity’ as part of the reducing budgetary context that

is adding pressure on local authorities (Cameron, 2009).

One of the commissioners spoke of £172 million budget

reductions and the other one spoke of increasing need and

rising service thresholds.

A complex element emerged as a theme from the

interviewee’s discussion, social need and its analysis.

Most of the commissioning models research so far start

with some form of needs analysis therefore it is no

surprise that the participants in this research raised

60

the issue. One of the commissioners argued that the

current welfare policy as implemented by the Coalition

Government of 2010-2015 was the cause of additional

poverty and inequity. This in turn generates social need,

economic need and health needs. This is alongside local

authority budget cuts, scaling down of the voluntary

community sector and a system in want of a major

overhaul. There are already discussions taking place

about levels of need and affordability, which prompted

the other commissioner to talk about strategic needs

assessment in terms of unifying systems to avoid

duplication and to provide a coherent source of

information with which to make judgments. Also there was

the suggestion of the development of a commissioning

function would take on joint needs analysis, finance and

procurement. There was a concern that the right needs are

being met as opposed to any just any needs or worse,

wants. For the commissioned participants the issue was

linked to involvement in the design of services. From one

perspective they wanted to be part of the debate about

needs and what to do about them, whilst the other

61

interviewee suggested that determining local need and

working on a local scale is complex enough. Both

interviewees wanted to work in a solution focused way.

All interviewees spoke about time and timescales. One of

the commissioners wanted the time to do the commissioning

cycle well and time to do a thorough needs analysis; to

engage with the population and elected members to help

with understanding; and to take a long-term view about

the budgets and resources. This latter point is more than

reflected in what each of the other interviewee’s spoke

of. Short term funding was described as problematically

wasteful and destabilising. When a large or small

voluntary organisation gets a contract for two years

essentially one of those years is not run at optimum

level. Setting up a programme will take around 6 months

and it will need 6 months to tail off at the end as staff

seek other employment or get ready for another project.

This leaves twelve months actual work. Both interviewees

from the voluntary sector suggested funding should be for

a minimum of five years. From a commissioners view point

62

short term funding is equally as wasteful due to the

funding rarely lasting long enough for any systemic

change or programme bending. More than one of the

interviewee’s alluded to the notion that needs, issues or

problems affecting human beings fit into commissioners

timescales. One of the organisations that commissions all

kinds of activity is moving to a lifespan model where

services are being reconfigured to take a longer,

integrated look at resourcing, reducing funding silo’s

and barriers.

The next theme follows on from short term funding and it

deals with a new industry, that of procurement. All the

interviewee’s knew the difference between commissioning

and a small part of that process namely, procurement. Two

of the group, one from each side of the commissioning

fence, were very clear that the act of contracting a

service comes at the end of the commissioning cycle

process that includes needs analysis, design and then

procurement. Their analysis was that in the bureaucracy

of local government this element of the process was

63

understood the best and is now disproportionally

important. The commissioner recognised that a culture

change was needed to de-emphasise procurement. They

acknowledged the challenge this poses, however there were

political and financial pressures not to be so wasteful

that may encourage the change. The interviewee from the

commissioned organisation spoke about some of the

contracts that are being used and was critical about

‘payment by results’ stating that they were simply

‘wrong’. They cause cash flow problems for smaller

organisations and force others to go for ‘low hanging

fruit’ or easier client groups, leaving the difficult and

chronic need untouched. They pointed out some ethical and

moral challenges caused by this method of contracting.

Commissioning can be expensive for both parties; however,

the ‘commissioned’ group was the most vocal on the theme

of organisational capacity. One interviewee, from a small

to medium organisation, found that the complexity of

tendering, the restrictions placed upon applying and the

amount of background papers required made some tenders

64

unreachable. The cost ratio for applying makes some bids

not viable. The organisation has been part of a

consortium that has bid for work, however this has been a

variable success. The un-met costs associated with

administering and monitoring the bid has meant that,

pound for pound, the voluntary organisation has been

subsidising the statutory sector. The view was expressed

that commissioning is getting in the way of ‘normal

operating’ and the organisation has taken the policy

decision to seek 80% of its income from grants and

donations and not from commissioned work. Both voluntary

sector interviewees agreed that this overly bureaucratic

approach destabilises the sector by introducing unfair

competition as larger organisations have the capacity to

apply for tenders the smaller ones cannot even in

consortia bids. One of the interviewee’s expressed a

concern that the sector is in danger of losing its

dynamism, new ideas and innovation by becoming an

extension of local government.

65

Finally the commissioners, the professionals that

currently specify and procure were put under the critical

gaze of the commissioned. Both interviews from the

voluntary sector expressed dissatisfaction with the

current state of commissioners. Their criticism included

the notion that the current commissioners do not have

sufficient experience of service delivery or of

professional practice and tend to use theoretical or ‘off

the shelf’ service specifications. Also the emergence of

the Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG’s) is exacerbating

the problem with GP’s leading social commissioning. The

interviewees expressed a concern with another phenomena

of the era of budget reduction. They noticed that

commissioners are being moved around departments and

creating something that they called ‘commissioner churn’.

What the interviewees wanted was a ‘partnership not

dictatorship’ with face-to-face meetings as part of the

routine so that they could build up a relationship that

can help with communication and improving the

commissioned work in real-time not via email. One of the

commissioner interviewees identified some of these issues

66

within their own organisation and they are working on a

specific commissioning function that manages the whole

process and will keep a reign upon the procurement.

All those interviewed realised that things were far from

perfect and on both sides of the commissioning divide

there is an acknowledgement that things cannot remain the

same, however the evidence from these interviews points

towards a radical shake up of form, function, culture and

resourcing, without which they may not be able to meet

the expectations and needs of the population in the near

future.

67

Chapter 4

Discussion

‘Society is dependent upon a criticism of its own tradition’

Jurgen Habermas [1929-]

This chapter will weave the intention, the implementation

and the findings of the research into a discussion that

will critically examine the complexity hidden in the

question ‘What is the impact of commissioning on services in the

voluntary and community sector in Lancashire?’ The chapter will

inevitably explore the extent to which the research

answers this question, however, it will also follow some

of the questions raised in the findings toward some

conclusions. A simple answer to the main question, after

reading the findings, is ‘Yes…there are several impacts

and implications’ but the value of this discussion will

lie in looking closely at what those are and what, if

any, are the solutions to issues that have been raised.

On the surface the issues raised by this question could

have practical or logistical answers; however the

68

findings may be masking a deeper set of challenges facing

local authorities, voluntary organisations and

communities. It will explore the idea that on one level

commissioning is a technical system fashionable within

local government, however, the findings hint at

commissioning being a manifestation of crisis of

democracy. This discussion will lead from an exploration

of system thinking to a non-linear world where nineteenth

or twentieth century approaches to commissioning

services, or even democratic governance, will demand

radical alternatives. This chapter will also evaluate the

research methodology through the findings connectivity to

other research and theoretical discourse.

From a service users point of view the findings of this

research tend to show that whilst they may have received

services the tone of the conversation was one of

dissatisfaction for even the best of the experiences.

Each member of the focus group felt ‘done to’ to some degree

though some success was described. The most unanimous

reply was ‘no’ to the question ‘do you feel you could

69

influence the service you received’. The interviewee’s

reinforce this theme as they all noted that there is

little co-design, co-production and engagement in their

experiences of commissioning in Lancashire. The

commissioners, whilst wanting trust to be the bedrock of

their work the commissioned felt that the value base was

about saving money through contract based procurement.

All of the interviews expressed a degree of frustration

with how things are at present even calling for a ‘reboot’

of the whole system. Measurement of outcome and

performance was an issue for all the interviewee’s in

that the experience described by the commissioned group

was one of a bureaucratic burden, the commissioners a

wasteful overhead and for both, an over emphasis on

monitoring the wrong things, which in turn made the

services do the wrong things (Plenert, 2011 p. 216).

The structure and timescales of contracts was of

importance to the interviewees as short term funding

tended to destabilise the quality of the work, the

workforce and ultimately, the voluntary sector

organisations themselves. Payment by results was

70

criticised as a method of coersive performance management

as well as acting as a mechanism of discrimination

against smaller organisations that could not afford the

upfront investment or the risk involved. Other themes

included the hidden costs for ‘commissioned’

organisations, the culturally embedded mistaking of

technical procurement for commissioning, the missing of

opportunity through the absence of co-production and co-

design and the lack of a dialogical relationship between

the commissioned and the commissioners.

From the findings the overall impression that remains is

one of a system that is fragmented, legalistic, overly

bureacratic, technical, non-democratic, exclusive and

wasteful. However, the findings also suggest that whilst

comissioning is a tool or process it can also be

described as a symptom of a deeper problem.

The landscape of the public sector in Lancashire is as

contoured as the hills of the county. It is a three tier

landscape with a parish and town councils layer, a

borough, district or city tier with the County Council

71

sitting across the post 1998 governmental topography like

the outer layer of a russian doll encapusalting all the

others (HM Government, no date, p. 166). Lancashire’s

1,468,850 people rely on, in varying degree’s, the

services of the councils whilst the councils rely upon

the taxpayers of this community for the funding of their

business (Lancashire County Council, 2015). This

symbiotic relationship, it can be argued, is at the very

heart of any discussion about commissioning representing

what Habermas (in Outhwaite, 2009, pg 64) describes as a

‘processed and repressed system crisis’ that has economic dynamics

being inaccurately projected onto political, cultural

and social systems.

The economic imperative in this instance is the

introduction of the free market into the democratic

structures of the state. The research findings touch on

the bureacratisation of the provision of state activity

and the technical elitism of the procurement experts.

Keen and Scase (1998, pg 7-20) describe this introduction

of neo-managerialism into local government as an attempt

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to liberate hiercharically bound public servants with the

mantra of choice ringing in the background. As an

antithetical move against the traditional public service

of centralised control, direct management of service

delivery and budgets, jobs for life, quasi-monopolies and

consistent practice, neo-managerialism developed it’s own

rhetoric of being enablers, competitive, customer

focused, contractual and flexible employers. The ‘In

Search of Excellence’ generation had arrived using

private sector techniques in a public service context

( (Peters & Waterman Jnr, 1982). Keen and Scase develop

this idea by describing how much of this neo-

managerialism succeeded in ‘arms lengthing’ public

service functions before putting into place a complex

knot of mechanisms that retained control at the centre

whilst compliance was devolved. What remains is the worst

of both worlds; a fragmented bureaucracy that has to

justify itself in a contract culture disconnected from

the communities it seeks to affect. The research findings

echo this when one of the interviewee’s said “Authentic

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professional work is being undermined by bureaucrats; commissioning is

getting in the way of normal operating”.

It is arguable that the dogma of the free market has

become a global hegemony with the principles of the

market being accepted with an evangelical enthusiasm.

Like a tide it began to reach into all the rock pools of

the public sector beach. A crucial part of this dogma is

the consumerisation of the public and the fragmentation

of community by the chilling use of the word

‘privatisation’. Not only is the word used to decides

where tax payers money is spent, for instance, to fund

the private sector but it is used to define the

individualisation of society. Despite the dogma of choice

the corporate system is now bowing down to the faith in

the one free market and ‘corporate absolutism’ (Curtis,

2012 p. 1-19). Hertz (2001, p. 1-16) goes one step

further and declares the death of democracy as stateless

corporations move across the globe colonising utilities,

services, employment, information, social structures and

culture. She describes a shift of power away from states

74

to corporations, without the social or moral

responsibility traditionally held by governments towards

their people. Living in this phase of history it is

therefore not surprising that the commissioners

interviewed wanted a radically different approach or in

one case ‘to scrap it all and start again’.

The purchaser/provider divide is a game that requires two

sides and no discussion about commissioning would be

complete without an examination of the voluntary sector

as providers and fellow actors in the two handed play.

The evidence provided in the findings seem to describe

organisations that are deeply dissatisfied by the current

state of affairs, they describe a loss of influence and

identity. The commissioned interviewees hint at having to

skew their operations and find their ethics under

pressure from distant pipers who’s tune they have to

dance to.

It wasn’t always thus and in the Lancashire County

Councils (1998) ‘Compact on relations between Lancashire

County Council and the voluntary, community and faith

75

sectors in Lancashire’ Hazel Harding, the then Leader of

the Council, clearly talks of a partnership, with

autonomy and mutuality as key characteristics. Funding in

this document is in the form of grants even if they were

shaped around the County Councils agenda’s. The document

is devoid of the contractualised, business approach of

todays procurement regime using only Service level

Agreements to act as ‘light touch’ monitoring. ‘Grant

makers are more flexible and know the nature of the work’ was a

statement made from an interviewee who’s organisation

remained committed to a funding split of 80% grants and

donation to 20% commissions or contracts. This is a

deliberate strategy to have a funding mix that will

maximise flexibility and leave some control in the hands

of the organisation ‘on the ground’. However, the

national picture looks different in that since 2004/05

the amount of government contracted work that the sector

has undertaken has doubled from £6.4 billion to £13.7

billion in 2011/12 (the amount peaked at £15 bilion in

2010/11) whilst grant funding has reduced across the

sector from 2004 to 2011 by 50% (£4.9 billion to £2.6

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billion) (National Council for Voluntary Organisations,

2015). These statistics demonstrate a reduced access to

or a condensing of grants which will make the playing of

the pipers tune even louder than before.

A report from the Voluntary Sector raises a significant

concern about the significant erosion of the independence

of the sector. It reports an increasing loss of voice, of

a unique identity, of engagement or consultation, of

supportive funding or procurement, of political

independence and of an ability for sector organisations

to govern themselves. The report highlights the way that

Government is discouraging the sector to campaign or have

a view that goes contrary to government policy further

emphasising the grievances of the sector. (Independence

Panel 2015, p. 6-8).

At the same time the sector has seen the emergence of

social and sustainable capital funds. These funds are

secured or unsecured loans from banks and other financial

institutions including the Big Lottery that the Third

Sector can access. They do provide some grants, and will

provide funding for consultancy as well as straight

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forward loans. On the surface this is access to money for

good purposes, however, the financial products sit

outside any democratic structures in the private realm.

This is the world of social enterprise, and third sector

businesses (The Social Investment Business, n.d.).

It is hard not to hear the anithesis of the ‘Big Society’

as ‘Small Government’ when Huckfield (2014, pg 4-6)

writing for an Inquiry into the future of voluntary

services argues that this transformation of the voluntary

sector parallels the ‘smaller state’ ideology of the

last 25 years that accompanies the global neo-liberal

agenda as wealth is transferred from the public realm

into the private sector.

The Centre for Social Justice (2013, pg16-18) [CSJ] argue

that despite the rhetoric from the 2010-2015 Coalition

Government about the role of the voluntary, charitable,

social enterprise, mutual sector taking up the delivery

of public services the reality was a long way from that.

The CSJ notes that only 2% of outsourced government

spending goes on the voluntary sector and that some local

78

authorites are commissioning fewer voluntary sector

organisations than they used to.

Their comments on commissioning resemble the sentiments

found in the interviews for this research. By changing

voluntary sector organisations into pseudo-local

authority bodies, the current commissioning and

procurement regime invalidated the very reason why anyone

would want to involve voluntary and community

organisations in the first place, namely their

creativity, flexibility and grass rootedness.

The research findings seem broadly consistent with the

national picture and the impact of commissioning in

Lancashire is having simliar effects on the

organsisations that sit astride both sides of the fence.

Trapped in a need to have an income to stay doing the

work that is the purpose of the voluntary sector

organisations and at the same time trying to rationalise

dancing to others potentially dischordent tunes is a

challenge.

It seems that the work begun by the Thatcherite

government of the 1980’s has followed a steady trajectory

79

through to the present by privatising services,

destabilising funding, culturally colonising sector

organisations, and introducing short termism and

uncertainty into the pipers increasingly chaotic dance.

Mitchell Feigenbaum was a little know scientist in the

1970’s, considered by many of his colleagues at Los

Alamos as odd. He didn’t work on his own research instead

he acted more like a consultant on other peoples. He

looked at clouds a lot. He lost his flying priviliges

because of overuse of the company plane. He studied how

liquids and gases swished around interacting and creating

turbulance. To his collegues he wasn’t working on

anything significant despite his obvious intelligence but

to Feigenbaum he was working on the deep problem of

‘chaos’.

For anyone that has been on this planet for any length of

time it becomes blindingly obvious that whilst some

things are ordered and in a steady state whilst other

things are random and have no pattern to them. This is

the science of chaos theory. Many scientists like

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Feignenbaum have pionered work in this field showcasing

such ideas as the butterfly effect- creating huge events from

changing a small variable, period doubling - caluculations

that can predict the onset of the unpredictable behaviour

in complex systems and the Lorenz attractor – the underlying,

apparently random, limiting structure of system behaviour

(Gleick, 2008 pg 1-80). Chaos theory demonstrates that if

you increase variables, and keep increasing them there

will inevitably be turbulence or unpredicatable

ramdomness. If there is any doubt about the relevance of

the science of complexity it is worth noting that Benoit

Mandelbrot, the discoverer of fractal geometry, a branch

of chaos theory , predicted the 2008 banking collapse in

1999. His warnings went unheeded by Wall Street

(Mandelbrot, 2008).

This new science is moving away at speed from the

clockwork model of the linear universe as described in

Isaac Newtons mathematical philosphy. The 17th and 18th

century phenomena the Age of Enlightenment saw the era of

reason dawn along with it’s luminaries including David

Hume (1711-1776), John Locke (1632-1704) , Bishop George

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Berkley (1685-1753) and Isaac Newton (1642-1727). The age

began to replace the dogma’s of religion with rationalism

lighting the way to scientific advancement and material

prosperity through the lense of rationale logic and

mechanistic causality. Enlightenment models of the

universe, education, economics and science radically

changed the human view of the world from a European

perspective, creating the philosophical conditions for

the modern age of industrialism and capitalism to

burgeon. An important philosoper at this time was Adam

Smith (1723-1790) who embarked on examining greed, self

interest and the common good in his long essay ‘The

Wealth of Nation’ . This forebear of Friedman and Hayek,

Smith dug the economic foundations for the future of

capitalism which remained reasonably unmodified for

around 200 years. This period of enlightenment left a

legacy of an ordered world, with predicatability, and

order as it’s zeitgeist’s ambition. The cultural legacy

of this time seeped into institutions including

government creating the machinery of state spreading

82

civilisation, and the rule of Law and Order eventually

all over the world (Davies, 1997, pg 596-611).

Yet it is the breaking down of enlightenment thinking and

the onset of social and cultural turbulence that comes

through in the conversations with all the interviewees.

They find themselves in between worlds, coping with

accelerating change and sensing the dissonance about the

system around them. Tofler (1971, pg 9-26) predicted in

the 1970’s that a new society was emerging marked by

transcience, change and overchoice. He argues that

developments in technology, resource acquisition and

commodification have contributed to a break with the

past. However, in response to the ever increasing pace of

change, social fragmentation, danger of elitism and a

myriad of tribal goals, decision makers reach for the

tools of the past which are no longer viable.

Tofler argues that a complex and multi tribal society

will require two key things; more democracy and long term

goals. He calls this anticipatory democracy.

From the findings of this research it is clear that there

is a system that is, if not already broken, creaking very

83

loudly. Therefore the question of solutions raise

themselves. The calls from the findings to look at system

reform require a discursive response. The commissioned

are dissatified with the job they are asked to do by way

of meeting service users real needs, the commissioners

are dissatified that the system of procurement has taken

over the whole of the commissoning cycle, money and

resource are getting scarcer and the service user sits

outside the ‘rich mans castle’ rarely able to influence

or shape the specialist help they need. Yet it is vital

to understand that, in the research findings, both

commssioners and the commissioned express that they want

to establish a relationship that engenders trust.

Seddon (2008) raises the ideas that ‘the system’ is what

has become important and not ‘what works’. Arguing for

pragmatism with a morality biased towards the system

users and not ideology or tradition are themes that would

find sympathy with the interviewees involved in this

research. There is a case for rejecting the idea of

‘choice’ and replacing it with high quality services that

meet need. Instead of targetitis there is a need for a

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consensus of measures that will make things better over

time. Instead of inappropriate competition the engine for

change could be collaboration. A profound change in the

view of human nature from a negative to a positive one

would act well upon the system.

Choice has become a watchword for politicans becoming

ideologically fashionable from the Thatcher Government on

(Seddon, 2008, pg 8-10). However, when choice becomes

overchoice or choice for its own sake it becomes counter

productive and wasteful. For example, a supermarket found

in most towns will carry around 30,000 items. Each year

20,000 new products appear and yet research shows that

customers buy what they usually buy and ignore 75% of the

other merchandise. This phenomena is present in other

markets yet the idea of an infinity of options is an

almost unchallengeable truth (Schwartz, 2009, pg 8-23).

Seddon (2008, pg 9-26) poses the question ‘what is more

important; to choose which hospital you go to or have the

best cure?’. Some of the choices put forward by

government are very limited and this makes the rhetoric

sound hollow. Choice of methodology is often the focus

85

but the outcome is rarely part of the equation. An

analogy would be to say that the operation was a great

success but the patient died. The interviewees point out

that the type of contract, it’s measurement and

paperwork, far outweigh the service users experience and

outcome in terms of importance. Any success is almost

incidental.

Bringing morals back into the markets and opening up a

discussion about free markets and the public good is part

of a solution. It is the very language of free markets

that implies customers and consumers and there is a

commercial relationship between the market stall and the

passing trade. This contractual relationship replaces

norms such as service, collaboration, partnership and

altruism with specification, competition,

commisioner/provider demarcation and profit. This

corrupting dynamic shifts ‘free market economics into a

free market society’ when public services become public

commodities and sold to the lowest bidder (Sandel, 2009).

Despite the well worn phrase ‘you don’t fatten pigs by weighing

them’ being around education debates for years the

86

sentiment behind this agricultural aphorism still remains

stubbornly lodged in the mindset of public services

(Ezekiel, 2012). The whole issue of measurement of

targets has been mentioned before and is well rehearsed

in this discussion. What is intruiging is how and why is

the world of time and motion Fordism so hard to root out

of a modern public service? Traditionally public service

organisations have operated on a successful command and

control model within a reasonably steady state. It is a

powerful paradigm that remains in the public sector

pyschy. As job security, budget reductions and constant

change have reached the sector this paradigm is being

called into question. Despite the deception that ‘ this

is how it is and it’s always been like this’ the reality

is that work is seperated from decision making leaving

public servants as cogs of a vast machine with limited

movement. The paradigm within public service

organisations needs a radical shift. This could be

achieved by acting in a new way on the end to end system

of public services. This would mean the view would be

from the outside in, the system would be designed to cope

87

with incohate demand, flow through the system and value

for the front end user. Decisions woud be made at the

‘coal face’ where the work is. Measurements would be

purposeful and monitoring capability. Valuing the public

and their needs would be a paramount value, whilst

partners would be seen as collaborators. Managers would

ensure the system worked for the ‘front end’ and not the

other way round. This would mean that the attitude to

change would be one of adaption, adjusting and creative.

This perspective is the antithesis of traditional public

sector thinking and operating (Seddon, 2005, pg. 8-15).

Lewin (1993, pg .11) suggests that in nonlinear systems

like the one suggested here a small change in the initial

conditions can make large changes elsewhere. This

‘butterfly effect’ may be the catalyst needed for the

changes needed in our public sector. So called because a

butterfly may flap its wings in Lancashire and set off

chain of events culminating in a storm in Japan,

therefore altering the executive and operational side of

the authority will inevitably affect the whole .

Therefore commissioning may be a key to change.

88

Returning to Toflers ‘anticipatory democracy’ it would

seem that the current system of government, and

especially local government democracy are part of the of

the problem that this research set out to discover. Given

that the research is based in Lancashire then any

discussion about repairs to local democracy will be set

in the context of Lancashire as, it could be argued, that

if it can work in this varied three tier environment then

it may provide a blueprint for other places. though the

depths of tradition and institutional conservatism may

prove too immovable .

There are several alternatives to the top down,

representative partisan democracy that is presently

bestriding county hall and town hall corridors.

Brand (2014, pg 337-339 ) apart from advocating for

people not to vote at all, suggests that participatory

democracy like the participatory budgeting process in

Brazil is a serious alternative. In Porto Alegre in

Brazil forming a direct democracy Participatory Budgeting

[PB] incudes populations in discussions directly and not

89

through any representation. PB tackles the inconvenience

of large populations and takes it’s time. PB discusses

the entirety of a budget and every policy area of the

local government. Administrators carry out the wishes of

the people, and the people decide what those wishes are.

Constitutionally sound PB enables genuine accountabilty

within a self regulating system. The people ensure that

their own money is spent wisely (deSouza, 2004, p. 57-

62).

Laclau and Mouffe (in Curato, 2010, pg 24) suggest

another model and argue for ‘radical democracy’ that

embraces conflict to transform it into consensus and

reconciliation. Instead of a perpetual state of thesis

versus antithesis where each ‘side’ is seen as something

to be defeated and removed; they suggest a participatory

dialogue that enables genuine dissent and debate but

always seeking consensus as the highest outcome. Not to

take this path creates non-democratic forms of political

expression such as terrorism, revolution, extremism or in

some cases the overthrowing of goverments.

90

‘Cooperative Collegial Democracy’ is proposed by Ezeani

(2012, pg 142-150) emerging out of post colonial Africa

showing the following characteristics: it is party-less

and its representatives are chosen from villages as the

smallest constituent part. Once again the focus is not on

who is to hold power but the debate and the outcome.

The future may belong to the Chaordic Age which is the

name given by Hock (1999, p.261-265) to structures in the

future that reject the huge command and control

hierarchies for networked, colloborative, flexible

adhocracies that inhabit chaos and order. Meanwhile

Brafman and Beckstrom (2006, pg.172-174) suggest, like

Hock, that time of the ‘starfish’ organisation is here,

characterised by form following function and being ‘open

source’ driven. Open source as being an almost pure form

of democracy enabling people to contribute to create a

greater whole through the use of the global

communications facilitated by the internet.

Without doubt there are alternatives to current model of

democracy operating in the United Kingdom. Whether Blond

and Morrins (2014) vision of a placed based devolved

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financial democracy, albeit with an elected mayor,

becomes the norm, or a Lancashire with smaller unitary

authorities in its borders or a unitary Lancashire County

it is time to abandon the ‘God Complex’ and embrace a

spirit of trial and error. 12 minutes and 27 seconds into

a talk about the ‘God Complex’ Tim Harford (2011) said ‘I

will admit that, yes, it's obvious that trial and error is a good thing. When a

politician stands up campaigning for elected office and says, "I want to fix our

health system. I want to fix our education system. I have no idea how to do

it. I have half a dozen ideas. We're going to test them out. They'll probably all

fail. Then we'll test some other ideas out. We'll find some that work. We'll build

on those. We'll get rid of the ones that don't." -- when a politician campaigns

on that platform, and more importantly, when voters like you and me are

willing to vote for that kind of politician, then I will admit that it is obvious

that trial and error works, and that until then, until then I'm going to keep

banging on about trial and error and why we should abandon the God

complex.’

It would be somewhat disapointing if the answer the

seemingly straightforward question of this research ‘What

is the impact of commissioning on services in the voluntary and community

92

sector in Lancashire?’ were to be equally straightforward. It is

a question that has fractal qualities in that you can

look at it from a variety of scales and there’s a lot to

see. The findings of the research show that service users

are noting an alienation from services; the commissioned

are alienated from the commissioners; and the

commissioners, in turn, seemed alienated from the source

of democracy, namely the people and the communities of

Lancashire. This discussion could have focused on this

scale and looked at better models of commissioning but

the real impact on the voluntary and community sector is

more than inefficient contracting. It is being in a

period of time that is staring at the edge of

unpredictability, coping with a myriad of variable need

and resourcing, facing a crisis in democracy locally and

globally. To repeat an idea, commissioning is a symptom

of a much wider malaise in local democracy that needs

addressing.

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94

Conclusion

In fact, let us not mince words the management is terrible. We’ve had astring of embezzlers, frauds, liars and lunatics making a string ofcatastrophic decisions. This is plain fact. But who elected them? It was you!You who appointed these people! You who gave them the power to make yourdecisions for you! While I’ll admit anyone can make a mistake once, to go onmaking the same lethal errors century after century seems to me nothingshort of deliberate. You have encouraged these malicious incompetents, whohave made your working life a shambles. You have accepted without questiontheir senseless orders. You have allowed them to fill your workspace withdangerous and unproven machines. You could have stopped them

‘V’ - Alan Moore 1990

This research was designed to discover ‘What is the impact of

commissioning on services in the voluntary and community sector in

Lancashire?’ The research successfully shows that

undoubtedly there are several impacts and most of them

negative. It had been hoped at the outset to discover

significant changes from the time when commissioning

began to be a tool used in the in the mid-2000’s in

Lancashire. However, there seems to have been little

change apart from there had been a significant reduction

in grant making from councils, reductions in local

government funding and an increase in ‘procurement’ of

services. The research shows a demoralised voluntary

95

sector trying to continue as best they can, in a shifting

and insecure funding regime. The findings also show that

there has been no co-production and co-design with the

sector let alone communities. The amount of community

engagement at any depth was non-existent. Even though

service users express some satisfaction and some

dissatisfaction about services they have received they

expressed a feeling of powerlessness to influence or

change services.

Summary

These are complex problems that lead to even more complex

answers

This research reveals a layered response to what action

needs to change this situation. On an immediate level

layer Seddons (2008, pp.196) talks about changing who has

the control and enabling frontline staff to have the

freedom to make operational decisions without ‘going back

up the line’. This is where real commissioning takes

place. Services could design what works best in their

incohate context where unpredicatbility is rife and

96

opportunity to prevent greater need is abundant. This is

the scale at which demand and in particular failure

demand can be to managed. Communities need commissioned

innovation and Harfords (2011) ‘trial and error’

approach, as the evidence in the findings shows that the

‘God Complex’ isn’t working. One idea would be to pay

frontline staff more than managers. This may encourage

choardic organisations that moves away from the tyranny

of rigid hierarchy ( (Hock, 1999). Seddon also tackles

the issue of accountability and he argues that there

should be only one question asked of managers in public

services and that is ‘what are you doing to make things

better and to improve your service?’ This would put the

commissioning cycle into a dynamic dialogue rather that a

contract. This research calls for an immediate

discussion about taking seriously co-design and co-

production of services with providers and service users

alike. The commissioned interviewees were very clear

about wanting to be more involved from the outset.

To summarise commissioning as a function of local

government is at best flawed and at worst destabilising

97

the voluntary and community sector in Lanacashire.

Commisioners should be using the whole commissioning

cycle including, co-design, co-production, long term

investment to create flexible, learning and collaborative

community facing services.

The ‘outside in’ public service would need change to the

next layer of response. This research calls for a

radically different way of doing local government and

local government services. The research argues for more

democracy not less, which will, in turn lead towards a

profound economic, social and cultural change. This is

what is hoped for with such devolution of health and

social care money for Greater Manchester (Blond & Morrin,

2014). The research shows that the system of local

government is a system that is increasingly not fit for

purpose. In short the current local government

constitution and operation is increasingly not able to

cope with the complexities of post-modern society without

some considerable reengineering of its purpose, function

and democracy.

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Evaluation

The relative consensus between the interviewees justified

this research topic. There is clear evidence that the

current state of commissioning in Lancashire leaves

something to be desired. It is having a negative impact

on the voluntary and community sector in the county. The

literature review and desktop research shows that

Lancashire is not alone. The coalition government (2010-

1015) established a commissioning academy whose

aspirations far outstrip the reality (Department for

Communities and Local Government, 2013).

The interviewees and focus group proved to be valid and

insightful methods with which to gain the evidence needed

to come to the conclusions previously discussed.

The thematic analysis was a systematic tool that refined

the overall evidence, distilling it into the essential

themes that the interviewees brought to the table.

The overall tone of the research activity was one of

genuine inquiry seeking to actively hear what the

99

participants had to say and to treat their evidence with

respect.

The evidence, the analysis, the literature review when

combined has achieved what was intended. The challenge

now remains as to what can be done with the findings and

the conclusions that the research points to.

Future Work

In terms of research there is a need for a wider

exploration of the subject. In the course of this work it

became clear that outside Lancashire there were emergent

commissioning practice that would be relevant to examine

further. Again there are examples of practice and

democracy outside of the UK that would be valuable to

examine.

Within Lancashire there is scope for looking at place

based budgeting and examining further the idea of ‘life

course’ services as described by one of the

commissioners.

100

There will be an opportunity within the emerging

devolution agenda to consider how co-production and co-

design can help with the process and to make comparisons

with authorities that have less delegated flexibility.

It may be helpful to others considering this issue if all

or parts of this work could be published and a larger

discussion had with a bigger audience.

This research, whilst valid, could have benefited with

involving service users in a broader way and it would

have benefitted, as with most things in life, with more

time spent on a deeper inquiry. If this research was to

be developed or repeated some form of visioning work and

world café approach would have yielded some interesting

alternative models for the solution to the issues that

have been raised.

Conclusion

The relationship between the taxpayer and the tax spender

is as old as the Magna Carta. This research shows that if

101

this relationship was a marriage it would be in need of

help as it has become one sided and, on the whole, they

aren’t speaking. On the one hand the relationship has

been solemnised and legitimised through the years, but on

the other, pastorally the relationship is verging on the

abusive. The tax spender has become distant of late and

has started paying other people for doing what they

should be doing. What is needed is mediation,

communication, agreement and action so that these two

sides of the democratic marriage can open a dialogue and

rekindle the mutual benefits they have for each other.

Failure to do so will result in a very messy divorce.

102

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Appendix 1 –Interview and focus groupquestions

Interview Questions - Organisations

1. What is your experience of commissioning?

2. How would you describe ideal commissioning?

3. What are the values underpinning commissioning?

4. How do you describe successful commissioning?

5. What would you do to improve commissioning?

6. What are the levels of co-design? 1 being none, 5 being high

1 2 3 4 5

7. What are the levels of co-production? 1 being none, 5 being high

1 2 3 4 5

8. What are the levels of community engagement? 1 beingnone, 5 being high

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1 2 3 4 5

Focus Group Questions

What services or organisations have you used over the last 5 years?

In that time have you noticed any changes in those services or organisations?

If so what?

Would you like to have your say in those services?

If so how?

Without giving any details of your circumstances, how effective were the services in meeting your needs or requirements

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Appendix 2 – Thematic Analysis Data

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