News
Thinking differently about commissioning: learning from new approaches to local planning

The Kings Fund have produced a report based on learning from their recent research into new planning approaches.
They worked with two CCGs and one group of CCGs that were implementing new ways of planning services. These were:
- South Tyneside – a CCG in north-east England that is adopting a service planning model based on the approach of the Canterbury health system in New Zealand
- Tameside and Glossop – a CCG in Greater Manchester which has come together with Tameside Council to create a single planning organisation for most local public services
- Bradford district and Craven – three CCGs in West Yorkshire that will be merging in April 2020 and are establishing partnership arrangements to plan services.
They found that these areas are focusing on new ideas around how commissioners can add value to local systems: bringing stakeholders together to make decisions; fostering close operational partnership between commissioners and providers; simplifying financial arrangements; and offering improvement support to providers.
Their findings have led them to suggest that:
National policy needs to be adapted and national bodies need to work differently and work with local systems to maximise the opportunities associated with collaborative planning.