Design of New Dwellings Supplementary Planning Document Consultation
Shropshire Council is proposing a new Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) to provide design guidance for new dwellings.
Commissioning strategy consultation
Proposal
Shropshire Council is transforming its role to that of a commissioner, rather than a direct deliverer, of services. We recognise that there are many communities, people and organisations who are as well, or better, placed to deliver the solutions and services which will help the council to deliver on its mission, which is 'to ensure that as soon as possible everything is as efficient as it can be, focusing on the customer, prevention and partnership.'
This draft Commissioning Strategy aims to set out how the council will quickly move to its new role as a commissioning body, our strategy for achieving this and the associated guidance and tools to help. Its purpose is to provide officers, members, service providers, voluntary and community sector (VCS) organisations and the public with an understanding of the context of the council's approach to commissioning, and to set out the direction this will take over the coming three years. This strategy builds on previous work undertaken in conjunction with representatives of the VCS, and has been written to take account of the council's other strategic plans and the commissioning approaches being developed in a number of specific localities throughout the county.
This strategy complements and supports the delivery of the council's Business Plan and Financial Strategy 2014 - 2017
We now wish to consult our partners and stakeholders to ensure that the principles and methods that we adopt in the way that we commission truly support our mission and aims set out above. The strategy makes reference to additional 'linked resources' which are under development, and are designed to provide more detail and support around areas of this strategy for officers, members, providers and other stakeholders as relevant. These 'linked resources' will not be part of this consultation.
We value feedback and comment from our partners, stakeholders and customers in helping us to ensure that this strategy is effective. We would like your feedback on a number of questions about the strategy, and have prepared a survey for you to use as your response. Please note the deadline for any feedback is Friday 2nd May 2014. We will consider all responses and make relevant adjustments before finalising the strategy.
How to get involved
Complete our online survey to let us know what you think about the commissioning strategy currently being proposed.
Take the survey »
For any queries regarding this consultation or need it in a different format, please contact Neil Evans, Commissioning Manager neil.evans@shropshire.gov.uk
Summary of responses
The full report is attached to this page.
In summary the Council received 29 individual responses to the consultation. 19 responses were received online and 10 were written or e-mail responses. The largest number of responses was received from VCS organisations, followed by town or parish councils
Some responses were on behalf of a larger group of organisations. These were from:
- The Voluntary & Community Sector Assembly (VCSA) Board. The VCSA represents many voluntary and community sector organisations across Shropshire.
- Mayfair Community Centre - on behalf of Mayfair and the Community Transport Consortium
- Shropshire branch of the Federation of Small Businesses
Key themes arising overall include:
- The organisation needs to demonstrate that it is ‘living the strategy' and that this way of working is embedded across the organisation
- Collaboration and joined-up working is key to the success of the strategy
- Stakeholders, and in particular the VCS and provider market, would like to see more detail around specific commissioning intentions in order to help them with their planning
- Monitoring and quality assurance are crucial - both in respect of commissioned services and evaluation of the effectiveness or success of this strategy
- There needs to be sufficient capacity and capability amongst staff, the market and in communities to be able to deliver the transformational change which is needed.
Outcome
Respondents suggested some proposals or amendments to the strategy which would enhance its effectiveness. The following shows what has been actioned:
- How will the Council and its stakeholders evaluate the success of this strategy? By articulating this it will assist with ongoing evaluation and will help to identify where further targeted work needs to be done. Statements beginning “When we are successful…” have been added in to the sections in the strategy headed ‘How will we do this?' and ‘What will this mean for our Customers?'
- It is important to now roll out communications around the strategy and what it means for the various stakeholders. Further work needs to be done with local councils to understand their needs with regard to how this strategy impacts on their work. It is proposed that a Communications Plan be developed to support this roll-out.
- Further detail has been requested on the relationship between locality commissioning approaches and strategic or countywide commissioning. Some respondents expressed concern that these two approaches may not work alongside each other. It is proposed that the additional resources referenced in the strategy, which are currently being developed, will include case studies showing how practically the various commissioning approaches work together.
- It would be helpful to explain what we mean by the phrases ‘service user' and ‘customer'. An explanatory paragraph has been added in to the strategy.
- The importance of skills development and capacity building. This is included in the strategy but needs to be a key part of our approach to delivering on the strategy.
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