‘Well, good luck’
The parting words of … is it advice? … from a colleague after they listened patiently to me explain how a small group of people working in the voluntary, social enterprise and community sector want to change public sector commissioning.
I doubt luck has much to do with it. Though it would be a comforting thought – that successful change, in the end, comes down to luck. We’d all have to try less, sit back and wait for that lucky moment. People who have a reputation for being lucky would be in great demand. The whole culture of management in the charitable and public sector would be radically different – meetings would disappear, less email – perhaps a regular get together in a cafe, pub, park (pick your delight) to see if anything lucky has happened yet.
Anyway, luck probably has little to do with it. Perhaps.
Sitting in the echoing room, the small stage at the front holds a piano. It doesn’t look very grand, even though it has the classic curves, yet it has enough presence to distract and so the stage curtains are partially drawn, leaving it to lurk in the shadows.
The conversation at the table is about ‘commissioning’. There are five of us, all from various charities or social enterprises. The agenda for this morning’s meeting of the VCSE Alliance acts as a coaster for various coffee cups. We’ve reached the bit where we talk in smaller groups. The small hall echoes with conversation, the scrape of a fidgeting chair on the scuffed parquet floor.
‘Honestly, we need to abandon the lead provider model. We’ve recently come out of a collaborative where we were the lead provider. All it means is the buck stops with you when the shit hits the fan.’ The person speaking jabs her finger on the table in front of her to emphasise the word ‘shit’. The rest of us nod. ‘The commissioners want you to resolve everything. The other providers in the collaborative all disappear. Suddenly. Not their problem.’ She looks across the hall. I resist the temptation to work out who she is looking for.
‘It’s all they want. The commissioners. Lead provider, I mean’ says the man on my left. There’s a pause, a suggestion that other opinions are floating around that comment. Then the woman on far end of the table, who has just finished a biscuit, says ‘We were lead provider for a bid. It was fine. It just worked. We knew the other providers quite well. There was a trust already between us.’
When we talk about ‘commissioning’ we’re talking about a mythical beast, appearing in different guises relative to the person, the place and the context. Our experience of it changes and the stories we tell are as varied as, well, as we are. I will explore the nature of commissioning in later posts, though it can be a dry thing – expect talk about a cycle.
Different people within the VCSE have different experiences of commissioning. That there is dissatisfaction within the sector about the nature of their relationship with funders or ‘commissioners’ is a consistent truth. When this VCSE Alliance talked about its priorities, changing the way commissioning happens appeared in the short-list, quite high – just below finding better ways to demonstrate the sector’s collective impact on people’s lives. That feels right – and its a relief that we didn’t go for the usual ‘dealing with the funding crisis’ as a priority – because, despite the truth of it, that would be predictable and lose focus on those things we can actually control. Showing what we do and building better relationships with funders and the people who have the same agenda, that feels like a more developed way of managing the eternal challenge of funding.
As the clatter of a beige lunch arrives (there’s a gluten-free option for someone, it looks more appetising, I keep a watchful eye on it …), the Alliance agrees to form a working group. There is a pause after I ask for volunteers. The quiet whirring of individual minds, evaluating how much it matters, how much time it might involve. Then a couple of hands go up, gently, unsure and by the end of the meeting there are four people from the VCSE who want to work on this together. This is how the most difficult yet important work begins, a few people willing to give their time and effort.
We haven’t met yet, the emails are exchanging about dates and times. It will be at least a month before we meet. The aim of our work is to get into the nature of these dissatisfactions over commissioning – what exactly is it we want to change? That’s the key question … beneath most dissatisfaction is a call to change. When we first meet, we’ll be doing well if we agree the basic scope of what we want to do. But it’s a start. And I’ll post regularly here about the work. Its good work, it feels important in a way that I would struggle measure (sorry commissioners).
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