Establishing the Appropriate Levels to Commission Services

• We consider this an important early step in considering functions of a Commissioning Support Organisation.

• This is an independent assessment of patient demand and existing provision (by service and provider) to map suitable levels at which to commission services.

• We will use these clinical segments to map current provision across Secondary, Community, Primary and Mental Health Sectors map current provision for each market segment across the CCGs in the cluster (i.e. who currently provides these services).

• This work results in a suggested to-be strategy covering each market level, which helps CCGs to take a view on the appropriate levels of provision, and also inform decisions such as:

  • where they should take a lead on commissioning and contracting

  • where they should be associates to other lead contracts

  • where procurement and competition may be appropriate

  • appropriate scale for CSO activities (in particular contract and performance management)