Innovation Exchange

Perrie has asked me to guest blog on the Innovation Exchange site. Me is Sarah Alderson, Head of Projects at TimeBank. We run several mentoring projects and have been working with the Innovation Exchange to get support for this one Back to Life

How to get your project commissioned: part I

In an ideal world you’d follow these steps and the contracts would start rolling in but the commissioning world is more complex than a Terry Pratchett world and with the current economic melt down, getting commissioned is only getting even harder.

Over the last few months I’ve been meeting with John, a social care commissioner, after an introduction brokered by the Innovation Exchange (thank you Perrie). Through wide ranging conversations, wildly drawn diagrams (like this one here),

A very rough picture of the money flow...

and several ‘huh?’s from me, I’ve finally reached a place where I can say with confidence that I sort of understand the process behind commissioning. John says that I’m now one ahead of most commissioners.

I’ve attempted to pull out the finer points from our discussions to help others like us, who are in the unfortunate position of having a brilliant project but having no idea how to get it / keep it funded or to scale it up.

Here are the things I’ve learnt so far. We’re yet to come onto a) how to find a commissioner b) how to draft your pitch to a commissioner (I’ll come onto that in part II)

1. First things first. Understand the Context.

Especially today. We’re about to be hit by big, big spending cuts, particularly in the health arena. And with a possible/probable new government in May priorities are likely to shift once more. Here are the three major things affecting our bid to be commissioned.

• Health and Wellbeing Outcomes. There’s a big shift towards fostering wellbeing (which is good news for mentoring projects which do this as a goal).
• Acute costs – In London especially by 2010 there will be no money available for managing acute care, so the emphasis is turning heavily to preventative measures, such as the development of community services, to help reduce the acute costs.
• The Inequalities Agenda – Increasingly there’s a focus on health outcomes for BAME communities and ensuring they get equal outcomes.

2. Know how to impress a commissioner (or any other funder for that matter)

You need to be able to demonstrate the following things clearly, concisely and well:

• You are providing a solution to a pressing problem that will save money down the line.
• You are reliable and deliver
• You are safe – shout about the policies, procedures or training you have in place to manage risk and ensure a safe project.
• You are user-led and have co-produced the project.
• You have clear outcomes – especially around employment and wellness. Also, you need to show the adverse outcomes for people who don’t take part.
• You work in a joined up way with other services bringing them together.
• You are distinctive and different and have a clear USP
• Monitoring and evaluation are inbuilt into your processe

3. Monitoring and Evaluation are not dirty words.

Your evidence is the first thing that will be looked at by a commissioner. You need to have good, solid evidence that shows the difference the project is making and why it is better than any other intervention.

• Longitudinal studies are a very good way of getting strong qualitative data. Your quantitative data should be part and parcel of your day to day work.
• Outcomes Stars – enable you to plot and demonstrate (in a visual and quantitative way) the improvements being made to beneficiaries lives.

Currently Back to Life is in the midst of a longitudinal study and is developing a report and a pitch to showcase all the above information in a way that will catch a commissioner’s eye. As I said, ‘ll do a part II when I figure out how to find a commissioner and how to pitch to him or her. Fingers crossed.