Commissioning Public Services: Partnership Working and Delivery with the Third Sector

Third sector organisations have a vital role to play in public service provision, especially in these times of increasing emphasis on stakeholder accountability and community involvement.

This guide from CIPFA looks at how the public services can benefit from commissioning from the third sector and in particular the social and economic significance of this form of partnership working.

At the heart of the guidance is the desire to improve mutual understanding and so encourage relationship building between third sector and public sector organisations. To this end the document includes practical advice and examples aimed at strengthening partnership working.

Both public sector commissioners and third sector organisations in the role of potential contract bidder will find this guidance of importance, and it has been compiled with these readerships in mind. While there are many reports on public service commissioning which are written from either one of these perspectives, there are few that take a look from both sides of the relationship. As such this guide provides a unique insight.

The guide covers:

• opportunities for improving public sector/third sector partnership working
• what makes the public and third sectors different and how this translates into additional benefits for partnering commissioners
• ways to encourage third sector engagement with public sector commissioning
• elements in the commissioning process of interest to third sector organisations
• an example of a public/third sector commissioning framework
• areas for third sector organisations to consider in regard to tendering for service delivery contracts and the implications of entering into public service provision.