It was around the year 2000 that policymakers and public service providers in the UK first began to realise that there was a stage prior to procurement which was often overlooked, where key strategic issues had to be resolved. Over time, this has come to be referred to as commissioning, although it was not until January 2013 that the government launched the Commissioning Academy 'to bring together senior commissioners from across the public sector to learn from the example of the most successful commissioning organisations'.89
While commissioning has its roots in procurement (among other things), it has much broader application. It has been defined as the process through which delivery agents are given the authority (and the resources) to deliver. What is new about this approach to the hand-off from policy to delivery is the attention given to the selection and prioritisation of outcomes, the translation of those outcomes into measurable objectives, the creation of space for frank conversations over the resources (people, money and time) allocated for the delivery of those objectives, the effective delegation of authority that will enable management to deliver, the measurement of performance, and the development and application of a consequences regime that is stable, predictable and proportionate.
The commissioning approach has placed a great deal of emphasis on the exploration and development of alternative delivery models - not just private and not-for-profit providers, but social enterprises, public service mutuals, public-private joint ventures, social impact bonds, management insertion (for example). In the UK, there has also been a focus on market engagement, although in overseas jurisdictions that have adopted commissioning, there has also been greater emphasis on system design and stewardship.
From its inception, the UK Commissioning Academy was focused on bringing together senior commissioners to learn from their peers. Its ministerial mandate did not provide authorisation to undertake research into good commissioning practice, or to explore the different applications of this approach across different services. After operating under the umbrella of the Cabinet Office for four years, the Commissioning Academy was recently merged into the Public Service Transformation Academy, and is now operated by an external provider.
As a result, the discipline of commissioning has not received the attention at the centre of government that it has in some overseas countries. National and provincial governments in Australia, Canada and New Zealand have all been exploring the contribution that commissioning can make in transforming the relationship between policy and delivery. The New South Wales state government, for example, has established a Commissioning and Contestability Unit and released a formal policy document and guidelines.90
It is possible that the UK government's focus on commercial capabilities has contributed to the relative neglect of commissioning capabilities in central government.