case study:
The wider benefits and added value for Strategic Commissioning from the Nottingham City Micro Market Development Project

showing personalisation in practice for local authorities

Introduction

At the outset of this project, Nottingham city council had little notion of the extent of the current micro market, or what was required to map and develop the self directed care market.

Working with Community Catalysts, the successful implementation has resulted in an intensive surge of new learning for the social care commissioning arm of Nottingham City Council. The project has had a profound effect on our understanding of not only the Micro Market and how to support it, but also of the wider scale market mapping of what the council needs to do to support the larger self directed care market.

Market Support

The project has given the council specific learning on the role of the micro co-ordinator, the connections they need to build, and the flexibility they need within the role. They also need a degree of independence and judgement to manage the range of dilemmas posed by agencies that might be in competition and also which need to work in concert within market systems.

Providers

The project has significantly developed the council’s understanding of the multiplicity and range of potential micro providers and how these providers interrelate, and the sort of support they might require. These include centralised information services as well as individualised support, support networks, feedback methods and regulation requirements.

Market Systems

The project has really contributed to our understanding of what we need to do to build our self directed market and it has had significant impact on how Strategic Commissioning will continue to support, value and build information feedback in the market.
Generally it has helped the council define what is the “Nottingham offer” for support to the self-directed market. It has helped us draw out a map of the Putting People First market system in Nottingham when none existed before.

It has helped build the social enterprise and community capacity aspect of micros and to link up with the business development and leisure and sports segments of the council who have not previously been connected to social care commissioning.It has also shown that the innate creativity of the market will evolve its own solutions to issues that face providers.

Vision

The project has been an opportunity for the council to take on new influences and broaden its vision.

It has given us a concrete model of how change can be led by social care commissioning within the transforming landscape of social care.

It has shown the strength and advantage of using stakeholders and partners in a new way to grow vision through innovative policy-making sessions and to generally use the creative resources of personnel to come up with new solutions to the commissioning challenges that face us.

Rod Madocks
Strategic Commissioning Manager

For more information contact us on 01423 790126.