Contract Management Support Overview
A well conceived commissioning strategy is only as good as the contracting arrangements that exist to deliver it and the monitoring systems that measure progress against expected performance. CCGs will need to ensure that they have robust arrangements in place to manage contract. Getting the right balance between what functions are retained 'in-house' and what can be managed via the local CSU is vital. All too often opportunities within the standard NHS contract are missed to the detriment of service and at cost to commissioners
Our experts can help commissioners to get the most from their CSU, esuring that contracts with provider deliver best value and quality. We bring significant technical expertise and can provide short or longer-term interventions to support CCGs through the contract management cycle including:
Contract Planning cycle : Identifying needs based on available data, assessing impact of service development on contracted activity through to commissioning intentions and forecasting
Performance Management Framework Design : Ensuring that commissioners have strong contract measures and metrics and know how to use the standard contract to drive better value
Negotiations: We have a team of highly experienced negotiators and can either lead negotiations or provide the necessary support and analysis to ensure that your team can challenge providers sufficiently throughout the process.
Contract Planning cycle
Starting the planning cycle early is vital and we can help your team through this at every stage, providing more specialist expertise and additional capacity to support the process as required.
Our Business Intelligence services will ensure that you have the right information upon which to base planning assumptions, and
will highlight those areas where providers need to improve.
We also provide
- Detailed activity forecasting service to improve the accuracy and sensitivity of your planning
- Full financial costing service including sensitivity analysis for a realistic assessment of the impact of planned service developments
- Review of Performance Management measures and framework development
- Strategy and Planning Development
Performance Management Framework Design
We understand the importance of strong, measurable performance metrics and supporting systems have helped numerous commissioners improve quality and value by implementing a more rigorous performance regime.
We can undertake a review your existing performance systems and work with you to improve them so that it becomes a useful tool for managing performance without unnecessary conflict with providers:
- Ensuring that all requirements and key outcome measures from important policies are covered sufficiently within KPIs
- Developing your team’s skill in using the standard NHS contracts and r
- Removing duplication/contradictions where performance measures overlap significantly with standard contract requirements (something which is surprising common)
- Tightening KPI measures and wording to provide a clear metric against which performance can be managed
- Developing clear criteria and process for implementation of contract controls so that Providers and Commissioners agree and understand what is required of them
Contract Negotiations
Having a strong leadership in negotiations is a key factor in development of successful contracts both during the annual renegotiation of contract terms and in management of performance.
Our team of highly experienced negotiators can help you to build and negotiate a strong contract, working either alongside you or in a leadership role for key meetings during the planning cycle.
This can be provided as one off support or in a longer-term development role to transfer stronger negotiating skills to your team