Commissioning for the Community

All too often, the transformative benefits that community transport brings to communities across the UK are overlooked.

The CTA believes that a key reason behind such an omission lies in a poorly structured commissioning environment and pressures on the resources of local commissioners, which have pushed them to prioritise the price of a service over wider social and economic outcomes for the communities they serve.

As such, in November we launched a new report at CT ’19, our annual event for the community transport sector, exploring how commissioning practices can be changed to address this issue.

Our preliminary report, Commissioning for the Community, sets out our ambitions and invites all interested parties to contribute to the conversation on how we can achieve a future where the vibrant work of community transport and the social value that it creates, both locally and nationally, is best recognised and rewarded.

This paper is a call to action for those who commission, those who provide commissioned services and those who are interested in commissioning to, firstly, contribute your views on some key questions set out at the end of this report; and, secondly, to share any good practice in the commissioning arena that you have effected or know has been effective, whether that is in transport or in another publicly commissioned sphere.

We hope that, in laying out the background of commissioning for community transport as it stands now, as well sharing as some initial thoughts on improving social value in commissioning, we can help spark or fan the flames of some valuable discussion.