Public services need more from commissioning
Process, procurement and contract management matter. They are not enough. Commissioners also need to understand whole systems, convene people around outcomes, work with citizens and providers, create room for experiment, and turn insight into practical action.
This programme gives a mixed group enough space and challenge to work on those capabilities without detaching learning from the work.
The three days
Day one: whole systems and outcomes
You examine what your system is producing, how citizens and communities experience it, what outcomes mean in practice, and where existing definitions may be trapping the work. You share learning from a short field visit or structured conversation and begin mapping a live challenge.
Day two: services, interventions and new possibilities
You work with complexity, evidence, behavioural insight, service design, creativity and experimentation. The focus is not ideation for its own sake. It is finding plausible ways to change conditions and test them.
Day three: space to manoeuvre and convening change
You explore formal authority, influence, professional judgement, competing interests and the relationships needed to act across boundaries. Challenge groups strengthen their plans and decide what they will do next.
How you learn
- Facilitated challenge groups.
- Practical exercises and simulations.
- Systems mapping and public service cases.
- Peer challenge and action learning.
- Short contributions from experienced practitioners.
- Personal and group action planning.
Participants contribute their own experience, questions and live work. This is not a lecture course.
Delivery and investment
The standard benchmark is £395 plus VAT per participant for each programme day. A three-day programme for 20 participants would therefore be £23,700 plus VAT. We agree a clear fixed proposal after discussing the cohort, place and challenges.
Delivery can be in person, virtual or blended. The highly interactive design is particularly well suited to in-person work.