Demonstrating outcomes for funders and contracts By Dawn McAleenan

To have a basic understanding of:  Changes to the commissioning landscape  What commissioners said they wanted  How to communicate with commissioners  Evidence based practice Objective

“Across the Criminal Justice System, the future commissioning landscape is as yet unclear in terms of what services will be commissioned, by whom, and at what level. This is making it extremely difficult for VCS organisations to plan effectively during the transitional period. What is clear from the new MoJ Competition Strategy, however, is that competition will be embedded in commissioning practice across all offender services, and that contracts will increasingly be let on a PbR basis.” (MoJ Reducing Reoffending Third Sector Advisory Group (2011) A Report from the Task and Finish Group on Competition, Commissioning and the VCS, London) Changes to the commissioning landscape

Value for money Evidence delivery & impact Outcome focus Changes to the commissioning landscape

What commissioners said: Offender Health Commissioning ChallengesOpportunities How to measure: - value for money - impact of service - evidence delivery External factors - time constraints - cohorts of offenders - lack of consistency Competition v multi agency - sharing data Acknowledges a better way to deliver services Enhance social research Enables best practice to be shared across the sector Comparative data strengthens applications for funding Enables VCOs to shape how they evidence their delivery and impact

What commissioners said they wanted: Offender Health Commissioning What is your offer? Why is your service needed? What outcomes can you achieve? What is your unique selling point? Do you know the demographics? Do you know what the local priories are? How do you demonstrate quality?

Set yourself up to succeed!  Discuss long term objectives and short term priorities  Be clear about risk (i.e., impact of setting up a new service)  Negotiate time, cost and outcomes Communicating with commissioners

Quantitive “Quantitive research is concerned with measures – the extent to which something happens, how many people are affected; and causality – what might happen if something changes. A deductive relationship theory.”  Measurement – quantifying concepts to meaning, e.g. IQ  Casuality – ability to explain social phenomena  Generalisation – extend findings to other situations  Replicability – reduce personal bias Evidence based practice

Qualitative “Qaulitative research is more concerned with people’s experiences and the insights they provide about social phenomena, and the relationship with theory is inductive”  inductive – generates theory  constructionist – reflects the approach that social phenomena is constructed and not inherent  concerned with the social meaning of social phenomena rather than the measurement. Evidence based practice

Validity, reliability, and triangulation Surveys & questionnaires Comparing quantitative data Individual Interviews Focus groups Structured Semi structures Unstructured Quality Outcomes

1.What are the barriers to collating data for outcome measures? 2.How can you overcome these challenges? 3.What type of questions would you ask a commissioner before and during a tender application? 4.What would you ask commissioners about their long term expectations and aims? Group discussion