Aligning four organisations around shared opportunities

The Challenge

The Integrated Care Board worked across three local authorities, each with its own commissioning arrangements, priorities and pressures. Whilst all organisations shared ambitions to improve outcomes for residents, commissioning decisions were often made separately and there was no consistent way of identifying where greater collaboration could add value.

As a result, opportunities to improve outcomes and make better use of collective resources risked being missed because there was no shared approach for bringing organisations together around common priorities.

My Approach

I created a shared environment for collaboration, enabling organisations to move beyond individual priorities and identify opportunities for collective action.

Working with commissioners and senior leaders across the Integrated Care Board and three local authorities, I brought together different perspectives, priorities and approaches to develop a common framework for discussion and decision-making.

Rather than seeking to impose a single set of priorities, I created a practical way for organisations to identify opportunities that could benefit all partners or, where appropriate, only those with a shared interest.

The Result

A Joint Commissioning Framework was established, providing the Integrated Care Board and three local authorities with a practical mechanism for identifying, assessing and progressing opportunities for joint commissioning.

For the first time, partners had a shared approach for discussing commissioning priorities across organisational boundaries, creating a common language for decision-making while recognising that not every opportunity required the involvement of all organisations. This allowed collaboration to be targeted where it could add most value, whilst retaining local flexibility and autonomy.

The framework enabled partners to identify and explore a range of potential joint commissioning opportunities and created greater transparency about where collective action could improve outcomes, reduce duplication and make better use of shared resources.

Perhaps most importantly, the work strengthened relationships and trust between commissioning leaders across the system, creating a stronger foundation for future collaboration and giving organisations a practical route for turning shared ambition into coordinated action.