Sutton Council, United Kingdom

In 2011, Sutton Council embedded a council-wide approach to commissioning for outcomes and to measuring social impact. It created three commissioning directorates, a commissioning framework based on an eight-step model, and a comprehensive training programme provided to 120 council officers and 30 voluntary sector colleagues – and permission to think differently about commissioning. Part of the commissioning model is engaging with residents and service users at the early stages of any commissioning process. The Council also established The Young Commissioners, a diverse group of young people who actively participate in the commissioning of services for young people. They have been involved in running user and stakeholder focus groups, procuring providers and helping to draft service specifications.

The changes to their commissioning approach allowed Sutton Council to offer increasingly bespoke services children and young people most in need that build on the assets already in the community, facilitate a local trust taking over two theatres that may otherwise have been closed, and to support local organisations to compete with larger bodies on a more even footing.