TLAP 180Think Local Act Personal (TLAP) has urged commissioners to focus on people not processes when it comes to commissioning health and social care services as the organisation launches new guidance on the Care Act.

The two new tools, created by the national partnership of more than 50 organisations committed to transforming health and care, also suggest it is key to make sure people with care and support needs, families and carers are equal partners in deciding where services are commissioned from.

Sam Bennett, TLAP director, said: "These tools provide a route-map to a better life for people who use services and for carers by ensuring the commissioning of local care and support services are well-led, inclusive and offer people real choice and control. They are the glue that holds the other Care Act support guidance together. Everything else follows on from practising co-production when commissioning."

'People not process - Co-production in commissioning' is a web-based tool that aims to explain what commissioners should think about to ensure they are working in the way the new Act says they should. This includes encouraging commissioners to seriously think about using co-production in their approach to market shaping and commissioning, which is described in the guidance as a "shared endeavour".

Alongside this, 'Top Tips: Commissioning for Market Diversity' aims to help commissioners focus on the work they need to do to develop a care and support market that offers a diverse range of ways for their local population to meet their care and support needs. The guide offers 10 top tips, examples and links to further information and a short series of questions that will help commissioners assess their progress in meeting market shaping duties and developing a diverse local market, as defined in the Care Act 2014.

Both resources support the Care Act statutory guidance on commissioning and market shaping and the framework of commissioning standards: Commissioning for Better Outcomes - A Route Map published in 2014.

Bill Davidson from the TLAP National Coproduction Advisory Group, who led this work, says the tools are "a way of appealing to commissioners to engage, include and give the dignity of decision-making so that we can all share effective solutions".

These resources were commissioned by the Department of Health in partnership with the Local Government Association and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) to support local government in implementing the Care Act 2014.

ADASS’ vice president, Harold Bodmer, added: "ADASS has persistently argued the benefits of ensuring that people who need our services should be at the centre of the procedures through which those services are designed. Devolution, personalisation and co-production are the characteristic of our services that lead to quality, and it's great to be able to support these new tools from TLAP aimed at helping local authority social services achieve that end."

To find out more about the organisation involved in TLAP visit: www.thinklocalactpersonal.org.uk