Decommissioning

"The process of planning and managing a reduction in service activity or terminating a contract in line with commissioning objectives".

Decommissioning services can be complex and tough for providers and service users affected. The eight principles of good commissioning remain good guidance for commissioners. Public bodies should still follow a clear process to demonstrate transparency and fairness when deciding to decommission a service.

Here are some tools and resources currently available to assist support and development organisations faced with decommissioning of local services.

National Audit Office Decommissioning Guide
The guidance is web-based and available on the NAO Website.

This is part of the NAO's Successful Commissioning guidance and is aimed at local commissioners. It provides practical advice on how to plan for and manage the decommissioning of public services delivered by the third sector. It emphasises that decommissioning is not the same as cuts and defines decommissioning as..

'Decommissioning is stopping provision of a service or a significant part of a service in order to bring about an improvement to existing service provision.'

Decommissioning checklist
Bury Third Sector Development Agency, the support and development organisation for Bury worked with their Compact strategy group to developed a Third Sector Decommissioning Check checklist for commissioners.

Decommissioning checklist and guidance
A toolkit developed by the Care Services Efficiency Delivery Team at the Department for Health. It aimed at supporting local authorities develop decommissioning strategies to move to personal budgets. However many of the questions posed are generic and will be applicable in other areas

Decommissioning and Disinvestment Toolkit
A toolkit for public sector health commissioners developed by NHS South East Essex. This includes flow charts and information on tools for undertaking a service review like Mapinfo, Mosaic, spend outcome analysis and equality impact assesing.

Resources from Empowering the Voluntary Sector
NAVCA's Empowering the Voluntary Sector project has a good list of resources on dealing with issues on Compacts, cuts, consultation and equalities and public law issues.

Decommissioning in Bristol
The recent NAVCA Bridge Between Two Worlds publications includes a case study from Bristol that covers aspects of decommissioning.

Getting More for Less; Efficiency in The Public Sector
Demos publication on the wider debate on efficiency and effectiveness in the public sector.