A new vision for public services in which communities are placed at the heart of delivery was set out in NLGN’s report The Community Paradigm, published in February this year. Our new report published today is called Community Commissioning: Shaping public services through people power and provides answers on how this power transfer could be achieved.  

There is a strong case for communities to play a more active role in their public services than current forms of commissioning currently permit. Demand pressures are unrelenting. With an ageing population, reduced public expenditure and increasing levels of multi-morbidity, the need to shift to a preventative approach has never been greater. A number of social developments have also created a growing expectation within society for people to have the opportunity to exert greater influence. Further, approaches to commissioning that have emerged under what NLGN has termed the State and Market Paradigms are unable to address complexity and allow for preventative interventions to flourish.