Commissioning bootcamp: How to operate effectively in a commissioning environment

Contact information

For further information or to request a quotation, please contact the Professional Education Courses Unit on:

Enquiries Phone: 02 5114 5573

Enquiries Email: ProfEdCourses@adfa.edu.au

In-house delivery

UNSW Canberra Professional Education Courses may be available for in-house delivery at your organisation's premises. In-house courses allow maximum attendance without the additional travel costs. Courses can be developed to suit the specific staff development and training needs of your organisation. Recommended for groups of 10 or more.

This bootcamp will give participants an opportunity, in a safe space, to consider the evidence around commissioning, gain some key lessons and undertake practical techniques designed to make a reality of commissioning approaches.

Drawing on recent research and practical knowledge, this interactive bootcamp will work with participants to consider how key lessons and evidence surrounding a commissioning approach can be applied in their own organisations and practice.

What you will receive

Morning Tea | Lunch | Afternoon Tea | Dinner with Speaker on Day 1

Who should attend

This masterclass is designed for middle managers and senior executives who work in a commissioning environment as either a commissioner or provider. Many of the examples and the evidence presented will come from a health context and may be most relevant to those operating in these settings, although key lessons are applicable across a variety of different policy and service delivery domains.

Presenters

Associate Professor Helen Dickinson

Helen Dickinson is Associate Professor Public Service Research and Director of the Public Service Research Group at the School of Business, University of New South Wales, Canberra. Her expertise is in public services, particularly in relation to topics such as governance, leadership, commissioning and priority setting and decision-making. Helen has published sixteen books and over fifty peer-reviewed journal articles on these topics and is also a frequent commentator within the mainstream media. She is co-editor of the Journal of Health, Organization and Management and Australian Journal of Public Administration. In 2015 Helen was made a Victorian Fellow of the Institute of Public Administration Australia and she has worked with a range of different levels of government, community organisations and private organisations in Australia, UK, New Zealand and Europe on research and consultancy programmes.

Dr Karen Gardner

Karen joined the Public Service Research Group in the Business School UNSW Canberra as a Senior Research Fellow in February 2017. She is a health services researcher with a background in sociology and population health. Her research focuses on quality improvement, primary care performance monitoring and management, and the co-design, implementation and evaluation of complex interventions. She has worked in community sector, government and academic roles and for the past ten years, has been working in partnership with Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services and in general practice and community health settings. Karen has more than 50 working papers, technical reports, book chapters and peer reviewed publications and is a current member of the Evaluation Working Group, Health Care Homes, Australian Department of Health (2016-2019).

Course Information

Course outline

Commissioning has recently emerged as a key concept in the reform of public services in relation to health and other policy areas. As a result, a number of individuals have found that they either occupy a commissioning role or are being asked to operate within a commissioning environment. Yet there is still a great deal of confusion over what commissioning is, what it should achieve and how to work effectively within a commissioning context. This bootcamp is designed for those who work in commissioning roles or in provider organisations who are being increasingly required to work within a commissioning environment. This is designed to bring together a small group who will work together with leading experts to address real-life challenges and find solutions. Ultimately the bootcamp aims to produce better understanding into the key issues faced by commissioners and providers and to develop useable tools and strategies that participants can apply within their work contexts.

At the end of the masterclass, participants will:

Understand what a commissioning process entails and some of the tools available to improve these processes
Have an overview of the evidence for commissioning including the impacts it can produce and the factors which enable high quality commissioning
Understand the standards of high quality commissioning and how to apply them in their own organisational context
Have an insight into the different roles that partner organisations play in the commissioning process
Have an intermediate understanding of how to operate a commissioning approach

Cancellation policy

Courses will be held subject to sufficient registrations. UNSW Canberra reserves the right to cancel a course up to five working days prior to commencement of the course. If a course is cancelled, you will have the opportunity to transfer your registration or be issued a full refund. If registrant cancels within 10 days of course commencement, a 50% registration fee will apply. UNSW Canberra is a registered ACT provider under ESOS Act 2000-CRICOS provider Code 00098G.