Welcome to the November 2009 bulletin from the Commissioning Support Programme. A particular focus for the Programme this month is the final preparation for our national event for commissioners – read more below and register for this one-off event . We hope you will find this bulletin of interest and if you have further questions about the Commissioning Support Programme then please do not hesitate to contact us at info@commissioningsupport.org.uk 

Commissioning Support Programme national event – A few places left

Last month we told you about the opportunity to register for our national event for commissioners on 18 November. There are still a few places left on what will be an engaging and highly participative day. Speakers include Baroness Delyth Morgan, Sharon Menghini (DCS for Herefordshire), Debbie Jones from South East Essex PCT and Peter Kyle if the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations. In addition there is the opportunity to meet our new Programme Director, Lorraine O’Reilly who will be hosting the day.

There is also an extensive programme of themed workshops which delegates will be able to choose from and which cover aspects of commissioning which people in the field have told us they particularly want to explore in more detail. To see the full agenda (including the workshop programme) and to register as a delegate go here.

If you are unable to make the event we will be providing outputs from the day on our website so, while we hope we will see many of you in person, please do keep an eye out on here. While the exhibition for this event is nearly full there are a couple of spaces still available (there is no charge for exhibitors). If you are interested then please email: chris.knighton@commissioningsupport.org.uk

Guardian supplement on commissioning

A reminder to look in the Society Guardian on 18 November for the supplement on commissioning that we are sponsoring. This will help to raise awareness of how commissioning by Children’s Trusts partners contributes to achieving better outcomes. We are sure you will find it an interesting read and we hope that it will be useful to you when you are explaining to others the importance of commissioning. You will also be able to download the supplement from this website from 18 November.

Website satisfaction survey

Registered members of the Commissioning Support Programme website will have recently received a satisfaction survey. This is part of our commitment to ensuring that the website is of real value to commissioners and offers a sustainable source of peer-to-peer support. If you haven’t yet returned your responses then please could you do so by 20 November. It will help us to help you.

Learning and Development

Over the coming weeks we will be offering a series of workshops for lead members for children’s services. These will be run in conjunction with IdeA. We will also be offering a new Commissioning in Children’s Services Development Programme, built around materials which can be tailored locally to suit the development need. There will be introductory days across the county, where the use of the materials will be modelled, from January 2010. To find out more about these elements of the Commissioning Support Programme learning and development offer email events@commissioningsupport.org.uk or check our events pages here.

This Bulletin

We want to make sure that this Programme bulletin is the most helpful if can be. If there are things that you would like to see featured in future editions of the bulletin then please email info@commissioningsupport.org.uk and let us know.