Outcome-based commissioning: four pathways to achieving public value

Abstract

This chapter explores recent experience with commissioning of public services, mainly in the UK since the 1980s, where this has become the dominant approach to securing public services. By outcome-based commissioning we mean not simply the externalisation of public services - the letting of contracts for public services to private sector firms, third sector organisations and cross-sector partnerships - but also the overall consideration of all options for public sector interventions which might serve to improve publicly-desired outcomes, including transformation of internal service delivery and moving to ‘co-production’ of public service tasks with communities and service users. The chapter suggests that the role of outcome-based commissioning needs to be understood within a fuller model of public value and highlights four pathways to achieving public value. Finally, the chapter suggests some lessons which can be drawn from these recent experiences.