aes22 International Evaluation Conference

Judy Oakden (Pragmatica Limited - a member of the Kinnect Group),Julie Elliott (Independent evaluation consultant)

Are you a funder, provider or evaluator working on long-standing and profoundly entrenched complex, wicked problems? Have you noticed commissioning and contracting sometimes gets in the way of the programme's intended goals or services? Have you seen or had to use workarounds to make contracting possible? You are not alone. This session is for you.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES: This skill-building session is for funders, providers or evaluators looking for innovative ways to think through commissioning and contracting issues in programme and service implementation. This session may change how you design and evaluate programmes in the future.

WHY THIS SKILL IS IMPORTANT: New research shows commissioning and contracting can help or hamper innovative initiatives. Tensions abound in navigating traditional contracting rules and procedures associated with New Public Management. Evaluators who understand these tensions may be better able to explain gaps in programme and service delivery and suggest ways to address them.

This skill-building session will lean into some of the critical commissioning and contracting tensions. Instead of the prevailing rigid, predetermined ways of contracting for accountability only, this session will show how a complexity framing can help focus on more equitable service provision. We will introduce you to some new and successful ways of thinking about commissioning and contracting.

HOW WE WILL TEACH THIS SKILL: We will challenge some traditional assumptions about "good commissioning" and the implications for evaluation, such as:
• balancing the tensions between accountability and learning in fast-moving, emerging situations
• allowing for naturally occurring, serendipitous changes in service provision
• coping with the unanticipated, unplanned changes that self-organise in service delivery
• incorporating practical ways to feedback progress to funders and providers, ensuring projects stay on track.

We will use complexity-informed methods and approaches to quickly demonstrate an alternative way of looking at commissioning and contracting.