What is Competency 5?

With its focus on knowledge management and needs assessment, competency 5 underpins all 11 competencies within World Class Commissioning and is the one primary care trusts need to master to deliver high quality services for local people. For some, its emphasis on analytical skills, understanding need and benchmarking will have long been part of their approach to commissioning.

What the assessment panel say

'The joint strategic needs assessments were clearly a core element of competency 5 and, as a local authority manager, I was keen to see a rigorous process in place for developing them and embedding their use across local organisations.'

Harold Bodmer, director of adult social services, Norfolk county council.

'Some of the strongest evidence for the power of being good at competency 5 came from concrete case studies, where PCTs could demonstrate how information had influenced the way they commissioned services.'

Rosamond Roughton, director of strategy and system reform, NHS Yorkshire and the Humber.

'What distinguished the best PCTs from the rest was the way they translated their joint needs assessments into shared action plans and, ultimately, improved services.'

Simon Williams, director of community and housing, Merton council.

Top tips

• Concrete case studies demonstrate clearly how commissioners are using information to improve health provision.
• The starting point is getting to know the wide range of data sources available and the organisations that can provide them.
• Needs assessments should look well beyond health data to ensure a total picture of community need.

Take a closer look at World Class Commissioning panel views (pdf 202KB).

12 steps to perfect competence

1. Work in partnership.
2. Share knowledge.
3. Secure high quality resource.
4. Get a total picture of need.
5. Identify unmet need.
6. Use up to date information.
7. Understand difference.
8. Benchmark.
9. Use the third sector.
10. Stratify risk.
11. Embrace new service models.
12. Programme budgeting.

Take a closer look at 12 steps to perfect competence (pdf 231KB).

• View information to support World Class Commissioning panel assessments (pdf 202KB).
• View the Milton Keynes Observatory case study (pdf 392KB).
  Delivering rich information on everything from crime to smoking, right down to ward level, in a model example of joined-up working.
• View the Rotheram PCT case study (pdf 410KB).
  Leading the way in understanding precisely where and with whom it should be intervening - and where GP services are falling short.
• View the Nottingham City case study (pdf 422KB).
  Tackling problems such as teen pregnancy with creative methods – notably benchmarking against a comparable city, Liverpool.
• View the Western Chesire case study (pdf 344KB).
  Developing a sophisticated understanding of which patients are most at risk, enabling it to act pre-emptively to cut emergency admissions.
• View the Bristol case study (pdf 476KB).
  Joining three other PCTs to create an information consortium – giving it access to a team of 25 dedicated data experts, and totally new approaches to analysis.

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