Asset Based
Commissioning
Tony Bullock
Integrated Commissioner for Alcohol and Drugs
Staffordshire County Council
Contents

What do we mean by ‘asset-based’?

How does this apply to commissioning?

Learning so far in Staffordshire

Impact on the ‘commissioning cycle’

Projects in Staffordshire

Links and further reading
Our understanding…
•
•
•
•
•
Contrast with deficits…
Complementary…
Positive approach
Focus on solutions
Recognising abilities, gifts,
talents, opportunities…
Moving from a deficit approach to an asset approach
Where we are now – the deficit approach
Where an asset way of thinking takes us
Start with deficiencies and needs in the
community
Start with the assets in the community
Respond to problems
Identify opportunities and strengths
Provide services to users
Invest in people as citizens
Emphasise the role of agencies
Emphasise the role of civil society
Focus on individuals
Focus on communities/ neighbourhoods
and the common good
See people as clients and consumers
receiving services
See people as citizens and co-producers
with something to offer
Treat people as passive and done-to
Help people to take control of their lives
‘Fix people’
Support people to develop their potential
Implement programmes as the answer
See people as the answer
From ‘A glass half full?’
Applications…
 Place-based activities
 Outcome-based activities
Place-based activities
 Networks
- ‘community building’
- interface with public sector
 Activities
-
Supporting resident led groups/associations
Channelling resources/influence/links
Outcome-based activities
Paraphrasing Cormac’s question:
- What should community do alone?
- Where are professional/ specialist services required?
- What can we do together?
[Lot’s of this will already be happening – is the question more about
making this a more systematic part of the commissioning process?]
Potential actions – outcome-led approaches
- Are there existing community-led initiatives that could be supported/
enhanced that could help achieve outcomes, rather than always seeking to
commission specialist interventions?
- Can professional services make better use of community associations to
help deliver their outcomes?
- Are professional services using strengths-based approaches that inspire
people to find their own solutions – generating future assets
Is the whole greater than the sum of the parts?
- Combination of the concepts seems to suggest a slightly different
relationships between residents and the state
- People are expected to take more responsibility but are also given
more responsibility
- A shift in the dynamics of power?
- A different way of viewing commissioning?
Possible risks?

Perceptions – about ideology etc, that creates resistance

Are community-led approaches less safe?

Will less safeguards be in place?

Professional accountability?

Is it possible to measure/communicate the impact?

Too unpredictable?

Can it be applied to all situations?

Will it happen quick enough?
Impact on the commissioning cycle?
Needs assessments
identifying opportunities
Procuring services
supporting community-led initiatives
Rigid contracts
realistic expectations?
Performance management data
qualitative narrative?
Tight risk management
more community responsibility?
Applications in Staffordshire
ABCD prevention project
“Building on the skills of local residents,
the power of local associations, and the
supportive functions of local institutions,
asset-based community development
draws upon existing community
strengths to build stronger, more
sustainable communities for the future.”
www.abcdinstitute.org
‘Hypothesis’
Asset-Based Community Development
(ABCD)
Community – empowerment/ resilience
Improved outcomes
Asset-based recovery communities
Contagion:
what flows across ties
(germs, money, violence, fashions, organs, happiness, obesity, etc.)
Connection:
Homophily:
who is connected to whom
the tendency to associate with people
who resemble ourselves
(ties to family, friends, co-workers,
etc.)
(“love of being alike”)
Treatment services
• Using community assets
– Mainstream services
– Voluntary associations
• Focussing on clients’ assets
– Skills
– Interests/ aspirations
• Creating assets to the community
– People wanting to give something back
• Recovery
communities
• Recovery
communities
• Recovery
communities
Useful information
• ABCD institute
• Health Empowerment Leverage Programme
• LGA papers
– Glass half full?
– What makes us health?
• Connecting Communities
• Nurture Development
• Asset-Based Consulting
Summary
 Focus on opportunities
 Complementary to, not wholly replacing, deficit based approaches
 Close links with community development
 Different relationship between state and citizens
 Need to change elements of the commissioning cycle?
 Some encouraging signs in Staffordshire
 Careful not to over-sell potential at this stage