1. About you:
Name: Donal Coffey
Title (if applicable): LES Mediatore
Organisation (if applicable): Cork City Partnerhip/Cork City Local Employment Service
Sector (if applicable): Employment Services/Community Sector
Address: Cork
Email: [email protected]
Reason for Contributing to Consultation:
(e.g. service-user, intermediary, commissioner, service provider, member of the public, representative body, trade union etc.)
Worker & trade union member.
Please see the following:
Commissioning Submissions
Comments

As a worker in this sector, I would have great concerns about the proposed move to the commissioning approach if
there is no going to be no attempt to address the concerns of those who are working in this sector.
In this regard, it is interesting to note that the word worker does not appear once in the Literature Review, which
would give a worrying indication that even at this early stage that we the workers in this sector are not really
considered as significant players in the proposed context of the commissioning of services. Their only significance
may be that they become the first and soft targets of cutbacks and economising when preparing the contract bids,
as has happened so often in other sectors already.
Or when the concept of ‘value for money’ can be reduced to a handy TLA vfm, then the workers know that
troubles lie ahead.

Unfortunately, I am forced to say this because it has been the common experience that where workers find
themselves as pawns in the make-up of submissions for competitive bids; then the workers' terms and conditions
of employment deteriorate over time. The global costs of the contracts and services may be increasing but workers
usually seem to see very little of this increase, much more the opposite being the case. It is always the workers
who become the meat in the sandwich when it comes to contract situations and competitive bids.

If service level agreements come into play into the commissioning of contracts, then there needs to protection of
workers rights and entitlements also, they are deserving of a service level agreement in terms of the employment
conditions, otherwise it will very quickly become a race to the bottom situation for those working in the sector.

I have seen this already with the Local Employment Service where I am working. For many years, as workers in the
LES knew where we stood in terms of salaries and pensions as we were linked to the equivalent grades in FÁS, as
we have doing similar employment service duties as them. However, in the last number of years, there have been
determined attempts to have this pay scale undermined and ignored.
For instance, but with the move over to being funded a different government department to previously, they now
have taken the approach to pretend to ignore that such pay scales exist and have not allowed for workers' legal
entitlement to increments to be paid, and more recently newer staff have been denied access to the pension
scheme. If this is what the future will look like, then the workers in the relevant sectors should not co-operate until
full and proper guarantees are given to workers. And this has not just been the experience of the workers in the
LES, so many of those working in the community and voluntary+ sector have found themselves to be what the
media has come to refer as ;low lying fruit' in terms of budget cutbacks.

I note that the section about the risks does mention the experience of the SICAP tendering process, which has led
to a situation where colleagues who had previously worked very closely and collaboratively across different
organisations suddenly found themselves in opposing camps due to the tendering approach. This has put back the
progress of a collaborative approach in terms of improving the lives and outcomes of those who are the intended
targets of such 'reform'.

Furthermore, it could be said that the employment services have already been pushed down the road of
commissioning of services as outlined in the reports attached. For your information, after only two weeks into the
new landscape where much more focus is now supposed to be going on a much narrower numerically defined set
of outcomes, a consequent result here in Cork city has been the need to consider the closing or downgrading of
some of the local offices of the Local Employment Service, so that it would help to ensure the required numerical
outcomes are going to be achieved at the end of the year. It was interesting to note that the local community
responded strongly to the threatened closure of their local office and a change of mind has now taken place about
this proposed plan.

Big Players Only Need Apply in Future
I am proud to be a member of SIPTU and it was they who alerted me to this proposal opportunity. However, when
I looked at it at first I was really put off as I found it difficult to follow.
It really seems geared towards those of a Masters or even Phd level of education. Nonetheless, I have taken the
opportunity to put my thoughts on this matter in writing in my own words and I would that they given due
consideration. This is in line with the whole idea of commissioning in it is geared to the bigger players, given the
complexities and scales demanded in the contracts.

VfM, VfM, VfM, VfM

If nothing else confirmed my worse fears was when I came across the three letter acronym (TLA), VfM, Value for
Money! How handy to euphemistically substitute a convenient TLA for something that inevitably means lower
wages and poorer terms and conditions, and less security of employment for the workers delivering these services.
2. Proposed Definition of Commissioning:
a) What is your preferred definition of Commissioning [NB you do not have to choose one outlined in this paper or the
supporting documents]?
3. Proposed Stages and Features of the Commissioning Process:
a) What do you consider to be the key stages and features of a commissioning process?
b) Do any of the featured models outlined in the literature review - or from your own knowledge and experience –
seem most suitable to the Irish context?
4. Proposed Principles of Commissioning
a) Outline the principles that you believe should underpin a commissioning approach in Ireland
5. Transitioning Arrangements:
a) What pre-cursors will be required to transition to a Commissioning approach?
b) What improvements would you say are required to increase readiness for the services for which you are familiar?
c) What are the potential risks to overcome?
6. Further Submissions:
(a) Having reviewed and considered the literature review and in view of your own experience, please submit any
other matters, apart from those discussed above, that you deem necessary for further consideration as part of this
programme of change.