15 April, 2010
Do you need home improvement agency-related consultancy support? Do you need to review your handyperson services? Perhaps you need to review your Disabled Faciities Grants provision.
Then CEL Transform's consultancy service could give you the assistance you need!
CEL Transform undertakes a variety of consultancy work that is relevant to commissioners of home improvement agency services - we can help with options appraisals, business planning, tender support and commissioning support. We also carry out consultancy work around handyperson services, Disabled Facilities Grants and older people's needs and aspirations.
In this article, we want to give you an insight into our home improvement agency options appraisals. The case studies below show how we are working with commissioners to carry out options appraisals across large counties. We can also undertake this work in metropolitan and unitary authorities and we are happy to discuss how we can mould our service to your requirements.
We are currently undertaking work to put in place a soundly financed, clearly specified, equitable and consistently delivered home improvement agency service across the whole county. We have two consultants driving this project forward, reporting to a Steering Group made up of commissioners. The consultants also host a group for the current home improvement agencies, which are key to the process. This project, which involves 132 days of consultancy work, will develop a service specification, get buy-in from all commissioners and lead the process from its inception.
This county council had already made the decision to commission a home improvement agency covering the whole county. Our role has been to provide support throughout the re-commissioning process on behalf of the Project Management Group, in addition to the free support and advice that Foundations provides as part of its national support and advice role. Amongst other tasks, this includes:
establishing the service design
identifying financial arrangements, and
assisting with the tender process where appropriate.
This project involves 36 days of consultancy work.
This county has varied home improvement agency provision across the county. The Supporting People Commissioning Group commissioned us to produce a comprehensive and informed Service Delivery Plan to assist the development of home improvement agency services in the county. We achieved this by:
interviewing all current home improvement agency providers and commissioners, and
benchmarking home improvement agency outputs and outcomes within the county and from other counties.
Our subsequent Service Delivery Plan reports on the desired method of providing home improvement agency services and details which elements should be included in the service in the county. The Supporting People Commissioning Group was also keen to find out whether it was the most appropriate body to award the contract. This was 14 days of consultancy work.
More information
Chris Pratt has been Consultancy Manager at CEL Transform since July 2009. He previously worked for Foundations, which is managed by CEL Transform, in Policy, Quality Mark and Development Support.
Please don't hesitate to get in touch with Chris on cpratt@cel.co.uk , 0845 864 5201 or 0752 590 5211 to find out about how we could help.
