Involving suppliers
6. How can you involve your service providers and suppliers in contributing to community cohesion?
As a major commissioner of services the NHS can act as a corporate citizen, encouraging service providers and suppliers to adopt ways of operating that encourage community cohesion.
Self assessment questions
- Do you build in community cohesion objectives into contract specifications for services and for supplies?
- How do you decide what community cohesion outcomes to specify in contracts?
- Do you involve communities in the commissioning process to help in specifying appropriate outcomes?
- How do you ensure compliance with community cohesion aspects of a contract?
Some examples of good practice
Most commissioners require suppliers to meet equality and diversity standards and, increasingly, commissioners involve members of the communities they serve in assessing needs and specifying service requirements.
Case studies needed to illustrate this point