In practice

This has involved a total change in the current ways of thinking and it needed a few providers to look very differently at how they would work with and for the Council. For many, this was turkeys being asked to vote for Christmas, for others this was an opportunity to demonstrate that they were trustworthy and could be left to get on with improving customers' lives.

• The council completely respecified what was formerly domiciliary care, supported living, and reablement as a combined service
• They agreed a mechanism for paying the new providers based upon the customer achieving their outcomes
• The best providers will be those whose customers' outcomes are met most often for the least cost
• Each new provider had to reskill: each was easily comparable in performance terms with its rivals
• The best can be rewarded with a greater share in what will be an increasing volume of business
• The procurement exercise alone has yielded like for like annual savings of £2.4 million
• Delivering triangles instead of boxes is projected to more than match this.