International Association of Social Care Commissioners
'free resources, research links and peer review with an International perspective'
- News feed updated July 2025 (all articles are from the previous three months
🇬🇧 The UK: Supporting Decision-Making with AI
Social care professionals are increasingly turning to AI-powered support tools, including large language models, to streamline administrative tasks and improve decision-making. These tools help practitioners access guidance quickly, interpret legislation accurately, and prioritise referrals more effectively.
According to SocialCareToday (28 Jan 2025), AI solutions don’t replace human judgement — they back it up, freeing staff for critical tasks, boosting confidence in junior teams, and promoting consistency across services
These systems are now being integrated into ethical frameworks and transparency policies, ensuring safeguarding standards and equality considerations are upheld.
🇨🇳 China: Democratising AI with DeepSeek
Imagine top-tier AI available even without vast computing resources or cloud infrastructure. That’s exactly what DeepSeek, a Chinese open-source AI initiative, has achieved. On 20 January 2025, DeepSeek released its R1 large language model, offering comparable performance to leading models like ChatGPT but at only 2% of the cost
This breakthrough has led to rapid adoption across hospitals, local governments, and public services in China. For UK commissioners, this demonstrates how budget-friendly AI could empower local authorities, charities, and small providers — making innovation genuinely inclusive and accessible.
🇯🇵 Japan: Ageing with Dignity Through Community
In Nagano, Japan, Satoko Fujioka’s “Hotch no Lodge” blends home care with a community hub — a space where meals, music, and shared activity replace uniforms and schedules. Since opening in 2019, it has afforded older adults the chance to “do what they love,” shifting the focus from dependency to dignity.
This model received the Innovation of the Year – Social Engagement Program award at the Asia‑Pacific Eldercare Innovation Awards in 2022. It offers a valuable lesson: sometimes the most profound innovations are social, not technological. Commissioners should recognise that human-centred design can be as powerful as any tool.
ARTICLES
THE COMMISSIONING CYCLE
Typically, the social care commissioning process in a local authority will follow a commissioning cycle. This is the process of monitoring and reviewing the effectiveness of services, undertaking planning activities and delivering on a commissioning strategy in context of care being delivered in a local area. Different models exist and two examples are on this page. They will all include analysis, engagement and planning phases
Analyse
This element of the commissioning cycle involves activities such as:
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Reviewing legislation, guidance local/national priorities, relevant local strategies and policy statements.
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Undertaking demand forecasting activities in order to identify the current and likely future needs of the population for the relevant services.
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Stakeholder mapping. Identifying key people and their relation to the success of the project.
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Mapping and reviewing service provision in order to understand provider strengths and weaknesses, and identifying opportunities for improvement or change in providers. This will include prior monitoring information for existing contracts (unless it is a new service) - see Review section.
Plan
This element of the commissioning cycle involves activities such as:
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A review of the key findings from the supply and demand analysis.
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Agreeing appropriate service provision and its configuration to meet future demand.
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Identifying what service provision may need to be re-configured / decommissioned.
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Analysing the risks involved in implementing change and/or continuing with the status quo.
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Engaging with and consulting people who have lived experience of services/ potential future users, carers, providers and other relevant stakeholders e.g health.
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Writing a commissioning strategy which identifies service development priorities and specific targets for their achievement.
Do
This element of the commissioning cycle involves activities such as:
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Ensuring that the services needed are available or developed as planned, in ways which efficiently and effectively deliver the priorities and targets set out in the commissioning strategy.
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Making arrangements to ensure service quality is delivered, including identifying the quality assurance criteria that should be included in contracts in order to ensure services meet the standards required.
Review
This element of the commissioning cycle involves activities such as:
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Monitoring the impact of services and analysing the extent to which they have achieved the intended perup.
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Analysing any changes in; legislative requirements, best practice and population need, reviewing the overall impact of services, and considering the effectiveness of service models across the market torespond to different needs.
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Identifying revisions needed to the strategic priorities and targets.
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Putting in place process for ensuring and analysing feedback from service users, carers and providers
Essential reading (commissioning guides)
The classic commissioning cycle, adopted by a host of local authorities in Health and social care as best practice.
(Image courtesy of the Institute of Public Care)
This model has been developed primarily to commission Heath services. (image courtesy of NHS England)
The Double Diamond model adapted from Design Council (2020) and Kiernan (2017).
There are very few quality video resources explaining commissioning, this one focusses on Public Health but its useful to draw parallels to social care (credit to Dr Salim Vohra)
RESEARCH AND DATA
In social care commissioning, informed decisions can mean the difference between effective support and unmet need.
Data dashboards provide real-time insights into demand, outcomes, and quality—empowering commissioners to prioritise, allocate resources fairly, and track the impact of services. As with any data source, its important (even with official sources) to check data for accuracy against multiple sources.
Effective commissioning depends on informed decision-making. A particular focus of the 'Analyse' stage will be scanning for up-to-date evidence, policy insights, regulatory data, and analysis. The following lists represents essential research and data sources that UK social commissioners should be familiar with, as well as some lesser known, but still important resources e.g the Social Care Elf!
Before starting your journey into research and data, its essential that you look at the local Joint Strategic Needs Assessment for your area. You can do this symply by typing the name of your local authority and 'JSNA'
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The King’s Fund - Independent charity providing evidence-based research, policy analysis, and insight into health and social care systems. Particularly strong on integration, funding models, and strategic workforce planning.
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Community Care - Leading online resource for social workers and commissioners, offering news, practice tools, case law updates, and peer insights into challenges and solutions in adult and children’s services.
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Care Quality Commission (CQC) - England’s regulator for health and social care services. Publishes inspection reports, local system reviews, and thematic reports on service quality and safety.
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Housing LIN - Specialist resource on housing and care integration for older people and those with complex needs. Provides policy briefings, case studies, and commissioning support tools.
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Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) - National body offering guidance, toolkits, and practice examples to promote co-production, strengths-based commissioning, and evidence-informed care.
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UKHCA (now Homecare Association) - Industry body for homecare providers. Publishes press releases and policy responses relating to workforce issues, regulation, and commissioning of domiciliary care.
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National Care Forum (NCF) - Membership body for not-for-profit care providers. Offers policy updates, innovation briefings, and sector analysis, with an emphasis on values-based delivery.
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Sitra (now part of Homeless Link) - Resource hub for commissioners working on supported housing and homelessness prevention. Provides training and policy insight into housing-related support.
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Department of Health & Social Care – News - Official policy updates, funding announcements, and consultation documents relevant to social care delivery and reform.
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Social Care Elf - Summarises peer-reviewed social care research in digestible blogs. Great for keeping pace with new findings on interventions, outcomes, and user perspectives.
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ADASS (Association of Directors of Adult Social Services) - Strategic leadership body for adult social care. Publishes national reports, commissioning guidance, and position statements.
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POPPI (Projecting Older People Population Information) - National data tool projecting demand for services for older people. Essential for demographic planning and service design.
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PANSI (Projecting Adult Needs and Service Information) - Companion to POPPI, focused on adults aged 18–64. Supports forecasting and needs assessment for working-age adults.
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ASCOF – Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework - National indicator set measuring outcomes for people receiving adult social care. Useful for benchmarking and evaluating local services.
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NHS Digital – Administrative Sources - Central catalogue of NHS and adult social care datasets, including performance metrics, demographic breakdowns, and usage trends.
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ONS via NOMIS - Office for National Statistics portal for labour market and population data. Can support local market position statements and JSNAs.
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NHS Commissioning Data Hub - Curated datasets and tools to support health and social care commissioning, including needs assessment and service mapping tools.
DATA
A collection of data dashboards with open access
1. Adult Social Care Data Hub (NHS England) - Interactive Power BI dashboards providing council-level data on care activity, finance, outcomes (ASCOF), and safeguarding.
2. Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework (ASCOF) - A Power BI dashboard focused on outcomes metrics—broken down by region, age, gender—enabling deeper analysis.
3. CDS Data Quality Dashboards - Commissioning Data Sets dashboards on FutureNHS, offering insights into the completeness and quality of commissioning data
4. 0–25 SEND Multi-agency Dashboard - Integrated education, health, and social care dashboard highlighting SEND data trends and supporting local commissioning
5. Specialised Services Quality Dashboards - Commissioners’ dashboards to monitor outcomes and quality for specialised NHS services, updated quarterly
6. UK Adult Social Care Database - Government Statistical Services, exper0mental (beta). This tool compiles official statistics relating to adult social care across the four nations: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales
7. Local Authority Dashboards - Local data portals that blend public health, social care, and inequalities data for insight and planning. In the UK there isn't a consistent approach across (at a minimum) our core cities in the same format, but some local authorities are leading the way.
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Bristol - https://opendata.bristol.gov.uk/maps/adult-social-care-in-bristol-by-ward/about
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Cambridgeshire & Peterborough - https://cambridgeshireinsight.org.uk/health-and-wellbeing-hub/data-and-dashboards/older-peoples-dashboard/
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Darlington Borough Council – https://www.darlington.gov.uk/your-council/council-information/documents/darlington-joint-strategic-needs-assessment/ darlington.gov.uk
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Hounslow London Borough Council – https://stats.hounslow.gov.uk/adult-social-care-overview-by-region-and-la-nhs-england/ local.gov.uk+12analysisfunction.civilservice.gov.uk+12gov.uk+12
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Isle of Wight Council – https://www.iow.gov.uk/council-and-councillors/transparency-our-data/performance-dashboards/adult-social-care-dashboard/ westsussexconnecttosupport.org+6iow.gov.uk+6iow.gov.uk+6
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Kent County Council – https://www.kpho.org.uk/joint-strategic-needs-assessment/health-and-social-care-maps darlington.gov.uk
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Lancashire County Council – https://www.lancashire.gov.uk/lancashire-insight/health-and-care/social-care/adult-social-care-overview/ local.gov.uk+2ardengemcsu.nhs.uk+2local.gov.uk+2
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Southampton City Council – https://data.southampton.gov.uk/data-and-resources/interactive-dashboards/ iow.gov.uk
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Scottish Borders Council – https://www.scotborders.gov.uk/performance-1/local-government-benchmarking
TRAINING for Commissioners
Quality Assured Care Learning Service
Practical leadership and mandatory training delivered online or in-person; costs vary, and some local authorities may subsidise participation
IPC Adult Commissioning Course (Oxford Brookes/Institute of Public Care
Online or hybrid courses teaching advanced commissioning skills, market shaping, and integrated care. Priced at £850 per person (for eight half-day sessions), this is a well-established CPD route
OpenLearn – Leadership in the Voluntary Sector
Free Open University courses supporting leadership and systems thinking for those operating in care and public services
Local Government Association (LGA) – Webinars and Workshops
The LGA regularly runs free, practice-sharing webinars and development sessions for commissioners (sign up via ADASS or the LGA)
NHS Leadership Academy – Foundations in System Leadership
Offers free, self-guided online modules (like the Edward Jenner programme) covering leadership and collaboration for those in health/social care. These are suitable for leaders and senior officers in commissioning.
Interprofessional and inter-agency collaboration (IPIAC) e-learning course
Explore the nature of interprofessional and inter-agency collaboration and in improving collaborative practice.
This course will help you to develop and review your understanding of:
what is meant by ‘interprofessional and inter-agency collaboration’ (IPIAC)
why IPIAC has grown in importance
the kinds of evidence that informs IPIAC
key policy and legislation and their timeline
You can access free training here: https://www.scie.org.uk/e-learning/ipiac
Principles of Commissioning for Wellbeing Level 5 (Skills for Care/Hasca/BCE)
A comprehensive qualification for commissioners—cost c.£2,300, but funding and bursaries are sometimes available through Skills for Care for eligible applicants.
Skills for Care’s Leadership Modules
Bite-sized courses (online) for commissioning leaders. Each module—covering topics like leading teams, safeguarding, decision-making, and resource management—costs £40 each (with reimbursement available via the Adult Social Care Learning and Development Support Scheme for eligible roles and employers)
Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) – E-learning Library
Free-to-access CPD material and toolkits on topics like safeguarding, person-centred commissioning, and coproduction for managers
Management and Leadership Skills (e-Learning for Healthcare)
A suite of online modules addressing core management and leadership skills, case studies, and concepts. Free for NHS and social care staff through NHS login or OpenAthens
Communication skills
Principles of good communication skills and how to apply these to practice.
This course is suitable for students studying towards the social work degree, educators and practising social workers.
You can access free training here: https://www.scie.org.uk/e-learning/communication-skills
Quality improvement in health and social care
As a social worker or social care worker, have you ever thought that social care services could be done differently but you have no idea HOW to make any changes?
Quality improvement is something you need to know more about.
This online learning resource supports managers and staff working in health and social care to be more knowledgeable about – and understand – the process of using and implementing quality improvement methodology.
This resource provides social workers and social care workers with information about quality improvement and the associated tools that can be used within health and social care organisations.
You can access free training here: https://www.scie.org.uk/e-learning/quality-improvement