Decommissioning toolkit
Making a decision: What does good practice look like?

This page is part of our decommissioning toolkit.

The table outlines what good practice should look like in some of the key areas relating to understanding needs and making a decision to decommission.

It identifies the risks of not following good practice and looks at how these risks might be mitigated and what actions commissioners can take when the timeframe is very tight and good practice is difficult to achieve.

Good practice	Risks of not following good practice	Mitigating these risks
Carry out a Needs Assessment exercise	Services are decommissioned that are needed and those that are re-commissioned do not meet needs: leading to unmet need, inefficiency and waste and potentially more, expensive services needing to be accessed later	Speak to providers to understand where needs assessment data may be weak or lacking Use most recent JSNA Collate service usage data
Involve users in assessing needs and gaps	Services are decommissioned that are needed and those that are re-commissioned do not meet needs: leading to unmet need, inefficiency and waste and potentially more, expensive services needing to be accessed later Users unhappy with the final outcome of decommissioning Reputational damage	Consult existing user groups and panels Look at most recent user feedback data
Involve providers in assessing needs and gaps	Providers challenging the final outcome of decommissioning Innovation in service design may be stifled Reputational damage	Have a conversation with providers Look at any service mapping data available to identify duplication or gaps.
Understanding the current and potential market of providers	Destabilising the provider base	Have a conversation with providers Look at any provider directories Speak to the local infrastructure bodies
Understanding the costs and benefits of current provision	Inaccurate assessments made of the costs/benefits of decommissioning May lead to more inefficient or expensive service being re-commissioned	Re-look at the original submissions from providers following a tender for a service Ask providers what their indirect or other costs may include

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Table of contents

Decommissioning toolkit: Table of contents

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Practical example: Assessing need and making decisions

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Re-designing services