DESTA Consortium
Desta Health and Social Care Consortium, a new joint venture set up by CaVSA together with voluntary organisations in Hammersmith and Fulham, is tendering for its first public health contracts in May. Signaling a new way of working to provide quality effective services to local people, Desta offers a route in to tendering for small groups and provides a single point of contracting for commissioners.
A New Model
Desta is one of four consortia being set up by CaVSA through its specialist Partnerships & Commissioning Team and supported by the BIG Lottery Fund. Desta will be inviting applications for membership through the summer. Two consortia covering services for children, young people & families and supplementary schools are in development, and will be ready for tri-borough commissioning in October 2012. A fourth consortium covering regeneration, employment, training and environment is planned for development from April 2012. Full membership is open to organisations which are procurement ready, and associate membership (plus a development plan) to organisations that meet basic criteria. This ensures a route in to tendering for smaller organisations, helping to protect specialism, and giving a robust, dynamic membership of small and large organisations.
Reaching Communities
This approach enables smaller organisations to benefit from the capacity of larger organisations and larger organisations to benefit from the strong relationships small organisations have with specific communities.
This means that Desta is well-placed to design and provide quality, culturally-sensitive services that address health inequalities.
Benefits for Commissioners
Fundamentally, Desta offers a single point of contracting with the voluntary sector. But the consortium’s special value is that it can work with commissioners to shape tendering frameworks to provide more effective services and to help reduce costs. “Desta members bring local intelligence and, by working together, we can increase the benefit of services and resources” believes Clement Musonda, Chair of Desta.
