We were contacted by a commissioner/provider pair in the Midlands and asked to provide support and direction to their upcoming contract negotiations. The organisations had had a long history of needing formal dispute resolution before they could sign their contracts. This had put them firmly on their regulators’ radar.
We started by drawing up a long list of potential problem areas that needed to be discussed and worked through. This was gradually refined into groups of simila\r issues that could be worked through and resolved. We provided independent opinions and advice where these would help the situation, e.g. disputes over setting certain local prices, process for decommissioning services, ground rules for incorporating STP initiatives into the contract.
We were thrilled when they were the first acute contract to sign in their Region, signing their 2017/19 contract on 15 December 2016!