Finding the Good: How commissioning in Wales can work better for everyone

Our Finding the Good project sparked important cross-sector conversations about how to improve commissioning in Wales so that everyone can get the support that they need, when they need it.  

Across Wales, too many people still struggle to get the support they need, not because the help isn’t out there, but because our systems make it hard to reach. If you’ve ever tried navigating commissioning from either side, you’ll know it often feels confusing, inconsistent, and full of missed opportunities. That’s the challenge the Foundation’s Finding the Good project set out to face head-on. 

In early 2025, Lloyds Bank Foundation, working with Cwmpas, local CVCs, small charities, and social enterprises, brought more than 150 people together from across 100 organisations to strengthen cross-sector dialogue with people from the third and public sectors. 

CVCs, charities and social enterprises led local commissioning conversations to explore how commissioning can be done well so that the people across Wales can get the services they need. Conversations took place in South-West Wales, North Wales, Cardiff and in Merthyr Tydfil. Each local conversation was united by a shared goal: make commissioning better, fairer, and easier to access. 

From conversations to action 

From seven local conversations and one reflection event, more than 40 actions were committed to. All the commitments reflected the local reality and aimed to strengthen relationships and understanding so that positive practice or system change could happen.  

Here’s a taste of what’s been happening: 

• In Conwy: Local charities are teaming up with Community and Voluntary Support Conwy (CVSC) to share contacts and encourage collaboration. 
• In Wrexham: the Association of Voluntary Organisations in Wrexham (AVOW) and local commissioners are co-hosting regular cross-sector commissioning conversations and training. 
• In Cardiff: Cardiff Third Sector Council (C3SC) is working with Section 16 forums and the Regional Partnership Board to support smaller, community led organisations into the commissioning process. 
• In Cwm Taf Morgannwg: The Regional Partnership has committed to enabling more collaborative commissioning. 
• In Pembrokeshire: Pembrokeshire Association of Voluntary Services (PAVS) and Ideas Alliance have co-produced a Collaboration Toolkit (Welsh version here), giving everyone a practical starting point. 

Building confidence, knowledge and connections 

One thing became clear: good commissioning starts with people talking to each other – properly. We built in space for peer learning and reflection at every stage, and what came back was powerful. 

• 100% of participants said they made new connections with people from different sectors. 
• 90% said their understanding of commissioning improved. 
• 60% felt more confident talking about commissioning. 

Watch this video to hear more from people involved in this project 

Who’s connecting with who? 

Here’s a snapshot of how the conversations helped bridge gaps across sectors: 

• Charities connected with social enterprises, infrastructure bodies, and commissioners. 
• Commissioners linked in with each other across local, health, and regional levels. 
• People who never usually work together realised they were working towards the same goals. 

Moving past ‘them and us’ 

From this action learning project, we can already see that meaningful cross-sector dialogue can be a powerful catalyst for action and that there is huge appetite for people to come together as a broader community of practice.  

We know that everyone involved in this Finding the Good project, along with many others, want to level the playing field and make sure that our public services meet the needs of everyone in our communities in the best possible way.   

Commissioning is a powerful tool, and with worsening inequality across Wales, now is the time to come together and shape future good practice for the people of Wales. At a national level, there is real opportunity to join up some of this thinking and to strategically resource impactful dialogue and useful resources.  

There’s now real appetite to keep the momentum going, to turn these one-off conversations into a broader community of practice. Across the board, people told us they want: 

• A visual map of good practice in Wales 
• Jargon-free explainers and bite-sized training 
• Shared tools that actually help (like the PAVS toolkit) 

As a funder, Lloyds Bank Foundation understands that it can be challenging for cross-sector partners to find the time and resource to meet regularly, especially small organisations. Along with our project partner, Cwmpas, we are keen to play our part in enabling people to come together and shape commissioning practice in Wales.  

The question now is: how can we build on this positive progress?  One thing we know is that the cross-sector conversations need to continue and whatever comes next needs to be co-produced so that it is equally useful for everyone involved.  

Join the conversation 

If you want to help shape the next phase of this work, sign up for one of our upcoming webinars.  

Or if you’ve got questions, ideas, tools, or good practice examples to share, get in touch with Kelly Huxley-Roberts.