Joint commissioning remains marginal part of local authority plans

Agencies are a long way from genuinely jointly commissioning services for children and young people, findings show.

A representative sample of children and young people’s plans from 75 councils, analysed by the National Foundation for Educational Research, highlights the importance of developing local partnerships and responding to local needs.

But, despite councils having partnership arrangements with a range of agencies, only a quarter have a joint commissioning strategy in place, and half of the plans fail to mention a joint commissioning team.

One-third of plans indicate that primary care trusts and child and adolescent mental health trusts are the agencies most likely to become involved in joint commissioning  activities in the future. However, less than one in seven suggest that
schools will become involved. More than half the plans include specific targets for looked-after children and children with learning difficulties or disabilities.

The targets most commonly cited in the 75 plans focus on educational attainment at 11, 16 and 19, school attendance, exclusions, bullying, teenage conceptions, substance misuse, breast feeding and teenagers not in education, employment
or training.