The Commissioning Support Programme is sponsored by the Department for Children, Schools and Families and the Department of Health to help Children’s Trusts plan, design and implement services more effectively. The Programme will provide tailored support as and when Children's Trust partners need it, and has developed online resources and networks to help commissioners share best practice. In addition, the Programme will hold events such as national and regional conferences. Above all, the Programme aims to help Children’s Trusts deliver better outcomes for children, young people and their families. The Programme will run until April 2011, working at national, regional and local levels, with a clear focus on creating sustainable capacity. It will cover the commissioning of all services for children, young people and their families, including both health and education.

Working with the Commissioning Support Programme to build the community of practice

The Commissioning Support Programme wants to work with commissioners and others working in children’s services to build a lively and engaging community of practice that will help commissioners achieve better outcomes for children and young people. The Programme will offer commissioners from around the country the opportunity to come together at a range of practical, focused events and share good practice to accelerate local improvement and build a rich body of knowledge and insight which can be shared across all Children’s Trusts. These events will complement and be supported by the content and collaboration tools on the Programme website to ensure the widest possible audience benefits from this learning and sharing opportunity

Special Interest Groups

Working with advocates from the sector the Programme will set up a series of Special Interest Groups around topics that commissioners are telling us are their priorities. Special Interest Groups will explore these topics and share outputs and intellectual capital that helps to move on the system’s understanding of the commissioning agenda. Working in this way means that Special Interest Groups become a driver for improved strategic commissioning and achieving better outcomes for children, young people and families.

Where networks already exist Special Interest Groups will draw on that expertise in order to share knowledge across the Children’s Trusts. We will also provide support to help Special Interest Groups carry on working and feeding in knowledge in a sustainable way. Over the life of the Programme we will work with commissioners and others to identify themes that Special Interest Groups should explore and use learning from these groups to adjust Programme plans where necessary.

The Programme ran a National conference on 18 November 2009 which gave Commissioning Champions and other key individuals from Children’s Trusts the opportunity to come together and share their early experiences of working with the Programme. This helped us understand how we could best support local change programmes and create sustainable capacity that allows Children’s Trusts to achieve better outcomes through strategic commissioning.

The Commissioning Support Programme Online

The Commissioning Support Programme has developed a website to provide a significant resource for commissioners and Children’s Trusts. You can now access content relevant to your role and learn more about approaches taken by colleagues in other parts of the country.

Who is the website for?

• Commissioners in Children’s Trusts
• Individuals in Children’s Trusts who have strategic commissioning responsibilities or whose roles are directly affected by local strategic commissioning
• Operational commissioners and representatives of other organisations who are on Children’s Trust Boards

What does the new website provide?

Access to content and resources

• Explore the Resource Bank to find quality assured content and resources on commissioning
• Read the news on commissioning
• Become a registered user to access and share good practice and resources

Collaborative tools and networking

• Gain access to collaborative tools such as peer review content and discussion forums
• Build your own network to share knowledge with peers and experts
• Join or create groups relevant to you

Register today

Registering takes just a minute of your time, so register today to access all the features of the site and build your own professional online network.