Better commissioning is at the heart of the Government's plans to improve the delivery of services in pursuit of improved outcomes for children.

For Children's Trusts, commissioning is a key strategic responsibility. It involves systematically understanding the needs of the local population, and driving improvements in services, including education, to ensure that those needs are met. It is a crucial task, involving many organisations and individuals across the public, private and not-for-profit sectors and active engagement with children, young people and their families.

This website provides support, advice and information for anyone involved in commissioning children’s services. Whether you are a newcomer or an experienced commissioner, the website is a one-stop shop for all your commissioning needs.

Commissioning in children’s services

Local authorities, Primary Care Trusts and other Children’s Trust partners have been commissioning services as individual agencies for many years. The transition to joint commissioning through Children’s Trusts is a significant change that focuses on driving improvements for children, young people and their families through new partnerships, a sharper focus on the needs of the end user, a strategic understanding of how all outcomes for children and families can be met locally, and a more commercially-minded approach to procurement.

Commissioning is a strategic responsibility of Children’s Trusts. It requires an integrated approach between partners that encompasses:

• Agreed governance arrangements and systems to support commissioning between partners.
• A strategic approach to understanding needs – including sophisticated analysis of data and effective engagement with children, young people and families.
• A strategic approach to understanding the effectiveness of current services, and identifying priorities for change – including where services need to be improved, reshaped or developed.
• Integrated and effective arrangements for ensuring that priorities for change are delivered in practice – through contracts, service level agreements and service plans with providers in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors.
• Integrated and effective approaches to understanding the impact of services on outcomes for children, young people and families, and using this understanding to constructively challenge progress and drive further improvement.