Think tank calls for Kitemark for children's charities

The report, A Stitch in Time, investigates barriers to commissioning early intervention services to tackle educational disengagement.

It suggests organisations working with children and young people should be inspected by "an Ofsted-style body" that could issue a "national Kitemark of quality".

"The establishment of children's trusts in 2004 was supposed to increase the amount of joint commissioning across different agencies towards a common objective - but they do not seem to have worked," says the report. "A Kitemark quality guarantee and moving towards the use of more standardised contracts across the public sector might help."

The report also calls for earlier intervention to help young people at risk of not taking part in education, employment or training. It says children's and youth services have failed to get to grips with the reasons behind groups of children and young people losing interest in education at an early age.