Commissioning Children's Services: Special Report

Recent reviews led by Sir Martin Narey into fostering and residential child care identified problems with how councils procured services from independent providers.

The evidence collected for these reviews have informed parliamentary inquiries over the past year into how councils organise and deliver children's social care services, which found evidence of wide variation in commissioning practice across England.

The latest of these - by the housing, communities and local government committee - concludes that a review of how councils commission children's social care is needed by the end of the year.

Two reviews by the National Audit Office have also questioned if the Department for Education fully understands how money is spent and whether introducing more competition into the "care market" is the answer.

There have also been major changes to how councils work with health and education to commission a wide range of support for children and young people, including that for special educational needs and disabilities, mental and physical health and interventions to prevent youth violence.

These reforms come at a time of rising demand for children's services and ever-tighter budgets, making it crucial that commissioners ensure that every penny counts and that interventions improve children's outcomes.

CYP Now's special report on commissioning outlines key policy developments across a range of children's services, summarises latest research findings, and showcases four examples of innovative commissioning practice.