Editorial: Co-operation has merit for children's services

It would be hard to take competition out of children's services altogether - so many elements of it are now set up to be tendered in a competitive way. But shifting the emphasis of commissioning from one driven by competition to a model based on co-operation between providers could offer a viable alternative. Instead of commissioners being drawn towards providers offering to deliver the world - over promising - or devise the most cost-effective - cheap - solution, they could be encouraged to put more value on quality.

One way to do this, as recommended by the unions and children's charities, would be to require commissioners to give greater weight to the quality and social value of bids. Another way would be to require all private companies bidding to run children's services to do so in partnerships with voluntary organisations. Few could argue with the aims of such an approach, but with demands on children's services growing and funding getting ever tighter it seems unlikely that many councils would back such restrictions.