Special Report: Commissioning Care

Finding the right care placement that meets a child’s therapeutic needs, is local to their friends and family networks, and at a price the council can afford is one of the toughest challenges in local government.

This task has been made all the harder by a surge in the number of children coming into care over the past decade, and a failure by councils and independent sector providers to open sufficient residential care settings and recruit enough foster carers.

The impact that the shortage of places has had on children and local authorities has been significant. More children are now placed further away from their home area because of a shortage of local places that fit their needs or are placed in inappropriate settings, while the number of high-cost council placements has surged.

Policymakers are hoping that developing regional commissioning arrangements will help councils drive down costs and improve access to more placements, although providers and children’s services leaders remain unconvinced, pointing to the limited success that previous regional working initiatives have had.

Instead, they call for more collaboration between council commissioners and providers, and say a greater focus on developing provision that meets the varied needs of children could help deliver savings and better outcomes.

CYP Now’s special report on care commissioning summarises recent key policy developments, gets the views of experts on whether regional commissioning will deliver hoped-for improvements and highlights examples of emerging good practice across the sector.

Read more in CYP Now's Commissioning Care special report:

• Policy overview

• Big Debate - Regional commissioning: Can it deliver benefits?

• Data: Sufficiency and cost of care places

Practice examples:

• Council and NHS trust create step-down care

• Analysis of children’s needs delivers savings

• Advantages of collaboration in sector

• Therapeutic ecology in commissioning