Joint Commissioning - Children's Services

What is Joint Commissioning?

Joint Commissioning brings together education, health and social care, to share an understanding of what is needed by children, young people and families. They use their shared understanding and resources to plan services that will deliver what is needed. The joint commissioners ask organisations to apply to deliver services. They then choose the ones that they believe will deliver the best outcomes for children, young people and families at the best value.

Joint commissioning cycle diagram - Understand, Plan, Do, Review in a continuous loop

Who do we work with?

  • Children, Young People and their families
  • Voice Ability – Speak Out Council
  • Parent/Carers and Parent/Carer Forums
  • NHS England and NHS Cambridgeshire and Peterborough
  • Children and Adult Social Care
  • Children In Care Council and Care Leavers Forums
  • Schools and Colleges
  • Independent Providers / Voluntary and Charity Organisations
  • Other Local Authorities
  • Voluntary and Community Sector
  • Youth Offending Services
  • Cambridgeshire Constabulary
  • Think Communities
  • Early Help Teams

You can see examples of the types of organisations that we work with and the sort of work we have done with them on our Children’s Commissioning website.

What is important to us?

  • Sharing learning, experiences and views with people and organisations involved in creating outcomes.
  • Clear communications with the people and organisations that we work with
  • Being open and honest about the pieces of work that we do.
  • Providing and being accountable for services that are fair, of high quality and value for money.
  • Participation and co-production (where partners are consulted and contribute wholly to services and plans).
  • Ongoing development and review of the services being delivered

What is Governance and how do we make sure that our decisions are the right ones?

Governance is a way of checking that what is being delivered is done so according to the right laws and methods and is continually checked by the governing boards responsible.

We commission services that are needed and follow legal and Council rules in doing so. We do this by asking the Joint Commissioning Board to agree our plans at the start, during and at the end of our work; and the most important decisions are discussed and agreed by Council Committees.

Our four areas of work

Cambridgeshire Children’s Commissioning Team have responsibility for four areas of work with children, young people and families and they are explained below.

The SEND Commissioning Team functions across Cambridgeshire County Council. We put people, children and families at the centre of everything we do and plan.

We work with partners from health, education, social care and a range of other providers, for example VoiceAbility. We work with Parent, Carer and Young People’s groups to ensure that the voice of parents, carers, children and young people with disabilities are included in the development and delivery of services; for children and young people aged 0-25 with SEND.

Working together, we aim to provide effective, long-term and creative solutions to best meet needs. We are guided by the principles of the Cambridgeshire SEND Pledge.

More information about SEND Commissioning specifically and how the Council’s SEND Strategy informs our planning can be found on the SEND Commissioning page.

Children in Care focuses on the care and support of those children and young people who are Looked After by the Local Authority to make sure that the best care and support services are available to them. We work very closely with:

  • Independent Fostering Agencies,
  • Residential Children’s Homes and
  • Supported Accommodation Services

Children in Care also focuses on children and young people achieving what is important to and for them in a positive way.

The Children with Disabilities Commissioning Team focuses on the care and support needs of children and young people, and their families, with complex, profound and multiple disabilities up to the age of 18 years.

They also work alongside NHS Cambridgeshire and Peterborough in the areas of ‘Continuing Care’ and ‘Homes not Hospitals’ We visit services such as children’s homes, to monitor the quality of what we are asking them to do. We ensure the provision of residential and community short breaks, direct payments, home and community support, link foster care or residential children’s homes.

The Children and Family’s Commissioning work with families, communities, networks, services, institutions and politics and all this work is connected. When changes are made we recognise the consequences of these and work to solve problems for children and families who are affected by these changes.

We work together with others, building relationships across the system and working in partnerships around a shared purpose.

Our most important groups are children, young people and families who are vulnerable and disadvantaged. Some examples of the groups that we work with and develop are young carers, young parents, children and young people with mental health concerns, young people detained at police stations and families living in poverty.

You can see examples of the types of organisations that we work with and the sort of work we have done with them on our Children’s Commissioning website.