Joint Commissioning
Joint Commissioning is “developing an overall picture of children’s needs within an area, and developing provision through public, private, voluntary and community providers to respond to those needs.”
Darlington Children Trust is a partnership of agencies and organisations that have a shared vision for the outcomes and future of children and young people in Darlington. The Children’s Trust listens to and works with children and young people to identify priorities which are described in the Children and Young People’s Plan (CYPP).
The Children and Young People Plan is reviewed annually and sets out the high level priority outcomes for children and young people. The current CYPP is available using this link Children and Young People's Plan Review 2009 [pdf document]
The Joint Commissioning Cycle is the process of assessing and auditing need, agreeing priorities, specifying the services to meet the needs, allocating resources, and reviewing the effectiveness of the service. The cycle is depicted in the following diagram:
Joint Commissioning can take a number of forms as follows:
- Investment in new services – this can be achieved through existing providers or through the award of contracts to external providers including the Third sector
- Disinvestment or decommissioning of services – the identification of services that no longer meet community or organisational needs. Money saved is re-invested in new or reconfigured services
- Service reconfiguration – Improvements to the way services are delivered are identified. Improvements can be delivered through practice development within existing resources or may require fundamental reshaping. This may require the re-alignment of budgets between partners, the pooling of budgets and /or letting of external contracts.
Darlington Children’s Trust has developed a Joint Commissioning Unit to drive forward commissioning functions for the Children’s Trust.
Joint Commissioning Unit members [pdf document]
Joint Commissioning Framework [pdf document]
For more information about Joint Commissioning in Darlington contact:
Melanie Brown
Children's Trust Manager
Tel: 01325 388219
Email: melanie.brown@darlington.gov.uk