In It Together: In Practice

The report is the third in CSDG’s In It Together series, which has sought to demonstrate how strategic partnership working and excellence in commissioning can deliver the best outcomes for children with complex needs, at the best price.

In It Together: In Practice explores the barriers to innovation within the sector, outlines a vision for children’s services shared by local authorities and providers, and presents practical solutions for how we can work together to deliver the very best for looked after children and those with complex needs.

Our research highlighted a strong desire for reform amongst local authorities and providers, but in many cases this desire is currently being stifled by four key barriers:

1. Financial pressures – 2013-14 is expected to be the most challenging year for local authority budgets and everyone in the children’s services sector is expected to deliver more for less.
2. Silo working – 75% of children’s services leaders
   see the prevalence of silo working as an obstacle to effective commissioning. With everyone under pressure to make difficult decisions it is a concern that there may be a temptation to protect individual departmental budgets at the expense of delivering the best service to children with complex needs.
3. Restrictive tendering – there is a sector-wide frustration around prescriptive and burdensome tender processes (often prescribed by the EU). The current system promotes a focus on inputs rather than outcomes and hampers the development of high-trust, outcomes-focused partnership working.
4. Cultural mindsets – 73% of local authorities stated that support for traditional models of service delivery is an obstacle to effective commissioning. This, coupled with a historically poor view of working with the independent sector has hampered the development of fruitful partnerships in some cases.

To read our report, please click here: In it Together: In Practice