National Youth Homelessness Scheme
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- Young people with multiple needs
- Joint commissioning of services to meet needs
National Youth Homelessness Scheme
Joint commissioning of services to meet needs
Local authorities and their statutory partners play a critical and powerful joint commissioning role in the provision of services for young people with multiple needs.
Around the joint commissioning table, the following services and bodies should be represented:
- Supporting People
- Housing Departments
- Specialist Children's Services
- Leaving care services
- Youth Offending Services
- Drug Action Teams and/or Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships
- Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services
- Adult Mental Health Services
- Connexions
- Adult learning disability services
The joint commissioning process should:
- identify and attempt to quantify the multiple needs of young people
- map existing provision and its suitability
- improve understanding by listening to the voices of young people who have slipped through gaps in provision, or who have had positive experiences
- seek the views and experience of local service providers
- focus on improving early intervention and prevention as well as longer term support for young people with multiple needs
- identify shared priorities
- determine available resources through aligning or pooling budgets
- decide on the additional services needed, how they might be provided and draw up specifications
Commissioners should consider whether new specialist services are required. There may be a case for developing new and targeted provision, commissioned to a clear remit and with a specified range of needs that the service aims to support, such as mental health or learning disability.
However, commissioners may want increase the capacity of existing generic services by increasing staffing levels and specialist skills. Where possible, the aim should be the inclusion and the integration of young people with multiple needs into generic and universal services, reducing potential stigma and isolation.
Ultimately, the commissioning process should lead to services which:
- are outcome focussed
- recognise and meet the different needs of young people
- are funded through joint arrangements
- are flexible enough to cope with the changes young people experience and still provide continuity
- are seamless through the traditional service driven transition points for young people, with long term joint funding arrangements
- are of a high quality and are monitored against agreed standards
