By The Children’s Improvment Board (2012)
These guidelines have been developed on behalf of the CIB in response to feedback from commissioners of children’s services. Commissioners have indicated that market facilitation is becoming an increasingly significant part of their role, and that it presents challenges in terms of skills, activity and capacity. These guidelines are intended to help commissioners of early intervention and prevention services to consider:
• the policy and practice behind the increasing emphasis on market facilitation
• the activities involved in market facilitation
• how local information and intelligence can be used to help create a market position statement and how that can help to facilitate a more constructive relationship between commissioners, providers and families.
The document focuses particularly on services concerned with early intervention and prevention for children, young people and families, but it is also applicable to all children’s and young people’s services markets.