Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 28
28
Regional commissioning pilots delayed and limited, with national rollout potentially taking ten years.
Recommendation
The MacAlister review envisaged regional organisations operating fully from early 2025, to address sufficiency challenges by 2027. The Department decided against immediately rolling out regional commissioning nationally given insufficient evidence on potential benefits, instead opting for pilots in two regions, Greater Manchester and South East England. Delays meant the Department and local authorities launched the pilot regional cooperatives in 2025 rather than 2024 as planned. The pilots are not testing the full commissioning model as the Department removed the expectation that they would discharge local authorities’ statutory responsibilities. The Department has not committed to a date for a national rollout, but in one 2023 evaluation document, it expected that it could take around ten years to do.79 73 C&AG’s Report, para 2.16 74 Q 17 75 C&AG’s Report, para 1.12 76 County Councils Network (CCH0005) 77 C&AG’s Report, paras 13, 3.11 78 Q 14 79 C&AG’s Report, paras 3.11-3.12 17
Government Response
A response document is linked to this report, dated 1 April 2026. Response attribution to this conclusion has not been verified. Read the response document ↗