Recommendation 156

They told us that co-commissioning benefits users as well as providers. They explained that “the benefit of this approach is the person accessing these services can stay engaged with them as long as their need dictates rather [than] just while they are subject to probation”. 288 They went on to explain that co-commissioning “helps to build a ‘one stop shop’ where services can be located together to meet the varying needs of the client and bring financial resilience to voluntary sector organisations that are often struggling to ‘make ends meet’”. The GMCA added that “this approach also means that services are not commissioned to be in competition with one another i.e. a support service for people on probation compared to another service that is to support people with similar needs, but not in the justice system”. 289