Final Report > Chapter 29: The Care of Children > Leadership of children's healthcare services > A new voice for children

A new voice for children

39 It was suggested to us that the only real way to secure a sustained improvement in the priority accorded to children's healthcare services is to develop new institutional arrangements. These would be designed to ensure that some organisation or body takes specific responsibility for raising the quality of children's healthcare and for ensuring that any guidance is consistently implemented. We agree. We recognise, however, that there are different schools of thought as to what such an institutional arrangement should be. One approach is to promote improvements in children's healthcare services in the context of children's rights generally and alongside other children's services, such as education and social care. This could be achieved by the office of an independent Children's Commissioner. It could also be achieved by a greater integration of the working of the various government departments involved. Another suggested approach is to maintain the focus on healthcare and, within the existing organisational structures, find ways of elevating the leadership of and priority given to children's healthcare services. These approaches are not mutually exclusive. We consider each in turn.