The commission for children's health and social care services should be pooled and delivered by local agencies, a government report claims.

A review of NHS services for children discovered the quality of care being given was being undermined by a lack of co-ordination and communication between services, agencies and those in social care jobs.

According to Sir Ian Kennedy, the common agenda should be achieved through a partnership of local agencies. A new local concept should also be introduced which would bring together local authorities and other agencies concerned with the welfare and care of children in that particular area. He believes the agencies would then be able to agree how their service should be delivered to help the child.

In his report titled 'Getting It Right For Children and Young People,' Kennedy indicated that he had found widespread variations in the quality of children's health services across the country and that the lack of co-ordination between services often left parents and carers frustrated.

As reported by Community Care, the report states: "The history of the NHS with child protection and safeguarding is one of a rather patchy engagement and that needs to change."

The report concluded that the only way to significantly bring down the number of child protection cases is by having better communication between those in health care and social care jobs. The NHS Confederation agreed that better working around child protection is necessary.

"For cases where abuse is concerned, the NHS needs to play its part in ensuring everything possible is done to make sure hospital doctors, nurses and GPs are aware of things like the history of previous injuries, police or social services or family problems," said Nigel Edwards, director of policy at the NHS Confederation.