Efficiency/Value for Money	Both the NHS and local government are facing huge budgetary reductions. Encouraging them to work together to achieve efficiency through joint commissioning may be one way of coping with this situation.
The ‘Place’ Agenda	An emerging policy focus in England is to look at the needs of geographical localities as a whole, rather than working in separate organisations. Joint commissioning could encourage PCTs and LAs to focus on working together rather than delivering silo-driven, centrally imposed targets.
Personalisation	Personalised support is a key policy objective in England. Individuals’ needs rarely fit around traditional service boundaries, especially in the more complex cases. If services are to become more tailored to individual needs, a more coherent approach to support will be required.
Prevention	Prevention is seen as important as a means of driving efficiency and as a policy end in its own right which will improve people’s quality of life. To be successful it will require numerous inputs of services and support that include (but also go beyond) both the NHS and social care.
Care Closer to Home	The opportunity for improvement created by joint commissioning is to enable more care to be provided closer to home and to reduce the use of expensive and often inappropriate residential and hospital services—key objectives for both PCTs and councils.
Overlap of Clientele	The people who make use of health and social care are often one and the same. In order to ensure a holistic view of their needs it is essential that their support is jointly planned and commissioned.