“We were concerned to hear that the provision of equipment for sick children is beset by difficulties. We recommend suitable mechanisms to improve the overall management and coordination of the purchasing, utilisation, maintenance and evaluation of equipment by health, social and education services and the voluntary sector.”House of Commons Health Committee [edited] 1

Children with disabilities often need specialised equipment to enable them to make the most out of life. Despite its importance, provision of this equipment is often poorly coordinated with no consistency in what is provided nor how it is funded. In East Norfolk we have developed an interagency group to address this problem. It includes members from the three main agencies (health, social services, and education) encompassing a range of professional expertise in assessing children's equipment needs. It funds equipment that is not routinely provided by one or other of the statutory agencies, and is financed by equal recurring contributions from all three agencies. This article describes how we got there.

It was a public health exercise in that it is based on a health needs assessment, it covers an administratively and geographically defined population, it required multiagency collaboration, and is subject to ongoing monitoring and evaluation. It also depended on those other essential criteria for a successful public health initiative: luck, opportunism, and compromise.