Child and adolescent mental health services: purchasers' knowledge and plans.

All purchasers in the North East Thames Regional Health Authority were contacted by telephone and questioned systematically about their purchasing plans for child and adolescent mental health. Purchasers' knowledge of the services they were purchasing was very limited. They had made little or no attempt to set quality standards or to monitor them. It is concluded that information about these services is so limited that purchasers would be unable to make informed decisions concerning changes in service patterns.