As of April 2006 all local authorities were required to prepare and publish a Children and Young People's Plan (CYPP) that will be reviewed annually. In 2006, EMIE (formerly Education Management Information Exchange) at National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) collected all the CYPPs and made them available on the EMIE website. NFER published an analysis of a sample of 75 of the plans. This study, which was funded by a group of sponsors, generated significant interest. In addition, the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) sponsored two series of regional workshops for the local authority officers responsible for the plans under the title "Planning for Excellence" (PFE). These were well attended and well received, and a third series of workshops took place in June 2007. The first phase of this study involved analysis of the 2007 CYPPs, with a particular focus on the commissioning process and the areas of safeguarding and looked-after children (LAC). The first report, published in May 2008, presents the findings from this analysis. This second phase of the study involved qualitative research examining the planning processes. As such, this report details the findings from six local authority case studies which focused on examining the planning processes involved in the development of CYPPs in more depth. Six local authorities were selected as case studies on the basis of the information analysed within their CYPP and using information from local authority APA letters. In addition, in keeping with the themes utilised within the analysis of the plans, two of the local authorities were selected as exemplars for commissioning, two for safeguarding and two for LAC. The findings from the case studies cover the following areas: planning structures and support; alignment with other planning processes; developing and using CYPPs; benefits, challenges and good practice. (Contains 4 figures and 4 tables.)